Can an author over 70 shake up the literature of a country? Yes, he can. That’s what J.
Rentes de Carvalho (born in 1930) has done. Born in Vila Nova de Gaia, in Trás-os-Montes
in the north of Portugal, he lived there until 1945 when he was forced to leave Portugal for
political reasons. He then went on to live in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, New York and Paris,
working in these cities for several newspapers. In 1956 he decided to move to Amsterdam,
where he still lives today. He graduated from the University of Amsterdam, where he was
later a professor of Portuguese literature from 1964 to 1988. Little known in Portugal until
recently, but with extensive works written and published in Holland, the arrival of his books
in Portuguese was a sensation and he has quickly become one of the most respected voices
in contemporary Portuguese literature. Titles such as “With the Dutch” and “Ernestina” are
among his best-known works.

Jade Y. Chen is a novelist, journalist, theatre director and playwright from Taiwan. After
studying Chinese in Taipei and theatre in Paris, she worked as a director in New York before
becoming the correspondent for United Daily News in Germany. Her book “China” won
the Taiwan Golden Melody Award for best novel and the Hong Kong Baptist University’s
Dream of Red Chamber Jury Prize. Chen has also been distinguished by the Taiwan Press
Association as “an extraordinary journalist”. She is described by literary critic Fang-Ming
Chen as Taiwan’s “window to the rest of the world”. Her novel about the history of Taiwan,
“Mazu’s Bodyguard”, has been published in Germany and has been performed on stage at
the National Theatre in Taiwan.

Jimmy Qi is the author of “Yu Li: Confessions of an Elevator Operator”, the hilarious story
of a migrant worker who works as an elevator operator in a luxury apartment building as he
struggles to understand city life. He is fluent in English, Chinese and at least six other languages
(including Esperanto). Jimmy’s intellectual wit and broad perspective has seen him compared
to renowned twentieth century Chinese writers like Qian Zhongshu, Lin Yutang and Lao She.
His diverse writer’s portfolio includes works on philosophy of art, and linguistics as well several
novels, which are notable for their humor. As a child during the Cultural Revolution, Jimmy
accompanied his parents to a cadre’s reform camp. Later, he spent ten years in Canada,
where, bored with his job, he started to write. Jimmy lived for many years in Canada, Japan
and Hong Kong, before returning to Mainland China ten years ago to start a new career as a
university teacher. He is currently doing research in literature at Beijing University.

João Paulo Cuenca was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1978. He is the author of the novels “Corpo
presente”, “O dia Mastroianni” and “O único final feliz para uma história de amor é um acidente”.
Between 2003 and 2010 he wrote weekly columns for newspapers such as Tribuna da Imprensa,
Jornal do Brasil and O Globo. He is the author of a TV series and plays. His novels have been
published in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Germany. He has participated in anthologies both inside
and outside of Brazil, such as “Cem melhores crónicas brasileiras” (2007), “Cenas da Favela”
(2007) and “Americas Society Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, No.83” (2011). In
2007 he was selected by the Hay Festival and by the organizers of the Bogotá World Book
Capital festival as one of the 39 most prominent authors in Latin America.

José Luís Peixoto is one of Portugal’s most acclaimed and bestselling young novelists. He was
born in 1974 in Galveias, in the region of Alentejo, Portugal. Has studied Modern Languages
and Literature at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Since 2000 Peixoto has published ten titles
(4 novels, 3 fiction books and 3 poetry collections). He is a three-time winner of the Jovens
Criadores Prize. His first novel “Nenhum Olhar” (published in the UK by Bloomsbury as “Blank
Gaze” and as “The Implacable Order of Things” in the USA by Doubleday/Anchor/Random
House) was shortlisted in all major literary awards in Portugal and won the Jose Saramago
Literary Award, which is awarded every two years for the best novel in all Portuguese-speaking
countries. ‘Nenhum Olhar’ (‘Blank Gaze’) was selected by the Financial Times as one of their
best books of 2007. In the USA it was part of the ‘Discover Great New Writers’ selection by
Barnes & Noble. In Portugal it was selected by Expresso as one of their best books of the
decade. Peixoto’s poetry and short stories have appeared in a great number of anthologies,
in dozens of languages. All his novels have been internationally acclaimed and, so far, have
been translated into 20 languages.

José Rodrigues dos Santos is Portugal’s bestselling novelist and also a journalist who started
his career working in Macau television in the 1980s. He is the author of five essays and nine
novels, including Portuguese blockbusters “Codex 632”, which sold 198,000 copies, “The
Einstein Enigma”, “The Seventh Seal” and “The Wrath of God”. His overall sales are over one
million books; astonishing figures considering Portugal’s tiny market. His fiction will have soon
been published in 17 languages. His novel “The Wrath of God” won the 2009 Porto Literary Club
Award and his other novel “Codex 632” was short-listed for the 2010 IMPAC Dublin Literary
Award. As a reporter he has covered wars around the globe, including Angola, East Timor, South
Africa, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iraq, Bosnia, Serbia, Lebanon, Georgia and Libya. He has
been awarded by CNN for his reporting three times and twice by the Portuguese Press Club.
His latest novel, “The Last Secret”, has just been released and has already sold 100,000 copies.

Ching-Fang Hu’s works of fiction and essays ponder the meaning of modernity in the context of urban life in China and around the world, defining a unique sensibility on the global city and contemporary life.  Born in Taipei, she has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and now divides her time between Tokyo and Paris.  Borders, identity, and globalization form the themes of her books “The Traveler” (2000) and “My Generation” (2010).  “The Sentimentalist” (2003) is a poetic dictionary of the modern condition, while “The Human Comedy” (2008) paints a picture of social change in diverse settings, from Paris to Hong Kong.  A graduate in theater from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in foreign literatures from National Taiwan University, Ms. Hu’s work has been published in China and Taiwan.  She is a regular columnist to different Chinese-language media in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and China.

Marvin Farkas was a New York film actor who abandoned a leading role in a hit show on
Broadway to look for adventure and excitement in the Far East. As a pioneering news
correspondent/cameraman, in the 1950s and 1960s he covered wars in Vietnam and Cambodia
and the Indo/Pakistani conflict and the opening up of China. Marvin also worked on some of
the biggest Asia films of the day including the iconic “The World of Suzie Wong”. Originally
from the Bronx, Marvin is still a fixture at Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Marvin’s
memoir “An Eastern Saga” covers his experiences of events in the region, ranging from the
expulsion of the Dutch from Indonesia to the early years of the Vietnam War, and his meetings
with key figures including Zhou En Lai, Sukarno, Ali Bhutto, and legendary director Satyajit Ray.
Marvin was also a regular visitor to Macau and in his memoir he mentions an encounter with
the local police during a location shoot. Marvin was described by the South China Morning
Post as “a natural story teller.”

Paulo Aido, 49 years old, has been a journalist for more than two decades and is now
an alderman in the Odivelas Town Council. He is also the author of several religiousthemed
books that have been bestsellers including “A Mensagem da Irmã Lúcia,” “O Peregrino
de Fátima” and “As Mais Belas Orações”, only to name the most recent. He also wrote the
book “A Confidente de Sá Carneiro”, which, while not giving up the rigor that has always
guided his writing, takes a clear change of direction, venturing for the first time into literature
of biographical memoirs. Aido recently premiered in the area of the fictional historical novel
with “A primeira derrota de Salazar” whose action takes place on the eve of the entry of Indian
troops in the Portuguese State of India, 50 years ago. The journalist and writer is now returning
to Macau, a place where in 1991 he was one of the founding journalists of the newspaper
Ponto Final, in addition to working at TDM.

Rui Cardoso Martins was born in 1967, in Portalegre. He is the journalist founder of the
newspaper Público, where he maintains a weekly column, and he has received two awards
from the Portuguese Press Club. As a reporter he has covered, among other events, the siege
of Sarajevo and Mostar in the Bosnian War, as well as the first free elections in South Africa.
Screenwriter, founder and partner of the company Produções Fictícias, Rui Cardoso Martins
is also the co-creator and writer of several satirical TV programmes. He is the author of the
screenplay for the film “Zone J”. He has published two novels to date: “And what if I was
very happy to Die” (2006) and “Make way for the Invisible Man” (2009). His second novel was
considered one of the books of the year in Portugal, earning the author the Grande Prémio de
Romance e Novela Associação Portuguesa de Escritores award. Among new writers, Cardoso
Martins is one of the most notorious.

Su Tong’s prolific and provocative oeuvre – six novels including “Rice”, “My Life as Emperor”,
a dozen novellas and more than 120 short stories – has earned him a pre-eminent place in
the heart of China’s literary scene. In 2009 he was awarded the “Man Asian Literary Prize”,
turning him into one of that rare breed of writers, whose work wins him both critical acclaim
and popular praise from his millions of readers. His best-known work outside China is the
novella ‘’Wives and Concubines’’, on which the screenplay for the film “Raise the Red Lantern”
was based. Directed by Zhang Yi Mou and starring Gong Li, it won both an Oscar and a Bafta:
the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the British Academy of Film and
Television Arts Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Tatiana Salem Levy is a Brazilian writer living in Rio de Janeiro. She is also a translator and
holds a PhD in Literature. She was born in Portugal in 1979, grandchild of Turkish Jews and the
daughter of a Brazilian in exile during the dictatorship. She has published “A Experiência do
Fora: Blanchot, Foucault e Deleuze” and short stories in several anthologies such as “Primos”
(2010), which she also coordinated. Her first novel “The Key of Smyrna”, was first published
in Portugal (Cotovia) and later in Brazil (Record), has been translated into several languages,
and was awarded the São Paulo Literature Prize for the best debut novel and was a finalist
in the Jabuti Prize in 2008. “Em Silêncio”, her second novel, has recently been published.

Xu Xi is the author of nine books of fiction and essays, and editor of three anthologies of
Hong Kong literature in English. Her latest novel, “Habit of a Foreign Sky”, was shortlisted
for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize. Her achievements include an O. Henry Prize Story
and first prize in the South China Morning Post story contest. The New York Times named
her a pioneer English-language writer from Asia and the Voice of America featured her in
their Chinese-language TV series ‘Cultural Odyssey’. Xu Xi also recently published the book
“Access Thirteen Tales”. In March 2010 she became the first Writer-In-Residence in the
English Department of The City University of Hong Kong, overseeing a new international,
low-residency Master of Fine Artes in Creative Writing with an Asian focus.