Thorsten Ahrend

Thorsten Ahrend, was born in 1960 in Wittenberge, Germany. He studied German philology and literature at Leipzig University. In 1989 he completed his PhD thesis at the University of Rostock, Germany. From 1990 to 1998 he worked as the editor for Contemporary German-Language Literature, firstly at the Reclam Verlag and later at the Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag publishing house, and from 1998 to 2004 at the Suhrkamp Verlag publishing house. Since 2005 he is the editor in chief at the Wallstein Verlag publishing house in Göttingen.

Geoffrey E. Taylor, Canada

Geoffrey E. Taylor: Photo © creditreadings.org

Geoffrey E. Taylor is Director of the International Festival of Authors hosted by the Harbourfront Centre. He is an advisor for the Humber School of Creative Writing, an inaugural member of the Word on the Street (Toronto) Advisory Council and a founding member of the Word Alliance – a partnership between some of the world’s top literary festivals. He has been named one of the 30 most influential people in Canadian publishing by Quill and Quire magazine.

Renata Zamida,  Slovenia

Renata Zamida

Renata Zamida has been active in publishing for more than ten years, especially in the field of international marketing and copyrights, as well as of e-publishing, and cultural management. She finished studies of journalism, philosophy, and general linguistics. Since last year, she has worked for the Slovenian Book Agency where she manages the project of Slovenia, the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. As the member of the management committee of the Slovene Book Fair she is in charge of the fair’s international programme. She also lectures, publishes academic as well as other articles, works as a translator, and an interpreter.

Achim Zechner, Austria

Achim Zechner: Photo © Eva Asaad

Achim Zechner, born in 1969, has been working in various bookstores and publishing houses since 1985. In the early 1990s he founded a new media agency and published a number of publications about topics, related to internet. Since 2007 he is leading the family-owned publishing house Johannes Heyn. In 2010  “Edition Meerauge“ was established as an independent label focused on contemporary literature in a bibliophilic presentation.