Kajo Fritz junior works as head of editorial at the Westfalenpost. From 2008 till 2017 he was an editor, author and reporter with stern TV. Before that, he studied at Deutsche Journalistenschule in Munich and gathered work experience at, among others, Süddeutsche Zeitung and sueddeutsche.de, stern and stern.de, Karriere, GQ, as well as WDR. Beside his work, he is writing his PhD about media victims at the Institut für Kommunikations- und Medienforschung in Cologne.

Jochen Frech, born in 1967, is a police officer and learned public administration specialist. Before his studies he worked for six years in a special force of the police. For several years Frech manages the main institution for physical education of the police in Baden-Württemberg.

Léda Forgó, born in 1973 in Hungary and raised there, studied playwriting at the University of Arts in Berlin. About her first novel, Der Körper meines Bruders (en.: The Body of my Brother), which won her the Adalbert-von-Chamisso Förderpreis in 2008, György Dalos said: »A linguistic expressivity which is only rarelay to be found in contemperary German prose.« Léda Forgó lives with her three children at the Baltic Sea.

Agnes Flügel is a learned cultural scientist and by now a passionate beekeeper. For a life with and within nature she gave up her job as an editor in a PR agency and moved from Hamburg to the rural areas of Schleswig-Holstein, where, since 2007, she runs her honey manufacture called »Flügelchen«.

Eren Güvercin, born in 1980, studied law. He works as a freelance journalist for newspapers as well as TV and radio stations such as FAZ, Deutschlandradio, Jüdische Allgemeine, taz, WDR, and der Freitag, among others. He is member of the "Deutsche Islam Konferenz" and on the advisory board of the "Forum für freie Religionspolitik e. V.", founder of the liberal Muslim association "Alhambra Gesellschaft" as well as co-founder of PEN Berlin, deputy federal chairman of the association "Liberale Vielfalt" and jury member of the ELNET-Awards. Eren Güvercin lives in Berlin.

Thorsten Glotzmann works as a journalist, author and director in Berlin. He studied Philosophy, German and French Literature in Tübingen and Paris and attended the German School of Journalism in Munich. He currently works for the Berlin-based production company Weltrecorder and is showrunner of the podcast Carpe What (WDR). Previously, he was head writer for the TV-format Streetphilosophy (arte). As a freelance author and director, Thorsten Glotzmann has made numerous documentaries and worked for Deutsche Welle, ZDF aspekte and 3sat Kulturzeit. His articles have appeared in the taz, Süddeutsche Zeitung, FAZ and on Krautreporter, among others. In 2024 his narrative non-fiction book about anxiety will be published by Berlin Verlag.

After working for the German online newspaper Die Zeit for four years and being the editor-in-chief of Zeit's students' section Campus online, Anne-Kathrin Gerstlauer was named one of the top 30 journalists under 30 by Medium Magazin in 2017. In the same year she was awarded the Dumont journalism award, the LBS Wegweiser award, and the “Mitmischen” award of the German parliament. In 2018, she became vice editor-in-chief of the news website Watson.de. She quit the job the very same year and has been working as a freelance journalist, consultant and lecturer for online journalism and communication for millennials since. Gerstlauer lives in Berlin. 

Florian Gantner was born in 1980 and studied comparative literature in Inssbruck, St. Ètienne and Vienna, where he now lives again after extended stays abroad. He has so far published four novels – Sternschnuppen der Menschheit (2012), Was man liest (2013), Trockenschwimmer (2015) and O.M. (2018) – as well as pieces in magazines (Lichtungen, Die Rampe among others). He received various awards like the Theodor-Körner-Prize (2014) as well as an artist residency at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (2015). For excerpts from his fifth novel Soviel man weiß he received the Rauriser advancment adward as wells as the literature prize Floriana (both 2018). Since 2019 Florian Gantner is director of the festival "Literatur findet Land".

 

 

 

 

Susanne Gregor, born in 1981 in Žilina, Slovakia, moved to Austria with her parents in 1990, studied German literature and journalism, then taught at the University of New Orleans. She has been living in Vienna since 2005. In 2010 she was awarded the Exile Literature Prize Writing between Cultures. In 2011 she published her debut novel Kein eigener Ort. Her novel Territorien was published in 2015 and her short story collection Unter Wasser in 2018.

 

Rico Grimm was born in 1986, studied at the German School for Journalism in Munich and has worked as a reporter ever since (krautreporter.de, Spiegel Online, Zitty). For piqd he curates the best articles in the fields economy, media, contemporary history and society. He lives in Berlin.