The Dutch writer A.L Snijders, pseudonym of Peter Cornelis Müller (Amsterdam 1937), was the master of the Very Short Story (Zeer Kort Verhaal, ZKV). He published columns in several newspapers since the 1980's. Editor Thomas Rap published them in 4 books in de nineties. Since 2006 the columns have been republished in several books. In November 2010 A.L. Snijders received the Dutch Constantijn Huygensprize for his entire oeuvre, but specifically for his Very Short Stories. A.L. Snijders lived in Klein Dochteren.

J.M.A. Biesheuvel (Schiedam, 1939) debuteerde in 1972 met de verhalenbundel In de bovenkooi. Daarna volgden talloze bundels, altijd bestaande uit korte verhalen en novellen, waaronder De weg naar het licht, De angstkunstenaar, De verpletterende werkelijkheid, Reis door mijn kamer en kleinere uitgaven als Motje tegen gloeiend lampepeertje en Oude geschiedenis van Pa. In 2008 verscheen zijn Verzameld werk, bestaande uit al het gebundelde werk. Biesheuvels verhalen zijn veelal autobiografisch van inslag. Hij schrijft over zijn ervaringen als matroos op koopvaardijschepen, over zijn depressies en zijn verblijf in wat hij 'het gekkenhuis' noemt, over zijn vrouw Eva, over zijn huis en werkkamer, over zijn jeugd. Daarnaast schrijft hij verhalen waarin fantasie de vrije loop krijgt. ‘Veel van wat Maarten Biesheuvel schrijft is waar gebeurd. Maar sommige dingen die hij schrijft zijn gelogen. Mijn moeilijkheid is dat ik nooit helemaal zeker weet of wat hij schrijft nu waar gebeurd is of niet.’ – Karel van het Reve Op 15 december 2006 is aan Biesheuvel de P.C. Hooftprijs voor zijn verhalend proza toegekend. ‘Biesheuvels associatieve verteltechniek geeft zijn proza een weldadig effect en irrationaliteit en onlogica, waardoor het fantastisch element te meer een kans krijgt’, aldus de jury onder leiding van Maarten Asscher. De jury prijst verder Biesheuvels ‘verbeeldingskracht, absurdistische humor en stilistische rijkdom’. In januari 2007 verscheen een herziene en uitgebreide herdruk van Zeeverhalen, waaraan een cd werd toegevoegd waarop Biesheuvel zijn meest recente verhalen voorleest.

Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. He is best known for his short stories and his memoirs, although he has written two novels. Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught classes in English and creative writing since 1997. He also served as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Stanford from 2000 to 2002.

Margriet de Moor was born in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, in 1941. She comes from a Catholic family with many children and grew up with nine siblings, six of them girls. The theme of sisterhood was to become a common theme in her work. She studied Piano and Song at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and was especially interested in the music of avant-garde composers such as Schönberg, Satie and Debussy. She began to appear regularly on stage as a solo singer from 1968 onwards. Ten years later she resumed her studies again, this time in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam. Following her marriage to the sculptor Heppe de Moor she founded an art salon in 's-Graveland, near Amsterdam, in 1984. She made films and video portraits of the artists involved in the salon. One year later she began to write prose, which from the outset displayed a complex structure and atmospheric density. In 1988 de Moor's first volume of short stories appeared, »Op de rug gezien« (t: Back views), which was awarded the Gouden Ezelsoor for best selling first work. She achieved international recognition with her first novel, »Eerst grijs dan wit dan blauw« (1991; Eng. »First Grey, then White, then Blue«, 1994), which has been translated into eleven languages to date. The murder of a young woman, who disappeared years ago, is reconstructed from the perspectives of three different people. Her musical preferences have always been modern, as is also true of de Moor's literary tastes, which include avant-garde stylists such as Beckett, Borges and Ionesco. »My creative thought is wrought from musical forms, yet I will never try to translate a specific musical form directly into literature.« In her work she is often preoccupied – against the backdrop of historical events and epochs – with the fateful powers which rail against human strivings to control life. Thus music and love are recurring themes. »De Virtuoos« (1993; Eng. »The Virtuoso«, 1996) concerns a woman's love for a castrato in 18th Century Naples. »Hertog van Egypte« (1996; Eng. »The Duke of Egypt«, 2001), similarly, describes the love story of an unusual couple, in this case between a gypsy and a female farmer, who get married in the sixties. In her novel, »De verdronkene« (2005; t: The drowned), recently translated into German, de Moor tells the story of the flooding of the southwest province of Zeeland in 1953. The destiny of two sisters with similar looks is played out, as they switch roles on the day of the catastrophe itself. Thus one sister dies at the place where the other sister was meant to be. De Moor has been awarded many prizes, including the Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs and the Ako Literature Prize. She lives in Amsterdam. © internationales literaturfestival berlin Geboren als Margaretha Maria Antonette Neefjes, moeder van beeldend kunstenaar Lara de Moor (1969) en schrijfster Marente de Moor (1972)