2021

Svetlozar Zhelev is a well known contemporary expert in the Bulgarian literary field. Former publisher, TV and radio host, he was a board member of the Bulgarian Book Association from 2006 to 2010, and president of the jury for the "Translations" program of the National Culture Fund from 2018 to 2020. He is a member of the programing committee of the "TRADUKI" network, board member of ENLIT, co-founder and board member of the "Elizabeth Kostova Foundation on Creative Writing", and a lecturer in Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" since 2013.

In 2001, Shakeh established Artbridge, the first bookstore café and restaurant in Yerevan, Armenia. During the past 20 years, she managed to change the culture of bookselling in the country, by promoting Armenian books, exporting them to libraries and customers around the world, and participating in international book fairs with the same vision of promoting Armenian issues and literature. She has initiated the project “Exhibition and Sales” for rural area in Armenia with collaboration with publishers to promote new publications.

Isabel Lucas is a journalist and literary critic. She started to do journalism on television and has since passed through the editorial staff of some of the main Portuguese newspapers and magazines. Freelance since 2012, she writes regularly for Público newspaper, collaborates with Ler and has collaborated with several national and international publications. Among many of his work in various journalistic areas, he has featured in articles and interviews with some of the most celebrated American authors.

Renate Punka wears three hats in her daily professional life. She is managing director of Janis Roze Publishers – one of the oldest and most respectable publishing houses, the home of many established and aspiring writers from Latvia and, mostly, from abroad.

Ben Andoni was born in Tirana. He studied Geography and History. Since 1996, his main profession has been as a journalist. For 12 years, he was the manager of a National Cultural Supplement. He works regularly for columns concerned with national politics and Kosovar issues. He has translated more than 20 prominent authors from Slavic and English literature. He also published 5 books of his own, concerned with history, publicity and geographic issues, and is the co-authors of some reports of the Civil Society. 

Lucia Butnariuc was born in 1995. She studied History at  the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Moldova State University,. Since September 2019, she is a bookseller at Cărturești Chișinău.

Darin Tenev is an associate professor in the Literary Theory Department of the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski” and director of the Institute for Critical Social Studies at the University of Plovdiv. He gave lectures in Tokyo, Kyoto, New York, Berlin, Münster. He has published two books – Fiction and Image. Models (2012) and Digressions. Essays on Jacques Derrida (2013).

Anahit Avetisyan is a literary translator and conference interpreter. She holds a Master degree in translation from the Ecole de traduction et d’interpretation of the University of Geneva, and was also part of the Fellowship Programme in Paris organized by BIEF and French National Book Center (CNL) for foreign publishers, editors and rights managers.

João de Melo was born on the island of São Miguel (Azores, 1949), but came to study in Lisbon at the age of eleven, and it is in this city where he has lived since 1967. Mobilized for the colonial war, he was in Angola between 1971 and 1974, as a sergeant nurse. After graduating in Romance Philology from the Faculty of Letters, he practiced the teaching profession in secondary and higher education.

Arno Jundze (1965) is a Latvian prose writer, cultural journalist, literary critic and theorist. He is host of TV show Grāmatu kods/The Book Code  on RigaTV 24, has been a host of 100g of Culture and other TV programmes, and was one of the creators of the programme Melns uz balta/ Black on White, with interviews and video profiles of celebrated Latvian writers for Latvian television (LTV1). Arno Jundze was an editor (2005 – 2020) of the cultural news section for one of the biggest newspapers in Latvia and helps in shaping country's most important art and literature forums and outlets.