Marianne Withen

"I have spent nearly all my life in the world of books. 27 years ago I bought a little bookshop at Frederiksberg in Copenhagen. Before that I was a sales representative for different Danish publishing houses for 20 years. In my early youth, I spent nearly a year working for Blackwell Scientific Publications in Oxford."

Kristine Pīkenena

Since starting her career in the book business in 2012, Kristīne Pīkenena has been actively promoting Latvian and international literature. Currently she works as manager of the Jānis Roze Bookstore in Riga, at Kr.Barona street. She has taken part in three ICYB (International Congress of Young Booksellers), that used to gather young at heart booksellers from all around the globe. For more than six years she has been bringing together likeminded readers in the book club “Total Cover” (Totāls vāks), with monthly literary meetings on diverse subjects. 

Annamaria Malato 

Annamaria Malato is CEO of Salerno Editrice Srl, president of the Rome Book Fair 'Più libri più liberi', member of the Committee of the Presidency and of the General Council, as well as deputy chairman for the Small Publishers Group of the AIE (Italian Publishers Association). She is also Board member of Caltagirone Editore.

Petrit Ymery

Petrit Ymeri is the executive director of the Dituria publishing house, founded in May 1991. For several years, he was a literature teacher in high school and later a lecturer in foreign literature at the University of Tirana. Until 1991, he was a cultural journalist for the Albanian Radiotelevision and later the head of the editorial sector of the 8 November publishing house. From 2003 to 2014, Petrit Ymeri was a member of the Board of Directors of the Albanian Radiotelevision.

Jasmin B. Frelih

Jasmin B. Frelih (1986) is an author and translator from Slovenia. His first novel In/Half won the EUPL in 2016 and was since translated into ten languages. His short story collection Tiny Ideologies was published in 2015 and his essay collection Pale Freedom (2018) won the Marjan Rožanc award for best book of essays. His next novel is forthcoming this year from Beletrina publishing house. He lives in Škofja Loka with his partner and their dog.

Aleksandar Bečanović

Aleksandar Bečanović, born in 1971, is a Montenegrin writer, film critic and screenwriter. He is the author of five poetry books, Ulysses’ Distance (1994), Being (1996), The Pantry (1998), Places in the Letter (2001) and Preludes and Fugues (2007); two short story collections, I am Waiting, What Will Happen Next (2005) and Obsession (2009); and three novels, Arcueil (2015), Disorder (2017) and Vlatka (2018). He has also published two books of film criticism, Genre in the Contemporary Cinema (2005) and the 900-page long Lexicon of Film Directors (2015).

Svetlozar Zhelev

Svetlozar Zhelev is a well known contemporary expert in the Bulgarian literary field. Former publisher, TV and radio host, he was a board member of the Bulgarian Book Association from 2006 to 2010, and president of the jury for the "Translations" program of the National Culture Fund from 2018 to 2020. He is a member of the programing committee of the "TRADUKI" network, board member of ENLIT, co-founder and board member of the "Elizabeth Kostova Foundation on Creative Writing", and a lecturer in Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" since 2013.