born in Munich, has been a foreign correspondent for »Der Spiegel« since 2004, where she reports from Central Asia and the Middle East. Among other prizes, she has received the Reemtsma Liberty Award for her reporting. Together with Olaf Ihlau, she published »Geliebtes, dunkles Land« (2007; tr: Beloved, Dark Country).
Stephan Szász, born in 1966, is a stage, film, and television actor. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover. Szász has performed on various stages in Germany, including the Schauspielhaus Köln, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Bremen, Schaubühne Berlin, Nationaltheater Weimar, and the Schauspielhaus Zürich. He appeared there
born in 1967 in Cologne, is an author and translator. Until 2016, he was editor-in-chief of the »Art&Thought« magazine for dialogue with the Islamic world. His most recent non-fiction book »1001 Buch« (2019; tr: 1001 Books) sheds light on »the complexity of the Islamic-influenced literary, linguistic, and cultural realm« (SRW2).
Stefan Zweifel was born in 1967 in Zurich, Switzerland. After studying philosophy, comparative literature, and Egyptology, he wrote his dissertation, working with Michael Pfister, on Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and the French doctor and philosopher Julien Offray de La Mettrie. The two also collaborated on
born in 1973, is a cultural scholar, author and translator. After research and teaching stays in Berlin, Freiburg, Uppsala and Copenhagen, she is currently Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Ghent in Belgium. She has published many books and essays on Søren Kierkegaard, Karen Blixen and Lars von
Sina Kamala Kaufmann settled in Berlin, where she lives as an author and activist, after studying politics, philosophy, and public law. Parallel to her studies, she began training in dance and subsequently worked in the gaming industry. Her volume of short stories »Helle Materie« (tr: Light Matter), published in 2019,
Sissel Horndal, born in Bodø in 1970, is from northern Norway and works as a writer, illustrator, and designer. She studied at Nordland Art and Film School in Kabelvåg and at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design from 1991 to 1997. Later she also studied dramatic writing for children
Slavenka Drakulić was born in Rijeka, today Croatia, in 1949. She studied literature and sociology, taught at a high school in Zagreb until 1984, and later worked as an staff writer for periodicals such as bi-weekly review »Start« and the political magazine »Danas«. She was layed off from the editorial
Simon Ings, born in 1965, is a science fiction, cyberpunk and nonfiction writer, as well as arts editor of the magazine »New Scientist«. His subversively stylized, multi-layered and cutting-edge novels involve cyborg extensions, augmented realities and alternate historiographies. He edited the forthcoming anthology »We, Robots« (2020), which compiles one hundred
Simon Strauß born in 1988 in Berlin, is a German writer and journalist. He studied classical studies and history in Basel, Poitiers, and Cambridge. In 2017 he completed his doctoral dissertation at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He has been a guest at several theaters and is founder of the young intellectual
Sherko Fatah was born in East Berlin in 1964 to an Iraqi Kurd father and a German mother. In 1975, his parents moved to West Germany, where Fatah studied philosophy and art history. He visited Iraq several times. In 2001, he published his début »Im Grenzland« (tr: At the Borderline),
The Indian writer and diplomat Shashi Tharoor was born in London in 1956. At the time his father was working for the English language Indian newspaper »The Statesman«. Tharoor studied in India and in the US, where at 22 he received a doctorate in Law and Diplomacy. He then worked
