born on August 17, 1995, in Batumi. He graduated from the local school and continued studies in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. He was fond of literature from the very early age and felt that her future career would be connected to it but thinking about writing started a little bit late. In 2013 he started his BA studies at Ilia State University, faculty of Literature Studies. The first short story was published in 2014, at the age of 19, for the literary competition „Tsero“ and it gained a great response from the people involved in literature processes in Georgia.Nowadays Abashidze is actively writing blogs for various websites. He was an exclusive blogger of NGO Identoba (the first LGBT NGO in Georgia) in 2015 and wrote about topics such as homophobia, public coming out, bullying, and feminism. Since 2014 Zura is actively involved in social activist life. He often responds the main social issues by his social media page. His stories as well often refer to painful social themes. His short stories and reviews are being published in the various literary publications very often. In 2017 he worked as a journalist in the magazine „Batumelebi“ and wrote articles about the rehabilitation of former prisoners, literature and new editions. Is the finalist of various prestigious literary competition, including the winner of the highest Georgian Literature Award „Saba“ – for the best literary debut of the year „How to Kill Billy Eliot“, which was published in 2016 at the Publishing House „Books in Batumi“.

Zura Abashidze currently works at the Georgian National Public Broadcaster.

Zura says:

“In my country everybody says, that you should be 40 or 50 years old to write something important and big. They all trying to make us think that the best age for a writer is 30-50, to be honest, I’m tired hearing this all the time. I’m a big fan of all kind of Georgian contemporary literature since my teen age, but today I’m more interested in young Georgian authors. Their books are something new for our literature, their voice are something different and their stories are special. I’m little proud that I’m a part of this new generation of young talented people.
It’s hard to talk about me as an interesting author, I don’t see myself as interesting as my readers think I’m, I just have stories to tell, and there is no other solution, when you live in a country where every people has a special story, where almost all the person have problem, it’s very hard to sit and do nothing. I don’t have any special or super power to help these people, my only power is to write their stories. When I was young and had problems, I was always thinking about someone, who would listen to me, I couldn’t find this person, so I’m trying to became one”.

Helene Bukowski, 1993 in Berlin geboren. Co-Autorin des Dokumentarfilms „Zehn Wochen Sommer“ (Grimme Sonderpreis Kultur des Landes NRW 2015), Förderpreis der Wuppertaler Literaturbiennale 2016, Stipendiatin der Autor°innenwerkstatt Prosa des literarischen Colloqiums Berlin.

Von 2015 – 2017 war sie Mitherausgeberin der BELLA triste und Teil der künstlerischen Leitung des PROSANOVA | 17. Sie studiert Literarisches Schreiben und Lektorieren in Hildesheim.

Tornike Chelidze is a poet and short story writer. His poems are publishing in different literature publishing houses and anthologies. Tornike is the finalist and a laureate of various literature contests.
In 2013 publishing house “Intelekti” released his first poetry collection amed “Concentric Circles”, which was nominated for the literary award “Saba” and for “Tsinandali” award 2017.

“Everything what I write is about human’s constant internal voice, including certain circumstances. It takes the roots from the Post Soviet period. My poems tell you the story about defeated dreamers and ghettoes, which are accompanied by unchangeable sky decorations”, – Tornike says.
Tornike’s story was also among finalists of the literary award of ‘mastsavlebeli Magazine”. He is one of the distinguished voices amonf modern Georgian writers.

Julia Dorsch, geboren 1994 in Berlin, aufgewachsen in der italienischen Schweiz. Ab 2016 Studium der Sozialen Arbeit an der Alice-Salomon Hochschule Berlin. Mit dem Lyrikkollektiv Lyrik im Baumhaus entwickelt sie seit 2015 experimentelle Lesungen und Performances. Sie interessiert sich besonders für die Symbiose der Lyrik mit anderen Künsten. 2018 erschien das Resultat einer foto-lyrischen Teamarbeit in der Anthologie POING – In Wort und Bild des vauvau-Verlages Berlin.

Nini Eliashvili was born 1995. She was 15 years old when she started to write poems. Her poems are published in different Georgian Literary magazines, such as “Akhali Saunje”, “Arili”, “Literary Newspaper”.

In 2017 she was shortlisted in Literary award “Tsinandali”.

Zviad Ratiani says: “It’s just some couple of years since the poems of Nini Eliashvili started appearing in Georgian literary press and it’s to be said that they immediately attracted attention of both readers and literary men. Besides the obvious talent of young author, there was another and, perhaps, most impressive reason of her fast success: in comparison with her relatively short experience of writing, she is surprisingly skillful in the technique of classical verse, which is such a rare case among the new generations of Georgian poets. It is about the form, the structure of the poems, but as for the content – it is extremely emotional, barely controlled mix of feelings, always almost at the edge of the scream. That’s what creates the main effect of her style: chaos of the senses hold by well-ordered body of the verse”.

David Frühauf, geb. 1987, lebt in Berlin. Studierte Deutsche Philologie und Sprachkunst in Wien, Literarisches Schreiben am DLL und Neuere deutsche Literatur in Berlin. Erhielt u. a. DramatikerInnenstipendium 2016 des BKA Österreich und Aufenthaltsstipendium Akademie Schloss Solitude 2018/2019. Veröffentlichungen in verschiedenen Literaturzeitschriften. 2016 wurde sein Stück Zeit der Wirren am Landestheater Bregenz uraufgeführt, und seit 2017 arbeitet er an Übersetzungen (Keith Waldrop: Gravitationen I (Gutleut, 2017), Gravitationen II (erscheint voraussichtlich im Herbst 2018); Clare Wigfall – Alles, was ich über Zahlen weiß (Edition Solitude 2018); Andreas Malm – Der Fortschritt dieses Sturms (erscheint voraussichtlich im Herbst 2019).

Marie Gamillscheg, geboren 1992 in Graz. Lebt in Berlin, arbeitet als freie Journalistin u.a. für ZEIT Campus. 2015 u.a. Literaturförderungspreis der Stadt Graz und New German Fiction Preis. 2016 Klagenfurter Literaturkurs und Arbeitsstipendium des Berliner Senats, 2017 Aufenthaltsstipendium in Schöppingen. Veröffentlichungen in zahlreichen Zeitschriften und Anthologien (u.a. Edit, Lichtungen, Poet, Literarische Welt). 2018 erschien ihr Romandebüt „Alles was glänzt“ (Luchterhand).

Born in 1989. He revealed interest towards literature in his early childhood and started writing poems as a schoolboy. Different Journals and newspapers used to print his poems at different times. He took part in Tbilisi International Festival, which was followed by translation of his poems in Azerbaijani Language by Oqtai Kazumov.

He’s leading a weekly program on literature „Tezisi“ of which he is the author at the same time. He works for the radio with the literary program „Space of Art“. Nika Lashxia occurs to be a member of editors for literary Journal „Ebguri“. Also, he is one of the organizers of the literary festival „F5“.
His first poetry collection will be published soon, under Zviad Ratiani edition.

He writes to express his emotions, because he worries about social condition of his country. With his writings he tries to speak about existing problems without an artificial array.

„Next door“ is the collection of extravagant stories by the debutant author who deletes the line between dream and reality in the invented cities and islands of her stories, where passionate passages are diluted in the sour scent of oranges, where melancholic mermaids are replaced with moody grandmas, where the mysteries of young girls who had been locked in a chest and killed, or complicated relationships between neighbours unravel in the most original fashion.

In the book, you will also read about women who have turned into frying-pans or are talking to the death and you will thoroughly comprehend the symptoms of the loss of everyday-life nonchalance. Talking objects will present the events and the characters in the utmost unexpected angles.

Ketevan Meparidze wrote her first short story in 2007 for the literary contest „Alubloba“ and won the „Ritmic Prose“  prize. In 2014 she took first place in the student’s literary contest „Shemodgomis Legenda“ (Autumn Legend). In 2015 she became the finalist of the literature festival „Insomnia“ in Batumi. This book assembles the stories that were written for those contests and festivals.

Titus Meyer, geboren 1986 in Berlin, studierte Germanistik und Skandinavistik in Greifswald. Er veröffentlichte in Literaturzeitschriften wie randnummer oder Risse, sowie in Anthologien wie Lyrik von Jetzt 3, all dies hier, Majestät, ist deins – Lyrik im Anthropozän oder Unmögliche Liebe – Die Kunst des Minnesangs in neuen Übertragungen.Als Einzelveröffentlichungen erschienen von ihm „Meiner Buchstabeneuter Michwuchtordnung“ (2015) und „Andere DNA“ (2016) bei Reinecke & Voß. 2017 erhielt er ein Arbeitsstipendium des Berliner Senats. Lebt in Berlin.

geboren 1994, lebt im Internet. Wenn sie dann mal in der echten Welt anzutreffen ist, dann hat sie ein ganz komisches Gefühl. Preisträgerin beim Open Mike 2016. Veröffentlichungen u.a. in der BELLA triste & den Sachen mit Wœrtern

was born in Tbilisi, in 1990. Started writing of poetry at age of 16 and then prose, at age 18-19. She won the main prize in student literary competition “Autumn Legend”, for the story “ Me and my brother Anik”. In 2013, 2015, Tako took part in festival “Insomnia”, mostly known among Georgian Genre writers. Her first novel “Interpreting Death” released in 2016 and was nominated for the best debut on literature award “Saba”. She graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi state University, specialized in Journalism and Shota Rustaveli film and Theatre University, master of Audio- Visual art, specialized in Screenwriting. Currently she works at Red Bull Georgia as a communication Specialist.

She appears to be a writer of genre literature. Every story gives a clear sense of Tako’s writing skills and style. In her first Novel “Interpreting Death” she tells the story of modern dystopia, full of mystery and magic. Her stories are always unique, with the strong depressive atmosphere. She currently works on two projects: fairy tales for youth (dark fantasy) and a novel (dystopia).

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born in 1991. In 2010-2015 he studied at Ilia State university, faculty of business. In 2017 he became Master of Philosophy and Comparative Literature of Foreign Languages. Giorgi Shonia / Hans Prommel (his ownmystification ) The debut poetry „Fabrication“, published by Intellect, in 2016, is the winner of the literary prize „Litera“ 2017 in the nomination „Debut“. He is one of the organizers of the literary festival „F5“.

Giorgi says: “The main line of my poems is the social theme. Lyrical hero of my poems confronts power centers. But I have an existential and also, Lyrical poems too. In poetry, there are different stages of human life and emotional state.”

Lorena Simmel, geboren 1988 in Fribourg (CH), aufgewachsen in der Schweiz, studierte am Schweizerischen Literaturinstitut in Biel/Bienne, sowie an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und in Warschau. Sie wohnt seit 2012 in Berlin. Texte von ihr erschienen unter anderem in der STILL, der Edit und der Neuen Rundschau.

Anina Tepnadze (born July 18, 1991, Tbilisi) is a Georgian writer, blogger and journalist. She started writing at the age of 17 and has published several short stories, esseys and articles since. She is the winner of Tsinandali prize and nominee for the main literary prize in Georgia – Saba. She has published her book „My boyfriend’s girlfriend“ in 2012. Her short stories had been chosen for annual collection „15 best Georgian short stories“ 6 times. Her works have been translated into German, Russian, English, Spanish and Lithuanian.

„My fiction mainly focuses on young people in Georgia and their ways to find freedom in this country. I strongly believe that you can’t talk about people without talking about context. What I see nowadays is that our social-political history shaped the lives of Georgian people, changed the fate of families and in some sense, left the trauma that we feel but not truly understand. Writing is my way to cope with everyday life and I’m fascinated that it’s interesting for other people as well“

Saskia Warzecha, studierte Computerlinguistik in Potsdam, Sprachkunst an der Universität für Angewandte Kunst Wien und Literarisches Schreiben am Deutschen Literaturinstitut Leipzig.

Ihre Lyrik wurde u. a. in der Edit, der Bella Triste, der Ggenstrophe, im poet, den Sachen mit Woertern und in den Jahrbüchern der Lyrik 2017 sowie 2018 veröffentlicht.
Sie war Finalistin beim 24. open mike und gewann 2017 den Münchner Lyrikpreis.

Mitherausgeberschaft der Lyrikanthologie „Ansicht der leuchtenden Wurzeln von unten“ (poetenladen) und der „Tippgemeinschaft 2016“ (Connewitzer Verlagsbuchhandlung), Leitung der Lyrikredaktion beim STILL Magazine und Arbeit als Computerlinguistin im Bereich Spracharchitektur in Berlin.