US AND THEM

Natasha Atanasova

Petar Andonovski

Petar Andonovski was born in 1987, in Kumanovo, North Macedonia. He studied general and comparative literature at the University of Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. He has published one poetry collection and four novels, including The Summer You Weren’t There (2020, first Macedonian queer novel). In 2015, his novel The Body One Must Live In won the national award for Novel of the Year. Fear of Barbarians received the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature. His novels have been translated into: English, French, Serbian, Bulgarian.

Stephan Boltz

Lindita Arapi

Lindita Arapi, born in Albania, belongs to the circle of the so-called Albanian literary avant-garde. She publishes poetry collections, novels, essays and journalistic pieces. Her first novel, Schlüsselmädchen, was awarded the Book of the Year Award by Kult Academy in Albania and translated into German. Her most recent novel, Die Eingemauerte, is currently being translated into German and is forthcoming in Weidle Verlag. In addition to her writing, Lindita Arapi works as a freelance radio editor for Deutsche Welle (Bonn) and translator.

Ralf Beste

Ralf Beste, born in 1966 in Witten, studied history in Bochum, Bielefeld and Baltimore (Master of Arts, Johns Hopkins University; Magister Artium, University of Bielefeld). From 2001 to 2014 editor of SPIEGEL. 2014 to 2016 Deputy Head of the Planning Staff at the Federal Foreign Office; from 2016 to 2017 Commissioner for Strategic Communication and from 2017 to 2019 Head of the Planning Staff at the Federal Foreign Office. From 2019 to the beginning of 2022, Ralf Beste was Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Republic of Austria. He is Head of the Department for Culture and Communication at the Federal Foreign Office.

Tomislav Marić

Ivana Bodrožić

Ivana Simić Bodrožić was born in 1982 in Vukovar. She studied Croatian Literature and Philosophy in Zagreb. She published her first volume of poetry in 2005; since then, her poetry has been printed in international literary magazines and anthologies. She has received several prizes, including the Kiklop Prize (2010) for her debut novel Hotel Zagorje. In 2020 she published her novel Sinovi, kćeri.

Dado Ljaljević

Stefan Bošković

Stefan Bošković was born in 1983 in Podgorica. His books include the short story collection Transparentne životinje (Transparent Animals, 2018) and the novel Šamaranje (Slap in the Face, 2014), awarded the 2014 prize for the best manuscript novel in Montenegro. In 2016, he won second prize at the Festival of European Short Stories for Fashion and Friends. Bošković has written scripts for a feature-length film, several short films, a sitcom series and a number of documentaries. Several of his short plays have been staged. His novel The Minister, for which he received the EU Literature Prize, is published in German translation in March 2022.

Cosmin Gogu

Lavinia Braniște

Lavinia Braniște was born in 1983, in Brăila. She studied foreign languages ​​in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest. Lavinia worked as a language teacher and translator and has translated over forty books from English, French and Spanish. She has published three novels so far: Interior Zero, Sonia ridică mâna and Mă găsești când vrei. Lavinia also writes children’s literature, some of her books were included in the White Ravens catalogue in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Lavinia currently lives in her hometown, Brăila, and dedicates herself to writing.

Tzveti Pavlova

Marianna Georgieva

Marianna Georgieva was born in 1986 in Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, in the Russian Federation. She studied law, creative writing as well as artistic psycho-social practices and psychodrama. She made her debut in 2014 with the novel Der Schuldner. 2016 saw the publication of her first poetry collection Exotische Arten, einen Vogel zu zerschneiden, followed by her second poetry collection ausweg in 2020. She is the editor of the online journal http://www.freepoetrysociety.com.

Svetla Stoyanova

Georgi Gospodinov

Georgi Gospodinov (1968) is a leading Bulgarian writer, the author of Natural Novel and The Physics of Sorrow, among many other books. He is winner of the Central European Angelus Award (2019), the Jan Michalski Prize (2016) and many other accolades. Recently, Gospodinov was awarded the Usedom Prize (Germany, 2021) for contribution to the European literature by a jury presided by Olga Tokarczuk. His latest novel, Time Shelter (Zeitzuflucht), was published in the spring of 2020 during the first lockdown and is forthcoming in more than fifteen countries, among them Germany (Aufbau), France (Gallimard), US (Liveright/Norton). In 2021, Time Shelter won the prestigious Italian award Premio Strega Europeo.

Alex Goldberg

Ismar Hačam

Ismar Hačam was born in 1991 in Livno (Bosnia and Herzegovina). He studied German language and literature in Sarajevo, Würzburg and Berlin. He currently lives in Berlin, where he organises, curates, and moderates literary events.

Velibor Bozović

Aleksandar Hemon

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, and three collections of short stories: The Question of Bruno; Nowhere Man, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Love and Obstacles. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, intending to stay for a matter of months. While he was there, Sarajevo came under siege, and he was unable to return home. Hemon wrote his first story in English in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004. Meine Eltern / Alles nicht dein Eigen was published in German translation in 2021. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter. 

Daniele Croci

Nataša Kramberger

Nataša Kramberger, born 1983, is a writer, columnist, and organic farmer. She writes essays, reportages and commentaries for newspapers and magazines. For her debut novel Nebesa v robidah (2007) she received the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) in 2010. In 2011, she published Kaki vojaki (with Jana Kocjan), in 2014 an essay collection titled Brez zidu, and in 2016 Tujčice. Verfluchte Misteln (2021) was published in Slovene under the title Primerljivi hektarji in 2018. In summer she lives in Jurovski Dol, Slovenia, and runs a small biodynamic farm with the eco-art collective Zelena Centrala. In winter she lives in Berlin.

Ulli Idomeni

Ulrich Ladurner

Ulrich Ladurner, born in South Tyrol, is foreign editor of the Hamburg weekly DIE ZEIT since 1999. He reported from the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and other crisis areas. Since 2016, he has been head of DIE ZEIT’s European office in Brussels. His latest book: Der Fall Italien. Wenn Gefühle die Politik beherrschen (Edition Körber, 2020).

Lulezim Haziri

Luljeta Lleshanaku

Luljeta Lleshanaku is an Albanian poet. She is the author of nine poetry collections in her language, which are widely translated and published in other languages. Her last book in English, Negative Space, was a winner of the “English PEN” award, a finalist for the “GRIFFIN International Poetry Prize 2019” in Canada and a finalist for “PEN America 2019”. She is also the author of two poetry collections in German language: Kinder der Nature published with the support of TRADUKI by Edition Korrespondenzen (2010), and Die Stadt der Äpfel, published in 2021 by Hanser Literaturverlage.

Stella Kager

Norbert Mappes-Niediek

Norbert Mappes-Niediek, born 1953, is a journalist and publicist, since 1991-2017 active as South-East Europe correspondent for German, Dutch, Swiss and Austrian newspapers as well as for Deutschlandfunk. Author of non-fiction books on the region, most recently Arme Roma, böse Zigeuner (Berlin 2012) und Europas geteilter Himmel (Berlin 2021).

Apollonia Theresa Bitzan

Barbi Marković

Barbi Marković, born 1980 in Belgrade, studied German and has lived in Vienna since 2006. In 2011/2012 she was a writer-in-residence in Graz. In 2009, Marković caused a sensation with the Thomas Bernhard remix novel Ausgehen. In 2016, the novel Superheldinnen was published, for which she received the Alpha Literary Award, the Adelbert von Chamisso Award and the Priessnitz Prize in 2019. In 2017, Barbi Marković read at the Bachmann Prize, in 2018 Superheldinnen was staged at the Volkstheater Wien. She also authored numerous short stories, plays and radio plays. Most recently Minihorror (2023) was published by Residenz Verlag.

Miran Juršič

Miha Mazzini

Miha Mazzini, born 1961, is a Slovenian writer, screenwriter and director. He has received several awards for his work; for his novel Otroštvo he received the Kresnik Prize for the best novel of the year. In 2021, his novel Du existierst nicht was published in German translation. It is about the state that takes away people’s rights and identity in a completely unlawful way. Further publications in German are in the works.

Miha Skrt

Pantaloons

Pantaloons trio is a community of three “clumsy fellows” as they like to call themselves. Luka Belič (saxophone), Aljaž Markežič (sousaphone), and David Nik Lipovac (drums) first emerged as part of the Chilli Brass Band in 2016. Their unique music style sits between electronic dance music and a hint of jazz, funk, breakbeat, dubstep, and much more. In 2020, they performed at the international music festival MENT in Ljubljana and the Liverpool Sound City Festival, supported by INES#talent 2020. In 2021 they performed at the Electric Castle festival in Romania and European Youth Event in France. They opened 2022 with concerts at A38 Hajó in Budapest and Eurosonic Noordeslag in the Netherlands. In May 2022 they will release their first album.

Marija Strajnic / Elle

Radmila Petrović

Radmila Petrović, born in 1996 in Užice/Serbia, is a poet and one of the most sought-after young voices from the former Yugoslavia. For her art she draws on her childhood memories spent in a village For urban audiences she opens up new perspectives on the human relationship to nature. Her themes also include family, village life, childhood traumas and female perspectives on the wars waged mostly by men.

Gezett

Jörg Plath

Jörg Plath, born in 1960, is literary editor of “Deutschlandfunk Kultur” and writes for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” and the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. He has been an editor, ghostwriter, and jury member (German Book Prize, International Literature Prize). He is currently on the jury of Weltempfänger.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Manuel Sarrazin

Manuel Sarrazin, born in Dortmund in 1982, studied history, Eastern European studies and law. First at Bremen University and then at Hamburg University. Since 1998, he is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens GAL Hamburg. He served as a member of the Bundestag from 2008 to 2021. Since 2012, he is on the board of trustees of the Institute for European Politics (IEP); from 2014 till 2020 he was the vice-president of the Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, since 2020 he is its president. Since 2019, he is the vice-president of Europäische Bewegung Deutschland e.V.. Since 2019 he also sits on the board of the Stiftung für polnisch-deutsche Zusammenarbeit (Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation). As of the start of 2022, Sarrazin is the special envoy of the Federal Government for the countries of the Western Balkans.

Marion Wittfeld

Tino Schlench

Tino Schlench runs Literaturpalast, a platform specialising in Eastern European literature (Instagram, website, podcast), and is now one of the most successful book bloggers in the German-speaking world. In 2020, Literaturpalast was awarded the Buchblog Award 2020. Once a month, in his podcast “Literaturpalast Audiospur“, Tino Schlench meets authors, translators, journalists and other people from literary life who deal with the literature of Southeast Europe in very different ways.

Ana Schnabl

Ana Schnabl (born 1985, Ljubljana) is a Slovene writer, editor and doctoral student. For her short-story collection Razvezani [Untangled] she received the Best Debut Prize in 2017 and the Croatian Edo Budiša Award in 2019. Her second book, the novel Mojstrovina [Masterpiece] was published in 2020. The German translation is forthcoming in March 2022. She has already begun work on her third book, a crime novel. In her doctoral work, she focuses on feminist autobiographies. She lives in Kamnik, northern Slovenia.

Anna Kurki

Pajtim Statovci

Pajtim Statovci was born in Kosovo to Albanian parents in 1990. His family fled the Yugoslav wars and moved to Finland when he was two years old. He holds an MA in comparative literature and is a PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki. His first book, My Cat Yugoslavia, won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for best debut novel; his second novel, Crossing, was a finalist for the National Book Award and was published in German translation under the title Grenzgänge in 2021; and Bolla was awarded Finland’s highest literary honor, the Finlandia Prize. In 2018, he received the Helsinki Writer of the Year Award.

Dženat Dreković

Hana Stojić

Hana Stojić, born in Sarajevo in 1982, studied Translation Studies at Vienna University and works as a translator and cultural mediator. For her first translation into Bosnian, Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Liebhaberinnen, she received a translation prize awarded by the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Since 2008, she was working for Traduki, helming the project from 2014 till the end of 2021.

Borislav Brezo

Tanja Stupar Trifunović

Tanja Stupar-Trifunović was born in Zadar in 1977 and is a graduate of the University of Banja Luka. Stupar-Trifunović lives in Banja Luka and works as the Editor of Putevi, a literary magazine. For her debut novel Satovi u majčinoj sobi (Die Uhren in Mutters Zimmer) she was awarded the EU Prize for Literature in 2016. The novel was also nominated for the prestigious NIN Award.

Natalia Rusu

Tatiana Țîbuleac

Tatiana Țîbuleac was born in 1978 in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, and has Moldovan and Romanian nationality. She holds a Degree in Journalism. She made her debut as a writer in 2014 with a collection of short stories Fabule Moderne – Modern Tales. In 2017, her first novel appeared: Vara în care mama a avut ochii verzi. It was awarded the prize of the Writer´s Union of Moldova, the prize of the Observator Cultural literary magazine in Bucharest and the Lyceum prize at the FILIT festival in Iași. In Spain it was awarded the Booksellers Recommend 2020 Prize for Fiction and Calamo Prize. Grădina de sticlă is her second novel and won 2019 EU Prize for Literature. Her books are translated into ten languages. Since 2008 she has been living in Paris.

Nini Tschavoll

Annemarie Türk

Annemarie Türk, born in 1953 in Klagenfurt, studied history, political science and Slovenian language as well as cultural management and sponsoring. From 1992 to 2013, she was head of cultural promotion and sponsorship at KulturKontakt Austria and was responsible for cultural cooperation with and in 15 countries in Eastern and Southeast Europe. Since April 2013 she has been working as a freelance curator and lecturer for various educational institutions, cultural organisations and universities.

Team US AND THEM

Curator

Hana Stojić

Project Manager

Angelika Salvisberg

Coordination

Barbara Anderlič

Marija Karaklajić

Andrej Lovšin

Radmila Radovanović

Ljubica Šljukić

Web design

Barbara Anderlič, Matthew Morete

Illustrations | Animation

Lea Zupančič

PR

projekt2508

Digital events

Digital concept

Anna Götte, Hana Stojić

Concept | Director & cinematographer

Ivan Marković

Production

Ljubica Šljukić

Sound

Katharina Hauke

Tech | Editing | Post-production

Berislav Župarić

Music

Pantaloons

Balkan Film Week

Curator

Marija Katalinić

Project Manager

Barbara Anderlič

Coordination

Sebastian Gebeler

Graphic design

Janett Andrejewski

Bob Sala

Florian Valerius

Valerius has been a bookseller in Trier for 15 years, currently in an indie bookshop. Before that he was for many years the manager of the university bookshop. Florian Valerius, born in 1982, is also one of the most successful German-language bookstagrammers. Under @literarischernerd, he presents two to three new novels and illustrated books per week and shares with his online community of well over 25,000 followers his experiences as a reader and bookseller. In addition, he regularly holds live talks with people from the book industry.