The Chronicles

Ibe Rossel (1999) is a Flemish writer who studied English Literature in Amsterdam. She made her debut in 2021 with the collection of essays Shakespeare kent me beter dan mijn lief. In it, she explores the timeless lessons that literary classics offer the contemporary reader. In her second book, Bloedspiegel (2026), she examines male violence through iconic conflicts between iconic brothers. She’s a regular panel member on the literary talk show Uitgelezen.

During the festival, Ibe’s stories will be translated into Dutch by Mikayla Vieira Ribeiro.

Mikayla Vieira Ribeiro is a writer, researcher and translator born and raised in Curaçao. Working across Papiamentu, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish into English, she primarily translates the Caribbean. She is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Amsterdam focused on archipelagic listening in the (Dutch) Caribbean. Her recent projects include creating the Awa Archives (ABCSSS water poetics) with Simia Literario, and translating Ini Statia's poetry collection Na rant di mi isla / At the Edge of My Island. Her work has been supported by Wintertuin’s Future Language Innovation program, Read My World, and Expertisecentrum Literaire Vertalen (ELV), and her writing appears in Archipelagos, Islands in Between, De Revisor, and PREE.

During the festival, she will translate Ibe Rossel’s stories into English.

Filip Grujić is a writer, playwright and film director from Belgrade, where he teaches at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. His third novel And Then, All Over Again (2023) has been translated into Dutch by Lena van Tijen as En dan opnieuw, vanaf het begin. His plays have earned him the Mihiz Award and two Sterija Awards and have been translated, performed and studied internationally. Following its world premiere at Copenhagen's CPH:DOX, his feature documentary Yugo Goes to America won the Audience Award for Best European Documentary at Belgrade's Beldocs festival and is currently traveling around the world. 

During Crossing Border, Filip’s stories will be translated into Dutch by Lena van Tijen.

Lena van Tijen (Amsterdam, 1993) is a writer, literary translator (Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian–Dutch), and events coordinator at Donner Bookshop in Rotterdam. Her work has appeared in De Gids, Metropolis M, Mister Motley, and De Groene Amsterdammer. As a translator, she has translated work by, among others, Radmila Petrović, Slavenka Drakulić, and Filip Grujić into Dutch. She is also an editor of Terras, a journal of international literature. She is currently working on her debut novel.

During the festival, she will translate Filip’s stories into Dutch.

Clyo Mendoza (Oaxaca, 1993) is a writer. She is the author of the poetry collections Anamnesis (2016) and Silencio (2018), which received the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz International Poetry Prize in 2017; and of the novel Furia (2021), winner of the 2022 Amazon First Novel Award. She has received fellowships from Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) in both Poetry and Novel, and was a resident fellow at the Antonio Gala Foundation in Córdoba, Spain.

During the festival, Clyo’s stories will be translated into Dutch by Gwyn Bouwman.

Gwyn Bouwman is a literary translator from Spanish into Dutch and a poet/writer. She is Dutch and has also been a Brussels resident for many years. During her student years, she spent time in Argentina and Chile, where her love of Latin American literature began. She trained in literary translation and creative writing and has published her work in literary magazines and online. She is fascinated by other cities, languages and cultures, and by the different ways in which emotions and political realities are experienced within them. She is particularly drawn to contemporary work that is anecdotal, quirky, contemplative or absurdist.

During the festival, she will translate Clyo’s stories into Dutch

Isa Davids (1994) studied History and International Relations. She interned as a political editor in New York City. Currently she is a freelance journalist and writes for the book department of the Dutch newspaper NRC. Her other publications have appeared in de Volkskrant, Trouw and Vrij Nederland. She lives in Amsterdam. Her debut short story collection is titled Yenta. This work comprises nine stories that tell the history of a Jewish American family. These stories alternate with the memoirs of a journalist who tries to save his marriage by accepting a foreign correspondent position in Jerusalem. 

During the festival, Isa’s Chronicles stories will be translated into German by Christine Koopmann.

Christine Koopmann (1995) studied Interdisciplinary Dutch Studies, focusing on Literary Translation and Cultural Transfer, at the University of Münster. Since 2021, she has been translating from Dutch into German, while also working for a literary agency in Amsterdam where she primarily promotes German literature in the Netherlands and Flanders. This dual role gives her a firm grasp of the book markets in both language areas, allowing her to navigate and connect both literary landscapes.

During the festival, she will translate Isa’s stories into German.

Caragh Maxwell is a writer living in Sligo, Ireland. Her writing focuses on otherness, womanhood, intergenerational trauma, and place. Sugartown, her debut novel, was published by Oneworld in 2025. The Dutch translation by Lisette van Eijk was published in 2026. Sugartown was shortlisted for Newcomer of The Year at the 2025 An Post Irish Book Awards. It has also been shortlisted for the 2026 New Adult Book Prize.

During the festival, Caragh’s stories will be translated into Dutch by Eva Leek.

Eva Leek discovered her passion for translation while studying English Language and Culture at the University of Amsterdam. During the MA Literary Translation at the University of Utrecht that followed, she started her job as translation coordinator for the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival. Since then, she has also worked for Read My World and het Grote Gebeuren. Last summer she was selected to take part in the 'professionalization course' hosted by the ELV. She has since acquired a taste for Irish literature and can't wait to translate her first novel.

During the festival, she will translate Caragh’s stories into Dutch.