Asal Dardan, born in Tehran in 1978, is an author and journalist. She was awarded the Caroline Schlegel Prize in 2020 for her text Neue Jahre [New Years]. Her essay collection Betrachtungen einer Barbarin [Reflections of a Barbarian] was nominated for the German Non-Fiction Prize in 2021 and the Clemens Brentano Prize in 2022. Her second book Traumaland was published by Rowohlt Verlag in January 2025. As a translator, she has translated works by Namwali Serpell and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, among others, from English into German. She lives in Berlin and on the Swedish island of Öland.

Cia Rinne, born in Göteborg in 1973, is a poet and artist. She studied philosophy and languages in Frankfurt, Helsinki, and Athens and has written concrete, minimalist, and multilingual poetry such as l'usage du mot (2017) and sentences (2019) as well as libretti such as Wasting my Grammar (2024) for the Ensemble Neue Vocalsolisten. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally, most recently at Marabouparken konsthall in Stockholm in 2024 and at Rauma Art Museum in 2025. Her work was awarded the Prix littéraire Bernard Heidsieck-Centre Pompidou. Rinne lives and works in Berlin.

Deniz Utlu, born in Hannover in 1983, published the novels Die Ungehaltenen [The Unrestrained] (2014), Gegen Morgen [Against Tomorrow] (2019) and Vaters Meer [Father’s Sea] (2023). His work has received numerous awards, including the Bavarian Book Prize, the Literatour Nord Literature Prize, and the Alfred Döblin Prize, among others. Play adaptations of his work were produced in 2015 at the Maxim Gorki Theatre and in 2024 at the Schauspiel Hannover. Utlu has also published essays on politics and poetry. He taught creative writing at the Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig, at the Institut für Sprachkunst in Vienna and at the UdK in Berlin. Until 2014, he spent 10 years editing the cultural and social magazine freitext.

Elisabeth Wellershaus, born in Hamburg in 1974, is an author and journalist. Her book Wo die Fremde beginnt [Where the Strangeness Begins] (2023) was nominated for the German Non-Fiction Prize. She was a jury member of the Robert Bosch Stiftung's Szenenwechsel theatre funding program and worked as an editor for Le Monde diplomatique, the art magazine Contemporary And and the feminist column 10nach8. Together with Caroline Kraft, she edited the anthology Politisch, poetisch, polemisch - Texte zur feministischen Gegenwart [Political, Poetic, Polemical - Texts on the Feminist Present] (2025). Wellershaus lives and works in Berlin.

Hannes Langendörfer, born in Heidelberg in 1975, is a literary translator and presenter. He translates fiction, poetry and plays and has translated, among others, works by Madame Nielsen, Søren Ulrik Thomsen, and Stine Pilgaard into German. In 2022 and 2023 he was a member of the REBEKKA Translation Prize jury. Langendörfer lives and works in Berlin. 

Khuê Phạm, born in Berlin in 1982, is an award-winning ZEITmagazin editor and author. In 2012, she published Wir neuen Deutschen [Us New Germans] with Alice Bota and Özlem Topcu, which is about the children of immigrants and their place in Germany. Her debut novel Wo auch immer ihr seid [Wherever You Are] (2021) is inspired by her Vietnamese family. It was adapted as a dance theatre piece and published in 2024 as Brothers and Ghosts in the UK, Australia and the US. She is also a founding member of PEN Berlin. Phạm lives and works in Berlin.

Paula Fürstenberg, born in Potsdam in 1987, is a writer. She studied at the Schweizerisches Literaturinstitut and at Humboldt University. Her debut novel, Familie der geflügelten Tiger [Family of winged Tigers], was published in 2016 and translated into French. It was followed in 2020 by her second novel, Weltalltage [Cosmic Days]. She has been awarded numerous scholarships for her work, most recently from the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and the Deutscher Literaturfonds. She writes prose and essays, and also works as a curator, teacher and editor, and is part of a number of artistic collectives. Fürstenberg lives and works in Berlin.