Conor Kostick

Conor Kostick is an award winning author and historian based in Dublin, Ireland. As the author of sixteen books, he has twice been the chairperson of the Irish Writers Union.

Petr A. Bílek

Petr A. Bilek (born 1962) is a professor of modern Czech literature and literary theory at the Charles University in Prague, and the chair of the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. He is the author of six books on literature and culture and co-author/editor of five other books. He wrote on modern Czech poetry, literary theory, and – in the last decade – mainly on contemporary Czech prose fiction.

Klaus Kowalke

Born in 1967 in Helmstedt/Niedersachsen, Klaus Kowalke is a Philosopher, Historian and Bookseller. He was awarded “Best Bookshop in Germany 2018” by the Federal Government Comissioner for Culture and the Media (Federal Government).

Renate Punka

Renate Punka wears three hats in her daily professional life. She is managing director of Janis Roze Publishers – one of the oldest and most respectable publishing houses, the home of many established and aspiring writers from Latvia and, mostly, from abroad.

Lucia Butnariuc

Lucia Butnariuc was born in 1995. She studied History at  the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Moldova State University,. Since September 2019, she is a bookseller at Cărturești Chișinău.

Claude Conter

Claude D. Conter (born 1974) is a scientific collaborator (2004-2008), curator (2008-2012) and, since 2012, director of the National Literature Centre of Mersch. He studied German Literature and Mass Communication in Bamberg and Berlin. He was scientific collaborator for the German Literature Department of Bamberg. He completed his Phd in 2003. From 2004 to 2008 he worked as scientific collaborator for the same department in Munich. In 2017, he was guest lecturer at the University of Sewanee (TN, USA).

Armen Ohanyan

Armen Ohanyan (b.1979; pen name Armen of Armenia) is a fiction writer, essayist and literary translator. He holds a BA in philosophy from Yerevan State University and the graduate certificate in Translation (CTRA) from American University of Armenia. He’s the author of the story collection [The Return of Kikos], and the trilogy of novels [Mommyland], where for the first time in Armenian literature LGBT people are presented under a positive light. He’s the president of Armenian PEN Center (since 2017), board member of TIAC and Human Rights House Yerevan.

Bernadetta Darska 

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.