Ludmila Şimanschi, PhD, is an associate professor. In 1999, she first graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Alecu Russo State University in Balti, before obtaining a Master in Romanian Philology and Languages at the same university in 2008. In 2014, she bacame Doctor in Philology after supporting her PhD research thesis on  “(Auto) irony and (parody) in The Levant by Mircea Cărtărescu”. Apart from her activities as a scientific researcher, she is a senior specialist in the Socio-Human Sciences Section of ASM, as well as the director of the Literary and Folklore Center of the “B.

Sandeep Mahal is director of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature. She is passionate about bringing books, words and ideas to the streets of Nottingham, so everyone, everywhere gets the chance to be creative with literature. Before arriving in Nottingham, Sandeep spent ten years working in public libraries and many years in the UK publishing environment, transforming cooperation between UK publishers and the UK public library network.

Velizara Dobreva has thirty years of experience in publishing. She is executive director of Story House Egmont Bulgaria, a leading publishing house of children’s books, fiction, and non-fiction in Bulgaria. She is president of the Bulgarian Book Association since 2017.

Lena is a German fiction writer and narrative designer for computer games. She's also the national chairperson of the Association of German Authors (Verband deutscher Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller (VS in ver.di)) and co-founder of Phantastik-Autoren-Netzwerk (PAN) e.V. She was a member of the PAN board for 4 years and in this capacity, she co-founded the Netzwerk Autorenrechte (Network Author’s Rights) in 2016 with, among others, Nina George and Eva Leipprand. The Network joins nine (now 13) authors' associations for political purposes.

José Manuel Bernardes Pereira Lello (1958) has worked as an administrator at Livraria Lello since 1983. He is also part of the Lello Editores publishing house, both of which are recognised institutions in Portugal and beyond. José Manuel also served as the President of the Portuguese Association of Publishers and Booksellers (APEL) between 1995 and 1998, and was a member of the board of Portugal for the country’s representation as guest of honour at Frankfurt Book fair in 1997.

Bernadetta Darska (1978) is a literary critic and assistant professor at the Faculty of Journalism and Social Communication of the University of Warmia and Mazury. She also lectures at Master Writers’ School of Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. Between 2002 and 2009, she was the editor-in-chief of “Portret”, a literary and cultural magazine. She has written nine books.

Helena Landberg has 20 years of experience in selling books. Since 2018, she has been running a small independent bookstore in the old town of Stockholm. Her speciality is to arrange very popular events where authors and their audience come together. Helena is married and the happy owner of Garbo, a charming 8 months old dachshund who works part time in her bookstore.Literature has always been a central part of Helena's life, and she looks forward to her EUPL jury assignment.
 

Marianne Payot is a literary critic for the French newspaper L'Express.

Jérôme Jaminet, born in 1979, lives as a teacher, literary mediator and literary critic in Luxembourg. He studied philosophy and German literature at the University of Trier. From 2014 to 2017, he hosted the weekly literary show Book Look on Eldoradio. Since 2018 he has been responsible for the literature section Lesbar in the Lëtzebuerger Journal. As a freelance literary critic, he works among others for German media such as Der Spiegel, MDR Kultur and SWR2.

Anzhela Dimcheva (1963, Sofia, Bulgaria) has a Master Degree in Bulgarian Philology and English Language. She is a PhD from the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies. A journalist, poet, literary critic, and editor, she is the Secretary-General of the Bulgarian Centre PEN, a member of the Union of Bulgarian Writers and the Union of Bulgarian Journalists.