Adam Fathi (real name: GASMI Fathi) is a Tunisian poet and translator born in 1957. He published several poetry collections including: Sept lunes pour la gardienne de la tour ('Seven moons for the tower keeper'), 1982 ; Chants pour la fleur de poussière ('Songs for the dust flower'), 1991 ; Le souffleur de verre aveugle ('The blind glassblower'), 2011.
Velizara Dobreva has thirty years of experience in publishing. She is executive director of Story House Egmont Bulgaria, a leading publishing house of children’s books, fiction, and non-fiction in Bulgaria. She is president of the Bulgarian Book Association since 2017.
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.
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.
Annina Rabe is a literary critic for daily newspaper Expressen and the Swedish Public Radio, among others. She regularly lectures on contemporary Swedish literature, both in Sweden and abroad.
José Manuel Bernardes Pereira Lello (1958) has worked as an administrator at Livraria Lello since 1983. He is also part of the Lello Editores publishing house, both of which are recognised institutions in Portugal and beyond. José Manuel also served as the President of the Portuguese Association of Publishers and Booksellers (APEL) between 1995 and 1998, and was a member of the board of Portugal for the country’s representation as guest of honour at Frankfurt Book fair in 1997.
Elín Edda Pálsdóttir is the manager of the Forlagið Bookstore (Bókabúð Forlagsins) in Reykjavík since 2015 and one of two editors of the literary magazine Tímarit Máls og menningar since the fall of 2018. She holds a BA-degree in Literature studies from the University of Iceland, a master's degree in Applied Editing and Publishing from the same school and a one year master's degree from the Literature-Culture-Media programme at Lund University, Sweden.
Margot Dijkgraaf is a literary critic (NRC Handelsblad, Dutch national newspaper), author, interviewer and curator of (inter-) national literary events. She was the Director of the Centre Français du Livre at the French Cultural Institute in Amsterdam, as well as of the Academic-Cultural Centre SPUI25. Ten years ago she initiated the European Literature Prize in The Netherlands, which is now an important prize for European literature translated into Dutch.
Ana Geršak (1983) has been working as a literary critic and editor for a number of years. She is a contributor to various literary journals, newspapers, web portals and the national radio. She was on the organisational team for the international critics’ symposium coordinated by the Slovene Literary Critics’ Association. In 2011, she received the Stritar Award, which is presented annually by the Slovene Writers’ Association to the most promising literary critic.
Born in Malta in 1947, Albert Marshall has distinguished himself as a theatre and television director, playwright, poet and TV presenter in a career spanning over 50 years. His literary works are widely published in Australia, Canada and Malta. He spent 15 years working in Australian radio, theatre and television and became the first Maltese national to direct at Sydney Opera House. Marshall recently published a collection of his poetry written between 1964 – 2019 and is currently working on the publication of literary works for theatre and television.
