Wilfried N’Sondé was born in Brazzaville, capital of the present-day Republic of Congo, in 1968. In 1973, after his father received a grant from a Parisian art school, the whole family moved to the outskirts of Paris. Under the impact of the adverse living conditions in the banlieues and working
Vladimir Sorokin was born in 1955 in Bykovo near Moscow. Following his studies in Engineering at the Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas he worked for a year at the newspaper »Smena«, began working with painting and graphics, and participated in numerous exhibitions, as well as illustrating roughly 50 books.
Vladimir Vertlib was born in 1966 into a Russian-Jewish family in Leningrad (USSR, today St. Petersburg). His parents were members of an illegal Zionist organisation. In 1971, the family emigrated, travelling across Israel, the Netherlands, the USA and Italy until they settled in Austria in 1981. Vertilb studied Economics in
Vladislav Bajac was born in 1954 in Belgrade, Serbia. He studied Yugoslavian Philology and World Literature at the University of Belgrade and later worked as a journalist. He translated prose and poetry from English into Serbian, including the anthologies »The Poets of the Beat Generation« (1979), »Trip. A Guide to
Wieprecht, born in 1963, and Skuppin, born in 1964, are two German radio journalists who met at Radio Fritz in the early 90s and have been appearing as co-presenters ever since. Since 1997, they have both worked for radioeins, where they have become well-known for shows like »Der Tag« (tr:
Viktor Yerofeyev was born in Moscow in 1947. His father was an interpreter for Vyacheslav Molotov, among others, and was also the Soviet ambassador in France. Yerofeyev studied philology and linguistics at Lomonsov University in Moscow and received his doctorate on Dostoyevsky and French existentialism. In 1979, he collaborated on
was born in Riga in 1963. She is an art historian, curator, and a specialist of »Underground art in Latvia«. She studied at the Latvian Art Academy, was curator and editor in the Latvian Arts Foundation and Deputy Director of the »Daugava« gallery in Riga. She is currently researching nonconformist
Valžhyna Mort was born in 1981 in Minsk in Belarus, but only learned Belarusian as a child following the collapse of the Soviet Union. She studied English Language and Literature at the Minsk State Linguistic University. She studied music with the goal of becoming a musician, and had started writing
born in1944 in Höxter. After apprenticing as a bookseller and studying art history, she worked as a lecturer and publisher, making a name for herself as a critic in particular. Auffermann writes for »Die Zeit« and the »Süddeutsche Zeitung«. The literary anthology »Leidenschaften. 99 Autorinnen der Weltliteratur« (2009; tr. Passions.
born in 1957 in Middle Franconia, she studied Literature and Philosophy in Cologne and Bonn and is a freelance literature critic as well as author. After working exclusively in radio at the end of the 1980s, she worked with »Frankfurter Rundschau«, »Die Zeit« and »Kursbuch« in the 1990s. In March
born in 1962, studied in Germany and England. She lives as a freelance writer in Berlin. Her work comprises novels (»Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt«, 2014; tr. Seven jumps from the edge of the world), short stories (»Richtig liegen«, 2011; tr. Being tracked), poems (»Subsong«, 2014) and essays (»Heimliche
Trenton Lee Stewart was born in 1970 in the USA. He graduated from the renowned authors’ workshop at the University of Iowa, and has since published one novel for adults, »Flood Summer« (2005) and several books for children; he also taught Creative Writing. In 2007 Stewart discussed the origins of
