Robert Musil

Robert Musil (1882–1942) was an Austrian writer whose unfinished novel The Man without Qualities is now considered one of the most important works of European Modernism.

David Henry Wilson

David Henry Wilson is a children’s author best known for his Jeremy James series and the Superdog series. His books have been translated into many languages including Spanish, German, Thai and French. He has also written numerous plays including People in Cages and frequently works as a translator from French and German.

Read an interview with David Henry Wilson here

Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837) was a dramatist and poet, penning such influential works as Eugene Onegin and Boris Godunov. He is now considered the father of modern Russian literature.

Dino Buzzati

The novelist, journalist and painter Dino Buzzati (1906–72) is one of the most important voices of twentieth-century Italian literature. He is best remembered today for his novel The Tartar Steppe and the story The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily, which he illustrated himself and has become a classic of Italian children’s literature.

Jeremias Gotthelf

Jeremias Gotthelf (1797–1854) was a Swiss pastor whose works were heavily influenced by both his faith – as he considered his writings to be another way to cure souls – and the Bernese countryside, the setting of most of his books.

Carlo Collodi

Carlo Collodi (1826–90) was an Italian journalist, playwright and novelist who achieved worldwide fame with his children’s classic Pinocchio.

Thomas Hardy

The Victorian novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) is most famous today for Far from the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and other works set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex.

Edgar Allan Poe

Born in Boston, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) started publishing his own volumes of poetry after dropping out of university, before writing essays and fiction for a living and becoming one of the most influential and enduringly popular American writers of all time.

Massimo Gramellini

Massimo Gramellini is Deputy Editor at La Stampa, where he runs a front-page daily column. A household name in Italy thanks to his regular TV appearances, he is the author of several books, including Sweet Dreams, Little One, an international bestseller that has been translated into fourteen languages, and has recently been made into a film.

Read an interview with Massimo Gramellini here

Giuseppe Gioachino Belli

The author of a monumental collection of sonnets, Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791–1863) is the greatest poet to have written in the Roman dialect, and is regarded as one of the finest Italian poets of the nineteenth century.