2014

Oddný Eir Ævarsdóttir was born in 1972. She completed a doctoral minor degree at Sorbonne University, as well as carrying out research in Icelandic museum field studies. She has written three autobiographical novels, translated and edited literary works, organised visual arts events and ran a visual arts space in New York and Reykjavík (Dandruff Space) in collaboration with her brother, archaeologist Uggi Ævarsson. Together they run the publishing company Apaflasa (Monkey Dandruff). She has also worked as editor of the environmental web site Náttúra.info.

Born in Malta in 1982, Pierre J. Mejlak has been writing since he was young. Mejlak has written books for children, adaptations, a novel for adolescents and two collections of short stories, winning numerous awards, including five National Book Awards, the Commonwealth Essay Writing Award and the Sea of Words European Short Story Award.

Uglješa Šajtinac was born in 1971 in Zrenjanin. He graduated in 1999 from the Department of Dramaturgy, Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. He won the Josip Kulundžič award for the best student of dramaturgy, as well as the Slobodan Selenić award for the best graduation text.

Ben Blushi was born in Tirana in 1969. He studied at the University of Tirana, graduating in Albanian Language and Literature, from Tirana University, Faculty of Philology. He was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Koha Jonë, and in 1999 embarked upon a political career in the cabinet of the Prime Minister of Albania. For several months he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, in late 2000 he became the Prefect of Korça, and in 2011 he was appointed Minister of Education. Blushi is currently a Member of Parliament, representing the Socialist Party.

Makis Tsitas was born in Giannitsa in 1971. He majored in journalism and worked for several radio stations in Thessaloniki. Since 1994 he has lived in Athens where he works in publishing. He has served as senior editor for the literary magazine Periplous (1994-2005), and was the co-publisher and director of the book journal Index (2006-2011).

Armin Öhri was born on September 23, 1978. He grew up in Ruggell, the northernmost village in Liechtenstein. He studied history, philosophy and German linguistics and literature. Since 2009, he has published a variety of stories and novels in two independent publishing houses, including the well-respected German publisher Gmeiner. His works tend to be set against a historical backdrop and are based primarily on literary examples of the 19th century, such as entertaining feuilleton novels that fall into the crime genre.

Marente de Moor (b. 1972) worked as a correspondent in Saint Petersburg for a number of years and wrote a book on her experiences, Petersburgse vertellingen (Stories from St. Petersburg), which was published in 1999. She made a successful debut as a novelist in 2007 with De overtreder (The Transgressor); the German translation of which, Amsterdam und zurück, was well received there too. For her second novel, De Nederlandse maagd (The Dutch Maiden, 2010) De Moor was awarded the AKO Literature Prize 2011.

Evie Wyld is the author of one previous novel, After the Fire, A Still Small Voice, which was shortlisted for the IMPAC Award, the Orange Award for New Writers and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 2013, she was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, having previously been named by the BBC as one of the 12 best new British writers. All the Birds, Singing was longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. She lives in Peckham, London, where she runs the Review Bookshop.

Jan Němec, born in 1981 in Brno, received his MA degree in Religious and Social Studies from Masaryk University in Brno, and in Theatre Dramaturgy from the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. He wrote a book of poems První život (First Life, 2007), followed by a book of short-stories Hra pro čtyři ruce (Playing Four Hands, 2009) and a biographical novel about renowned photographer František Drtikol, called Dějiny světla (A History of Light, 2013). Němec works as an editor for the monthly literary magazine Host, and as a dramaturgist for the ČT Art TV channel.

Birgül Oğuz was born in İstanbul in 1981. She received her BA in Comparative Literature and MA in Cultural Studies from İstanbul Bilgi University. She was the recipient of the Hazel Heughan scholarship for the Modernism-Postmodernism programme at Edinburgh University in 2006.