Thorsten Dönges studied German language and literature and history in Bamberg. Since 2000, he has worked at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, where he coordinates the contemporary German-language literature program. He first discovered and fell in love with the Leukerbad International Literary Festival as a moderator in 2006.

Eric Facon was born in New York City, grew up in Brooklyn, Thalwil, Geneva and Zurich. Studied English and German language and literature. Since 1985 cultural journalist, among others for the NZZ, since 1991 at Radio SRF as presenter/editor. Since 2008 head of the “Kulturstammtisch”, a discussion group, first on the radio, since 2020 an independent podcast. Various moderations, for BuchBasel and other literary events, and at various film premieres.

Ruth Gantert is a literary mediator, editor and translator. She is artistic director of the Service de presse suisse and editorial director of the trilingual yearbook of Swiss literatures Viceversa and the internet platform viceversaliteratur.ch. She translated, among others, the first five volumes of Ungewissen Manifests (The Uncertain Manifesto) by Frédéric Pajak (edition clandestin) and short stories by Anna Felder (Circolare, Limmat Verlag). In 2021, Viceversa 15, Familiengeschichten (Rotpunktverlag) was published.

Irene Grüter was born in 1979 and studied German language and literature and history in Bern and Berlin. She works primarily as a freelance culture journalist for various media, including the taz, rbb Kulturradio, and the Tagesanzeiger. Since 2007, she has been a moderator and editor for Radio SRF2 Kultur in Basel.

Etrit Hasler was born in St. Gallen in 1977 and is one of the pioneers of Swiss slam poetry, both as a spoken word artist and as a presenter and organizer. Besides the stage, he is a city parliamentarian in St. Gallen and works as the managing director of Suisseculture Sociale. He is a member of the Pro Helvetia literature jury.

Jennifer Khakshouri formerly an editor and presenter at Radio SRF2 Kultur, now designs and produces audio content, including for the ETH in German and English, and the Supernovapodcast.art. She is a jury member of the Swiss Press Awards 2020 and 2021 in the audio category. She was also a member of the Cultural Commission of the Canton of Zurich, Literature Section, for five years. She is committed to diversity and is active on several boards (Übersetzerhaus Looren, Weiter Schreiben Schweiz). She regularly moderates readings, talks, conferences and panels on cultural and social topics.

Christine Lötscher is a cultural scientist and literary critic. She is Professor of Popular Literatures and Media at the University of Zurich and is currently researching gas stations, foxes, and coming-of-age crises in literature, film, and TV series. In 2020, she published Die Alice-Maschine. Figurationen der Unruhe in der Populärkultur (The Alice Machine. Figurations of Unrest in Popular Culture) published by Metzler-Verlag as well as 99 Beste Schweizer Bücher. Literarische Coups de Cœur (99 Best Swiss Books. Literary Coups de Cœur) at Nagel & Kimche.

Raphael Urweider born in 1974, is a poet, playwright, translator, and musician. He has published several volumes of poetry and written plays, including in collaboration with Samuel Schwarz, Pedro Lenz, and Matto Kämpf. His books include Wildern (Hanser 2018), Alle deine Namen. Gedichte von der Liebe und der Liederlichkeit (Dumont 2008), and Lichter in Menlo Park (Dumont 2000).

Stefan Zweifel is a freelance journalist and curator in Zürich and translator of de Sade, Rousseau, and Cendrars. He led the SRF literary broadcast Literaturclub until 2014. Together with Juri Steiner, he recently curated the show “Der erschöpfte Mann” (The exhausted man) at the Zurich Landesmuseum, and with Michael Pfister published The erotic journey through Italy by D. A. F. De Sade (Matthes & Seitz 2020).