Marieke Rijneveld was born in Nieuwendijk in 1991 and grew up in a family of farmers in North Brabant. As a child she invented an imaginary friend called Lucas and wanted to be a boy herself. She was later bullied at school because of her boyishness, but at the age
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
Lucette ter Borg was born in Amsterdam in 1962. She studied Slavonic studies and history of education at the university in her home city and worked as an art critic for the well-known daily newspapers »NRC Handelsblad« and »Volkskrant«. She then became Editor-in-Chief for arts and culture for the weekly
Leon de Winter was born in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Holland, in 1954. His parents were the only members of his Jewish family who survived the Holocaust. Leon de Winter started writing at the age of twelve, as a reaction to his father’s early death. Central themes of his work have since been
born in Yaffa in 1981, is a Palestinian scholar and activist, and a member of the Berlin Muslim Feminist Group. Since 2016 she is Assistant-Professor in Gender and Religion at Maastricht University. Lana completed her Ph.D. studies at the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin
Karlijn Stoffels, born in 1947 in Amsterdam. She pursued Romance Linguistics and Dutch Language and Literature at the University of Leiden, after which she began writing for children and adults (including works on Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre), as well as for radio and stage plays. She has also
Kader Abdolah, whose real name is Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani, was born in Arak, Iran, in 1954. Still a child he dreamed of being a famous writer, like his great-great-grandfather. Secretly he read the books from Western countries. He studied physics in Teheran und joined the left-wing students’ underground movement,
Johano Strasser was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, in 1939. He studied at the Foreign and Interpreter Institute of Mainz University. In 1967 he did his PhD in philosophy, in 1977 followed his post doctoral thesis in politics at the Freie Universität in Berlin. From 1980-1988 he was co-publisher and editor
Jan Paul Schutten was born in Vlissingen, Netherlands, in 1970. He studied communication sciences in Utrecht and then worked as a copywriter in an ad agency. In 2002, he published his first children’s book, »Ruik eens wat ik zeg« (tr. Smell what I’m saying to you). His debut was such
Ian Buruma was born in The Hague in 1951. He studied Chinese literature and Japanese film in Tokyo and works as journalist, author and university lecturer. His articles have appeared in »The New York Review of Books«, »The Times Literary Supplement« and the »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung«. Buruma currently teaches at
Hester Knibbe was born in 1946 in The Netherlands and currently works as a clinical pharmaceutical analyst. As a poet she made her debut with her collection ‘Tussen Gebaren en Woorden’ (t: Between Gestures and Words) in 1982. She has since published several more collections of poetry, amongst them „Zwerfmotief“ (2006;
Hans Maarten van den Brink was born in Oegstgeest, the Netherlands in 1956. He was the eldest of three sons of a German mother and Dutch father, the latter a psychologist at a psychiatric institution who left the family when van den Brink was ten years old. He later wrote
