Novels of Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, pen name of Knut Pedersen, include Hunger (1890) and The Growth of the Soil (1917). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920. He insisted on the intricacies of the human mind as the main object of modern literature to describe the "whisper of the blood, and the pleading of the bone marrow." Hamsun pursued his literary program, debuting in 1890 with the psychological novel Hunger.

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1532-1592) was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, from William Shakespeare to René Descartes, from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Stephan Zweig, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was a conservative and earnest Catholic but, as a result of his anti-dogmatic cast of mind, he is considered the father, alongside his contemporary and intimate friend Étienne de La Boétie, of the "anti-conformist" tradition in French literature. In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman then as an author. The tendency in his essays to digress into anecdotes and personal ruminations was seen as detrimental to proper style rather than as an innovation, and his declaration that, "I am myself the matter of my book", was viewed by his contemporaries as self-indulgent. In time, however, Montaigne would be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, "Que sais-je?" ("What do I know?"). Remarkably modern even to readers today, Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitly—his own judgment—makes him more accessible to modern readers than any other author of the Renaissance. Much of modern literary nonfiction has found inspiration in Montaigne, and writers of all kinds continue to read him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal storytelling.

Né en 1963 à Paris, il a été pion, veilleur de nuit, libraire, pigiste, magasinier, thésard, vacataire à l’Université Paris-8 (Saint-Denis), pensionnaire à la Villa Médicis (1996-97), etc. Comme écrivain, il a publié une dizaine d’œuvres de fiction. Il a aussi publié divers textes courts dans des revues et journaux – NRV, TIJA, Les Inrockuptibles, La quinzaine littéraire, R de Réel, Inculte... Outre des articles universitaires sur Louis Guilloux, Victor Serge ou Céline, il a collaboré occasionnellement à diverses revues de pensée critique, notamment Lignes, Vacarme, Il Manifesto ou Le Crieur, ainsi qu’à des essais collectifs. De sa complicité (comme dramaturge, assistant artistique et même comédien) avec le metteur en scène François Wastiaux, sont nés cinq spectacles depuis vingt ans : quatre adaptations – Les Carabiniers, 1991, Les Gauchers, 1993, Labo-Lubbe, 2005 et Portraits crachés, 2006 – et une pièce créée au Festival d’Avignon, Les Parapazzi (Solitaires intempestifs, 1998). Il est également l’auteur et l’interprète de deux « vraies-fausses conférences » audiovisuelles : Pouvoir Point (créé au Marathon des mots à Toulouse en 2008, en association graphique avec Philippe Bretelle) et Emplois fictifs & Sommeil paradoxal (créée au théâtre du Rond-Point en 2014). Outre plusieurs fictions radiophoniques pour France Culture, il a co-scénarisé le moyen-métrage de César Vayssié (Elvis de Médicis, 1998), signé le livret d’un oratorio pour le compositeur Luis Naón (Sainte-Nitouche, la fille ni bien ni mal, 2002) et co-écrit le spectacle à la fois filmique et scénique du metteur en scène Benoît Bradel (L’invention de la giraffe, 2004). En 1998, il a rejoint les éditions Verticales. Au fil des années, il a pris goût à cette aventure éditoriale.

Fernanda Trías (Montevideo, 12 de octubre de 1976) es una escritora uruguaya. Es profesora de inglés y traductora certificada. Fernanda Trías is a Uruguayan writer. She was born in Montevideo in 1976. She is the author of three novels and two short story collections. In 2004 she won a Unesco scholarship to write in Camac, an artists’ residence in Marnay-sur-Seine. She lived for five years in the medieval village of Provins and a few months in London. She spent one year in Berlin and two years in Buenos Aires. Trías earned a Master’s degree in creative writing from New York University and was disciple of the Uruguayan writer Mario Levrero. She integrated anthologies of new narrative in Colombia, the United States, Uruguay, Peru, Germany (Neues vom Fluss: Junge Literatur aus Argentinien, Uruguay und Paraguay, 2010) and UK (Uruguayan Women Writers, 2012). Her novel Rooftop (La azotea, 2001) was selected among the best books of the year by the El País Cultural Supplement, and won the third prize of edited narrative of the Uruguayan National Literature Prize (2002). In 2006 she received the BankBoston Foundation Prize for National Culture. She was one of the “Voices for the New Millennium”, organized by Cornell University in 2013. She currently lectures in Creative Writing at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Her most recent novel Mugre Rosa (Pink Slime) has just come out in Uruguay (2020).