20 Minute Cities

Ananya G is a journalist at Mathrubhumi, a prestigious media company in Kerala, India and a celebrated author. With a postgraduate degree in English Language and Literature from Mar Ivanios College, she has penned seven notable works, including two short story collections, four novels, and a biography. Ananya’s literary achievements have been recognized with the Bhima Balasahithya Award, the Chacha Nehru Scholarship, the Mathrubhumi Kuttettan Award, and the DC Books Kunjunni Award.

Emilia Konwerska is a curator, literary scholar, columnist, and poet. Author of two books of poetry – “112” (papierwdole publishing house) and “Ostatni i pierwszy kajman” [The last and the first caiman] (J publishing house). Both books were nominated for Gdynia Literary Award. Her first book was recently published in Ukraine. 

Born and raised in Jakarta, Imelda Naomi graduated in food technology from Bogor Agricultural University and food industry management from Université de Bourgogne, France. Had been fond of music and writing since childhood, and after pursuing a career in the food industry, Naomi was inspired to write for children. She has then written children’s short stories and published 10 picture books. In 2021, she won 4th place in the children’s short story competition for her script entitled The Thief and the Bewitched Jakarta Bay and was selected as one of Melbourne Virtual Writers in Residence in 2022. In 2024, Naomi was selected as one of the speakers in the discussion panel on the rising trend of biography picture books at the Asian Festival of Children Content in Singapore.

Pedro Gunnlaugur Garcia is a writer and translator.

Born in sunny Lisbon in 1983, but – unfortunately for him – raised mostly in the windy rokrassgat named Reykjavík. He is the author of two kinda OK novels: Málleysingjarnir (2019) and Lungu (2022).

Pia Prezelj (1995) is a writer, translator and journalist for the cultural section of Delo, Slovenia’s largest and central daily newspaper. In 2022, she was awarded the Young Journalist of the Year Watchdog Award by the Slovenian Journalists’ Association. Her translation of Lucia Berlin’s short story collection A Manual for Cleaning Women was published in 2018 by Cankarjeva založba. Her debut novel Heavy Water (Goga, 2023), which tells the story of an elderly woman in a remote rural village, won the Debut of the Year Award and was nominated for the Cankar Award, the Kresnik – Best Novel of the Year Award and the Critics’ Sieve Award.

Rebecca ‘Bep’ Summerscales is a writer, performer and activist based in Nottingham, England. Bep’s work has featured across the East Midlands, won the GOBS Poetry Slam in 2024, the Emily Dickenson award in 2021, and was long listed for the Plough Prize in the same year.

Guntis Talers is an author of detective fiction and is representing Lativian City of Literature, Tukums, at this year’s Emerging Writers’ Festival.

Rimas Uzgiris is a Lithuanian/American poet and translator. His work has appeared in Barrow Street, Hudson Review, Rattle, Poetry Daily, The Poetry Review and elsewhere, and was twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He is the author of North of Paradise, and Tarp [Between] (poems translated into Lithuanian, shortlisted for best poetry book of the year), translator of eight poetry collections from Lithuanian, including Caravan Lullabies by Ilzė Butkutė (A Midsummer Night’s Press), Then What by Gintaras Grajauskas (Bloodaxe), Now I Understand by Marius Burokas (Parthian), The Moon is a Pill by Aušra Kaziliūnaitė (Parthian), Vagabond Sun by Judita Vaičiūnaitė (Shearsman), and Voices of Spring by Maironis (Maironis Museum), as well as the Venice Biennale Golden Lion winning opera Sun and Sea. He was educated at UCSD, UW-Madison, Rutgers-Newark, with a Ph.D. in philosophy and an MFA in creative writing. Recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Grant, a NEA Translation Fellowship, he teaches at Vilnius University in the Departent of Translation Studies and the Department of English Philology.