Bernlef (formerly also known as J. Bernlef) was born Henrik Jan Marsman in 1937 in Sint Pancras, a village north of Alkmaar, in The Netherlands. After obtaining his high school diploma in 1955, he worked in a bookshop until he was drafted for military service. His first poems were published
born in 1975 in Hoogezand-Sappemeer, is a writer, journalist and musician. His work has appeared in various newspapers since 1998. He is the author of five novels, two travel books and the initiator of the essay collection »Wenn das so weitergeht« (2017), in which twenty authors critically address the issue
Arnon Grunberg was born in 1971 in Amsterdam. He comes from a German-Jewish family. He grew up in Amsterdam and got kicked out of high school when he was seventeen. He started his own publishing company and debuted at age 23 with the novel »Blauwe maandagen« (1994; Eng. »Blue Mondays«,
The Dutch illustrator and children’s book author Annet Schaap was born in Ochten in 1965. She studied at an art school in Kampen and at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague. Between 1995 and 1999 she also attended the Schrijversvakschool ʼt Colofon in Amsterdam and worked for
Anneke Brassinga was born in the Dutch village of Schaarsbergen in 1948. At the University of Amsterdam she studied translation science. She then published her first literary texts pseudonymously in various Dutch magazines. She has translated work by Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, Ingeborg Bachmann, E. M. Foster, Samuel Beckett and
Anna Woltz, was born in London in 1981, and grew up in Den Haag. She wrote her first children’s book »Alles kookt over« (2002; tr. Everything boils over) at the age of 17. Woltz studied history at the University of Leiden where she wrote a column for the newspaper »Volkskrant«,
Andy Ninvalle grew up in Sengaali-Guyana and now lives in the Netherlands. He is said to be Holland’s »hardest breaker« and initially won acclaim for his dance acrobatics. He was later singer for the funk-metal band »BaggaBownz« and was celebrated for his virtuoso beatbox specials. At the Cologne Jazz Night
Adriaan van Dis was born in Bergen, northern Holland in 1946. His parents were among the repatriates from the Dutch East Indies (today Indonesia) who returned to their »new, old« home in the aftermath of World War II. Van Dis, with his dark-skinned half-sisters, grew up there, living between two
