Authors and Books

Peter Vermeersch (Belgium)

Peter Vermeersch is a professor of Political Science at the University of Leuven. His work is focused primarily on the issues of ethnic mobilization, minority policies and nationalism in Central Europe and the Balkans. He is the author of The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe and The Peace Front: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention. He has published articles in numerous eminent academic journals. He is a board member of the Flemish PEN and has published essays dealing with a variety of scientific fields.

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Cees Nooteboom (Netherlands)

Cees Nooteboom (1933) is counted among the most important contemporary Dutch authors while also enjoying an international reputation, as his notable novels (e.g. Rituals (Rituelen), The Following Story (Het volgende verhaal), All Souls' Day (Allerzielen), Lost Paradise (Paradijs verloren), short story collections, poems and travelogues (e.g. Roads to Santiago - De omweg naar Santiago) have been translated into over 20 languages. Nootebom has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, the preeminent Dutch literature award, in 2009.

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Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia)

Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Bogotá, 1973) had graduated in Law, received a doctor's degree in Latin American Literature at the Sorbonne in Paris and then lived in Barcelona for the next three years. The Sound of Things Falling (El ruido de las cosas al caer) is his fifth novel, which had, among other things, won him the Alfaguara award (2011) and the International Dublin Literary Award (2014). For a long time, Vásquez wrote op-ed pieces for Columbian daily El Espectador. He writes essays and contributes to various literary journals. He has translated books by J. Hersey, V. Hugo and E. M. Forster.

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Matthias Göritz (Germany)

Matthias Göritz (1969) is a German novelist, poet and translator. Among other languages, Göritz also translates from Slovene (Šteger, Pahor). Initially showcasing his poetry in various periodicals, Göritz published his first book of poetry, Loops, in 2001. The book was followed by two more. His debut novel (Der kurze Traum des Jakob Voss, 2005) won Göritz the Mara-Cassens-Preis. He has spent significant periods of time in Moscow, Paris, Chicago and New York. He has been the writer in residence of Bard College, a Goethe-Institut fellow in Morocco, a guest of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and many others, and has recently received a scholarship awarded by the Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul.

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Samira Kentrić (Slovenia)

Samira Kentrić (1976) is a visual artist who fuses public, political discourse with the intimate sphere of our everyday lives. As a designer and illustrator, Kentrić has provided visual art for numerous books and newspapers, including illustrations for Dnevnik's Objektiv supplement, Delo's Sobotna priloga, and Finance. She does cover design for books published by Beletrina, Modrijan, the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) and the Academy of Theatre, Film, Radio and Television (AGRFT). Her speciality is editorial illustration, i.e. the visual rendering of political commentary. In 2010, one such Kentrić's work was included in the prestigious American Illustration Catalog.

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Sjón (Iceland)

Sjón (1962) is one of the most popular Icelandic writers. He was barely 16 when he published his first book of poetry and in his teenage years also worked with a surrealist group called Medúsa that was an important influence on the Icelandic cultural landscape. In addition to poetry, novels, plays and screenplays, Sjón is also a songwriter, working, among others, with Björk, whom he collaborated with on the film Dancer in the Dark (Danser i mørket) - where Sjón and Lars von Trier wrote the lyrics to the Oscar-nominated soundtrack - as well as with lyrics for her recent albums. Sjón has received numerous awards, including the Nordic Council's Literary Prize and the Icelandic Literary Proze.

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Teofil Pančić (Serbia)

Teofil Pančić (1965) is a Serbian journalist, columnist and critic whose op-ed pieces are regularly published by the Belgrade-based Vreme and whose critical and analytical texts have been published by numerous prominent journals and newspapers throughout Europe and all over the world. Pančić has also been an editor of Vreme and a political columnist for Radio Slobodna Evropa. In 1999, he received the Jug Grizelj journalist award.

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