Jája Holišová studied German and History of the Press, Propaganda and Public Opinion at the University of Amsterdam. For many years she worked as a tourist guide and co-authored a number of travel guides. Six years ago, after an in-between career as a valuer of antique jewellery, she became personal assistant to Maarten Valken. She is responsible for the organizational and practical aspects of the conference.
Margje Scheepsma is a post-graduate student of comparative literature at Utrecht University. She assists Maarten Valken at the non-fiction department of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.
Victor Schiferli studied Dutch at the University of Amsterdam and worked as a policy adviser at the NLPVF (1992-2001) and editor of Dutch fiction at De Bezige Bij (2001-2007). He made his debut as a poet in 2000 with At an Open Window, which was nominated for that year’s C. Buddingh’ Prize. It was followed in 2005 by the collection Vanished Waiters and in 2008 by Speech in a Bush, nominated for the Hugues C. Pernath Prize. He has compiled a number of anthologies and was editor of the literary magazine Bunker Hill. He is now a freelance critic and journalist for newspapers, magazines and websites, including that of Cees Nooteboom (www.ceesnooteboom.com).
Maarten Valken has been non-fiction specialist at the Dutch Foundation for Literature since 1997 and head of translation policy since 2010. He graduated in history and worked in the History Department at the University of Amsterdam before becoming an editor at Agon Publishers, mainly publishing humanities in translation.
Liz Waters graduated in philosophy and theology at the University of Manchester and worked at a literary agency in Amsterdam before becoming a freelance translator, mainly of quality non-fiction books.