Author Year: 2026

Gaea Schoeters (b. 1976) is a Belgian novelist, librettist and screenwriter. Her books are characterised by a broad geographical and cultural scope: for instance, the plot of her debut work Girls, Muslims and Motorcycles (Meisjes, Moslims en Motoren, 2008) is based on the author’s seven-month motorcycle journeys through Central Asia and the Middle East. Schoeters’…

Fionntán de Brún (b. 1969) is an Irish writer and literary historian born in Belfast. De Brún is among those who sustain the tradition of Irish-language literature: he writes in Irish and has published research on Irish writers and literature in the Irish language. As the majority of Irish writers have used English, de Brún’s…

Stefan Hedlund (b. 1953) is a Swedish academic and historian whose primary field of interest is Russian history. He has studied in detail the recent history of Russia and Central Asia more broadly, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its aftermath, as well as the uneven trajectory of Western social and economic models in…

Ewald Arenz (b. 1965) is a German writer. He began his literary career in 1987 with the publication of his first book, the poetry collection Wanderings (Wanderungen). In the 1990s, Arenz moved from poetry to short stories and novels. His work is characterised by a wide range of genres, allowing him to write magical realist…

Carl-Johan Vallgren (b. 1964) is a Swedish writer whose diverse prose has also been widely translated into Estonian. His crime novels The Shadow Boy and The Tunnel (Skuggpojken and Svinen), published about a decade ago, centre on the interpreter and computer specialist Danny Katz, who, in order to find or help his friends – and…

Satu Rämö (b. 1980) is a Finnish writer living in Iceland. She achieved a breakthrough in fiction with her crime series, the first instalment of which, Hildur, was published in 2022, propelling her directly into the ranks of the best-selling Finnish authors of the 21st century – with sales in the hundreds of thousands. The…

Marius Ivaškevičius (b. 1973) is a Lithuanian novelist, playwright, film director and screenwriter. He made his debut in 1996 with the short story collection Why Children (Kam vaiku), followed in 1998 by his first novel History from a Cloud (Istorija nuo debesies). His first play, The Neighbour (Kaimynas), was staged at the Lithuanian National Drama…

Liudmyla Taran (b. 1954) is a Ukrainian poet, prose writer and literary thinker. She belongs to the generation of the 1980s in Ukrainian literature that rejected socialist realism and replaced it with free, bold and individual expression. Taran’s poetry is characterised by emotional depth and a strong musical quality, leading Doris Kareva to describe her…

Paco Calvo (b. 1971) is a philosopher of science and professor at the University of Murcia, specialising in plant studies. He is, among other things, the founder and director of the world’s first laboratory for plant neurobiology, MINT. His book Planta Sapiens: In Search of Plant Intelligence (co-authored with Natalie Lawrence) makes a significant contribution…

Aldis Bukšs (b. 1985) is a Latvian writer. Having worked for years in banking and the public sector, Bukšs turned to fiction in 2015 with the publication of his semi-autobiographical novel Debt Collectors (Parādu piedzinēji), which addresses everyday corruption. His next novel Brothers (Bruoli) was published in 2020. It is a fast-paced crime novel full…