Monica Ali was born in 1967 to an English mother and a Bengali father in Dhaka in what is now Bangladesh. When the Civil War broke out there in 1971 the family moved to England. Ali grew up in Bolton near Manchester and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford.
born in Wittgendorf in 1943. Michael Krüger was a bookseller in London, a literary critic and an editor, before he became the director of Carl Hanser Verlag in 1986. Since 1981 he has published the literary journal »Akzente«. Krüger is one of the most important publishers in Germany and has
Margriet de Moor was born in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, in 1941. She comes from a large Catholic family and grew up with nine siblings – six of them girls. The subject of sisterhood was to become a common theme in her work. She studied piano and voice at the Royal
Manil Suri was born in Bombay in 1959. His father worked as assistant music director and his mother was Indira Gandhi’s personal assistant for a year before the latter became Prime Minister. Suri began studying Mathematics at the University of Bombay and in 1983 completed a PhD at the Carnegie
Lutz Seiler was born in Gera, Thuringia, in 1963. Following an apprenticeship in the construction sector he worked as a carpenter and bricklayer, and later studied German Language and Literature in Halle and Berlin. He was co-editor of the literary journal »moosbrand« from 1994-1999. Although his first collection of poems
Luiz Ruffato was born in 1961 in the region of Minas Gerais in southwest Brazil. The grandchild of Italian immigrants, his mother was an illiterate laundress and his father was a semi-illiterate popcorn seller. In his native city, he performed several activities as a clerk and textile worker, until he
Lilian Brøgger, born in 1950 on the island of Fanø and raised in Copenhagen, is the most important Danish illustrator to emerge since the generation of Ib Spang Olsen and Svend Otto S. With more than 100 illustrated books to her credit, she has set trends and been a main
Leung Ping-kwan is Hong Kong’s most important writer. Following his studies in English and Chinese Literature in the seventies, he worked as a teacher, reporter, columnist and translator. In 1984 he received a doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of San Diego in California. He works as a Professor
László Végel was born in Srbobran, in Yugoslavia’s Vojvodina, in 1941, as a member of the Hungarian minority. He studied in nearby Novi Sad and in Belgrade and later worked as a journalist, among other things as editor of the daily newspaper »Magyar Szó« and as co-editor of the likewise
Lauren Child, picture book illustrator and author, was born in England in 1967 and grew up in Wiltshire. After two years at art school, she travelled the world, worked as a window dresser, was an assistant to »Young British Artist« Damien Hirst and designed her own exotic lampshades. On the
