Ivana Myšková

Ivana Myšková (born 1981) is a writer and culture journalist. She worked as a radio cultural editor of the culture radio channel Český rozhlas 3 Vltava. In 2007, she debuted with her radio play Odpoledne s liliputem (Afternoon with a Lilliputian) and in 2012, she published a novella Nícení (Incitement). In 2017, she published a collection of short stories entitled Bílá zvířata jsou velmi často hluchá (White Animals Are Very Often Deaf). Since 2018 she is member of the committee of the Czech Writers Association (member organization of the European Writers’ Council).

Antonio Avila

Born on August 15th, 1955 in Sevilla, Antonio Maria Avila Álvarez studied Political Sciences, Law and Economics. He has been an associate teacher of Constitutional law until 1986, associate teacher of Foreign Trade (University Carlos III) from 1994 to 1996, and from 1997 teacher of the same matter in TPGA of the Autonomous University of Madrid. CECO's teacher, he gives classes to the Master of Foreign Trade and Trade policy in the University Carlos III, Santiago de Compostela, Alcalá de Henares and University Institute Carlos V of the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Tiit Aleksejev

Tiit Aleksejev (b.1968) graduated from the University of Tartu with a master’s degree in Medieval History. He has worked as a diplomat in Paris and Brussels, and currently lives in Tallinn. His first short story, Tartu rahu, won the annual award from the literary magazine Looming in 1999. His first novel, Valge kuningriik, a thriller whose action unfolds in Paris and retrospectively in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was awarded the Betti Alver Prize in 2006 for best debut novel.

Audinga Peluritytė-Tikuišienė

Audinga Peluritytė-Tikuišienė (PhD., Assoc. Prof. at Vilnius University) was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. She has been a literary critic since 1992. From 2003, she published several research studies about contemporary Lithuanian literature; her last book being “Architectural Boundary: Contemporary Lithuanian Literature and contexts” (2016).

Alma Čaušević

Alma Čaušević, B.Sc. in Cultural Studies and B.Sc. in Cultural Anthropology, is a manager in the field of culture. In 2009 and 2010, she worked as an independent researcher in cultural anthropology. In 2010, she participated in the organization and execution of the World Literatures Fabula festival that was carried out in the framework of the World Book Capital Ljubljana. She also served as Executive Producer for Zavod En-Knap during that time.

Ivan Bevc

Born in Belgrade in 1972, Ivan has worked in publishing, marketing and journalism for many years. He founded “Booka” publishing house in 2010 and, since then, published more than 150 books of the best contemporary authors, including Michel Houellebecq, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Elena Ferrante, Leila Slimani, Miljenko Jergović, and Dubravka Ugrešić. He owns two bookshops in Belgrade.

Nathalie Rouanet-Herlt

Nathalie Rouanet-Herlt, born 1966 in France, lives and works in Vienna since 1990 as an author and translator. She performs as a Poetry Slammer under the name Ann Air. She studied German language and literature at the University of Toulouse and obtained her doctorate at the University of Vienna.

Shakeh Havan

In 2001, Shakeh established Artbridge, the first bookstore café and restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia. During the past 20 years, she managed to change the culture of bookselling in the country, by promoting Armenian books, exporting them to libraries and customers around the world, and participating in international book fairs with the same vision of promoting Armenian issues and literature. She has initiated the project “Exhibition and Sales” for rural area in Armenia with collaboration with publishers to promote new publications.

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).

Andriy Kurkov

Andriy Kurkov is a writer, journalist and screenwriter. He is the author of 13 novels and 5 children books. More than 20 feature films and documentaries have been based on his scripts. He is the president of PEN Ukraine.