The Chronicles

Aida González Rossi (Tenerife, 1995) is a writer and journalist specializing in Gender Studies. She has published the poetry collections Deseo y la tierra (Cartonera Island, 2018) and Pueblo yo (Libero Editorial, 2020), as well as the novel Leche condensada (Caballo de Troya, 2023). She has also contributed to anthologies such as La casa del poeta (Trampa Ediciones, 2021), Esto es un cuerpo. Culo (Ediciones Comisura, 2023), Flores y ruina (Dos Bigotes, 2024), and (h)amor bi(y)bollo (Continta me tienes, 2025). She is a columnist for El Día and La Provincia. In 2025, she is in charge of Merendero, the Young Writers’ Lab at La Casa Encendida. During the festival, her work will be translated into Dutch by Sanne van den Bosch.

Joanna Elmy is a Bulgarian-born writer and journalist, named one of Bulgaria’s most prominent young literary voices. Her debut novel, Born of Guilt, received the most prestigious Bulgarian prize for emerging literature in 2022 and was shortlisted for several other national awards. It is being translated into over fifteen languages. She is a columnist in Deutsche Welle and works for the independent weekly Toest, and her literary criticism and essays have appeared in The Literary Journal, VIJ Magazine and Capital Weekly, among others. She lives between the United States and her native Bulgaria, where she is the founder of a project aiming to modernize the Bulgarian literary canon and to improve access to literature and literary knowledge. Hellen Kooijmans translation of Joanna’s debut, in Dutch Schuldig geboren, will be published this year at De Bezige Bij. During the festival, her work will be translated by Kieran Van Overwaele.

Marek Torčík (1993) is a poet, novelist, and journalist from Přerov, now based in Prague. His poetry collection Rhizomy was published in 2016, and he was a finalist in the Czech-Slovak competition Básne SK/CZ twice. Memory Burn (2023), his debut novel, has received critical acclaim as it was awarded the Magnesia Litera, Best Novel (2024), the Jiří Orten Prize (2024) and the Susanna Roth Award (2024). The rights have been sold in 27 languages. Irma Pieper’s translation of Marek’s debut novel, in Dutch Brandend geheugen, will be published this year at De Arbeiderspers. During the festival, his work will be translated into Dutch by Lysanne Aarsman.

Jan Wester (1995) is a writer and sculptor. He studied philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and Art and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. He also participated in the Slow Writing Lab of the Dutch Literature Fund and was part of the Paris Residency of deBuren. His visual artwork was featured at LekArt 2021 and OBJECT Rotterdam. His debut novel Koeman was released in August at Uitgeverij Pluim. During the festival, his work will be translated into Italian by Daniela Gentile.

Veerle De Caestecker (1998) is a writer, thinker and self-proclaimed façade gardener. In the Slow Writing Lab 2024, she worked on a polyphonic story about ecological mourning. She loves theatre, poetry and words she picks up from the street. Her work has appeared in Kluger Hans, MUGzine, Deus Ex Machina and on Theater aan Zee. With her anonymous Trotsbiecht, she has performed at various festivals, including her favourite: Vers Vuur. Throughout her work, she wonders how we can learn to listen to people, animals and things that are generally less well listened to today. During the festival, her work will be translated into French by Marie Jadot.

Marie Jadot (1995) is a literary translator from Dutch into French. She studied Germanic Languages and Literatures at UNamur, KU Leuven and ULiège, where she is currently finalising a PhD on the musical dimension in contemporary Dutch war literature. Since 2018 she has also been a Teaching Assistant in Dutch Studies, sharing her passion in her Department’s BA and MA in Linguistics, Translation and Literary Studies through teaching methods ranging from lectures to theatre evenings and from tongue twisters to language walks. Her work has been published in journal articles and book chapters in Dutch, English, French and Italian. She has (co-)organised scientific meetings on topics such as war and persecution, colonialism and slavery, intermediality and double talents, and lectures and workshops on literary translation with, among others, Anna Enquist, Ronelda S. Kamfer, Antjie Krog, Georges Lory, Franco Paris and Alfred Schaffer. As part of a bilingual project French-Italian with Franco Paris, she recently translated a selection of poems by the Dutch author and artist Armando (published in 2024). During the festival, she will translate work by Veerle De Caestecker into French.

Sanne van den Bosch is a Spanish and English translator. After having been studying History in Leiden and living in Madrid for a couple of months to immerse herself into the Spanish language and culture, she went for her master’s degree in Literary Translation at Utrecht University. She has translated into Dutch, amongst others, the books of Javier Castillo and articles for National Geographic Historia. She also works as a freelance editor for several publishers, which she finds very useful when translating but also the other way around, and as a bookseller at Boekhandel Veenendaal in Amersfoort. For Crossing Border she will translate the writings of Aida González Rossi.

Kieran Van Overwaele (2001) is a Slavicist and literary translator. He graduated in East European Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, where he discovered his love for literary translation. He translated various Bulgarian literary texts in collaboration with Hellen Kooijman, and in 2023 he was a guest at the House for Literature and Translation in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. 

Besides his work with Bulgarian literature, Kieran dabbles in writing poetry and has also translated Russian literature and literary texts from the former Yugoslavia. During the festival, he will translate work by Joanny Elmy from Bulgarian into Dutch.

Daniela Gentile studied Translation and Conference Interpreting from English, German and Dutch into Italian at the University of Trieste. She has been based in the Nuremberg metropolitan region in Germany for nearly a decade, where she built her career as a translator and interpreter. Her first literary translations were Joke van Leeuwen’s children's philosophy book Dát bedoel ik, zei de zalm and Frenk Meeuwsen’s graphic novel Zen zonder meester, to be published by the end of 2025. During the festival, she’ll translate work by Jan Wester into Italian.

Lysanne Aarsman is a literary translator who specializes in translating from Czech into Dutch. She has a bachelor's degree in Slavic Studies and a master's degree in Translation Studies, both from the University of Amsterdam. She’s currently participating in the third cycle of CELA, a talent development project for the new generation of European literary voices, and taking a professionalisation course through the ELV (expertise centre for literary translation). In addition to translating, she works in the library. During the festival, she will translate work by Marek Torčík into Dutch.