Faruk Šehić was born in 1970 in Bihac. He grew up in Bosanska Krupa, which was still part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Until the outbreak of war in 1992, Šehić studied veterinary medicine in Zagreb. However, the then 22-year-old voluntarily joined the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he led a unit of 130 men as a lieutenant. After the war he studied literature and, since 1998, has created his own literary works.
Tullio Forgiarini was born in 1966 in Neudorf, Luxembourg, the son of an Italian father and a Luxembourgian mother. He studied history in Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Since 1989, he has been teaching history, Latin and geography at the Lycée du Nord in Wiltz, Luxembourg. He is also very engaged with children having a difficult social background.
Cristian Crusat Schretzmeijer was born in Spain in 1983, the son of a Spanish father and a Dutch mother, being himself both Spanish and Dutch.
Crusat received his M.A. in Literature Studies from the Complutense University of Madrid and his M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the International University Menéndez Pelayo of Santander and the Cervantes Institute. Additionally, he has completed his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Amsterdam.
Isabelle Wéry is a Belgian actress, theatre director and author. Born in Liège, she studied acting at INSAS in Brussels until 1991. In parallel with her work as an actress with a variety of directors, she writes and creates her own theatre works.
Three times nominated for the Prix de la Critique de Théâtre Belge (for the Seul en Scène category), she received the prize in 2008 for her original theatre piece La tranche de Jean-Daniel Magnin.
Kristian Bang Foss was born in Denmark in 1977. After initially starting a BA in mathematics and physics, he graduated from the Danish Writers’ Academy in 2003.
Marica Bodrožić was born in 1973 in Svib, Croatia, in former Yugoslavia. She moved to Germany at the age of ten and learned German, which she now sees as her “second mother tongue”. German also became her language for creating literature.
Gabriela Babnik was born in 1979 in Göppingen, Germany. She completed her studies in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana in 2005, where she also obtained her Master’s degree on the modern Nigerian novel in 2010. Since 2002, she has been regularly publishing literary criticism, interviews, commentary, reports and essays in literary-cultural magazines and supplements such as Literatura, Mentor, Ekran, Poetikon, Književni listi, Pogledi and others.
Emilios Solomou was born in 1971 in Nicosia and grew up in his native village of Potami. He studied history and archaeology at the University of Athens. He also studied journalism in Cyprus and worked as a journalist for a daily newspaper for some years. He is now a teacher of Greek and history in a public high school. In addition, he is a member of the editorial board of the literary magazine Anef, and he has served as a member of the executive board of the Union of Cyprus Writers.
Katri Lipson was born in Helsinki in 1965. After secondary school, she studied medicine in Sweden and graduated from the Medical School of Uppsala University in 1993. Since then, she has been working as a doctor in Sweden, Africa and Finland. She has always written, including fairytales, short stories, poems, plays and novels.
Ioana Pârvulescu was born in Braşov, Romania, in 1960. She graduated from the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest, establishing herself as a distinct voice within literary circles. She is currently Professor and teaches modern literature at the same faculty.
