Darko Tuševljaković was born in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1978. Since 2002, his fiction has been published in literary magazines and anthologies in Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans. In 2004, he was awarded the Lazar Komarcic Award for short fiction. Tuševljaković is the author of two novels and a collection of short stories. His books have been shortlisted for some of the most important Serbian national awards for fiction.
Jamal Ouariachi, born in 1978, is the son of a Dutch mother and a Moroccan father. Jamal studied psychology at the University of Amsterdam and spent years working as an online therapist. He made his literary debut in 2010 with the novel De vernietiging van Prosper Morèl (The Destruction of Prosper Morèl). Since then he has written controversial stories, articles and columns for a range of leading publications including nrc.next, HP/De Tijd, de Volkskrant, Knack Focusand Vogue.
Sunjeev Sahota was born in 1981 in Derbyshire. His debut novel, Ours are the Streets, was called 'Nothing short of extraordinary' by the Observer, and 'A moral work of real intelligence and power' by the Times. His second novel, The Year of the Runaways, won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature, and the Encore Award. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015. In 2013, Sahota was named as one of Granta magazine's Best of Young British Novelists.
Ina Vultchanova is a journalist, writer, producer and translator from French and Russian. She has an MA in Bulgarian Philology from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. Her professional career has been dedicated to the art of audio drama. She has worked as a long-time senior producer at the Drama Department of Bulgarian National Radio and has produced numerous audio adaptations of works by writers from Bulgaria and around the world. Her audio productions have won the Croatian Grand Prix Marulic in 1998, the second Prix Europa in Berlin in 1998 and the eighth Muse Prize in Sofia in 2006.
Osvalds Zebris, born in 1975, is a Latvian writer and journalist, holding a master's degree in economics. Zebris has worked in public relations and communications for Hill+Knowlton and McCann, and as an editor for various newspapers and magazines. He is also the author of three novels.
Sine Ergün (1982) is a writer based in Istanbul, Turkey. She has published three books: Burası Tekin Değil (It’s not Safe Here, Yitik Ülke Publishing, 2010; Can Publishing, 2012), Bazen Hayat (Life, Sometimes, Can Publishing, 2012) and Baştankara (Titmouse, Can Publishing, 2016). In 2013, she received the 59th Sait Faik Short Story Award for her book Bazen Hayat (Life, Sometimes).
Rudi Erebara was born in 1971. He is a poet, novelist and translator. After graduating in 1995 at the Academy of Fine Arts, he embarked on a career as a political analyst, a journalist in several national newspapers and as an editor in chief. He is the author of two books of poetry, Fillon Pamja (There Begins the View), 1994, and Lëng argjendi (Silver Juice), 2013. His two novels are Vezët e thëllëzave (Eggs of the Quails), 2010, and Epika e yjeve të mëngjesit (The Epic of the Morning Stars), 2016.
Halldóra K. Thoroddsen was born in 1950 and is a resident of Reykjavik. She graduated from Iceland College of Education in 1976 and from Iceland Academy of the Arts in 1986. Thoroddsen has worked as a teacher, designed layout for a newspaper, supervised the arts curriculum for elementary schools, and worked as a programme director in radio. She writes poetry, short stories, microfiction and novels. Her first poetry collection, Hárfínar athugasemdir, was published in 1998, and was followed in 2002 by a popular collection of microfiction, 90 sýni úr minni mínu.
Bianca Bellová, born in Prague in 1970, is a translator, interpreter and writer with Bulgarian roots. Her first book, Sentimentální román(Sentimental Novel), came out in 2009 and describes the trials of growing up near the end of the communist totalitarian regime. Two years later, the publisher Host brought out the novella Mrtvý muž (Dead Man), which impressed critics. In 2013, Bellová’s novella Celý den se nic nestane (Nothing Happens All Day) was published.
Walid Nabhan was born in Amman, Jordan, in 1966. His family fled Al-Qbeybeh, a small village in the outskirts of Hebron, Palestine, after the 1948 war that established the state of Israel and resulted in the first Palestinian Diaspora.
