Where to?
21 questions on migration and refuge

Frances Stonor Saunders is a historian whose work includes Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War. She writes for several publications, including The Guardian and the London Review of Books.

The Serbian historian Dubravka Stojanovic teaches at the University of Belgrade. Her main topics of research are democracy and democratic movements in the 19th and 20th century as well as the role of women in Serbia.

Luiz Ruffato received several awards for his acclaimed first novel, “There were a lot of Horses” and has been considered one of the most important contemporary literary voices in Brazil since then.

Eva Illouz, born in 1961 in Morocco, is a well-known sociologist. Since the early 90ies Illouz lives and teaches in Israel where she teaches at the Hebrew University Jerusalem.

Zuzana Števulová, born in 1984, read law. She is an activist for the rights of immigrants and refugees in the Slovak Republic and heads the NGO Human Rights League Slovakia.

Alejandro Grimson is anthropologist and scholar for communicative sciences. His main areas of research are migration processes, social  movements, political cultures and multiculturalism in South America.

Antjie Krog is a poet, writer, journalist and professor at the University of the Western Cape. She has published twelve volumes of poetry in Afrikaans and three non-fiction books in English.

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, born in 1968, is a writer from Nairobi. She received the British Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story The Weight of Whispers.

Anouar Brahem, born 1957, is an internationally renowned musician and composer. In 2010 he received an Echo Jazz Award for his mastery on the oud, an Arab string instrument.

Director and playwright Akira Takayama studied Literary Studies at the Waseda-University in Tokyo and then spent four years in Europe, where he discovered his passion for theater.

The author Sami Michael was born as Salâh Menasche in 1926 in Bagdag. Early on, he began fighting for human rights and democracy and fled to the Israeli Exile in 1949.

Hans van den Brink, born in 1956, is a writer and journalist. He worked as foreign correspondent in Spain and in China during the Tianmen massacre.

Ivars Ijabs is political scientist, correspondent and professor at the University Latvia. His fields of interest include history of political ideas, nationalism and the relation between various ethnic groups in Central and Eastern Europe.

Ibon Zubiaur, born 1971 in Getxo, taught literature at the University of Tubingen and from 2008-2013 headed the Instituto Cervantes in Munich. He translated numerous German authors, both classical and modern ones.

Daniel Worku Kassa was born and grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is a writer, translator, critic and filmmaker. So far he wrote and translated some 80 books, thereof about half of them for children.

Srećko Horvat, born 1983, is a philosopher and political activist. He regularly publishes in Guardian, Al Jazeera and the New York Times.

Erri de Luca, born 1950 in Naples, is a popular Italian writer. He also works as translator, e.g. he translated the Bible into Italian.

Galsan Tschinag, born in 1944 in Mongolia, is a writer and tribal chief. He has been writing in German since he received a grant to study in East Germany. One of his central themes is the conflict between traditional forms of life and modern society.

Petros Markaris, born in 1937 in Istanbul, is a Greek writer and translator. He grew up in Istanbul. He gained popularity with his crime novels which combine critique of society and enterntainment.

Aman Sethi, born in 1983, is journalist and writer. His first book, A Free Man, in which he recounts the real life of protagonist Mohammed Ashraf and through this talks about the change of New Delhi, earned him widespread recognition.

Leonidas Donskis (1962-2016) was philosopher, historian, writer and member of the European Parliament (from 2009-2014).

Ruwanthie de Chickera is the founder of the Stage Theatre Group, Sri Lanka’s most damous and renowned ensemble. Over the last 15 years she worked on more than twenty international theatre and film productions.

Lyudmila Ulickaya studied biology and first worked in the field of genetics. She is considered the most important living female author in Russia. At home she is likewise known for her social and political engagement.

Amal Saqr is a media presenter and investigative journalist. She previously worked as the regional director for the BBC's Baghdad office. She has held a number of editorial positions with several local and international newspapers.

Lye Yoka is a writer an University teacher who was born in Kinshasa. For many years he worked for the Ministry of Culture and various international organizations, e.g. UNESCO.

The Russian poet Elena Fanailova was born 1962 in Voronyesh. In her poems she combines a critical approach to society with personal reflections.

Noémi Kiss is considered one of the most important voices of the younger generation of Hungarian writers. Her books have been translated into German, English, Polish, Rumanien, Bulgarian and Serbian.

Yasmina Khadra, born in 1955 in Kendasa, is the pseudonym of Algerian writer Mohammed Moulessehoul, today living in France.

Harald Welzer, born in 1958 in Hannover, is a sociologist. His main areas of research are memory, collective violence and climate change.

Author, screenwriter and psychologist Ayelet Gundar-Goshen was born 1982 in Israel. In addition to writing, she also worked as an editor for a leading daily newspaper in Israel, as well as at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

Antonio Ortuño was born 1976 in Guadalajara. After working as a journalist for various Mexican newspapers he published his first book in 2006.

Temur Butikashvili, born in 1961, is a filmmaker from Georgia. He made several films, both feature and documentary, in which he takes a critical look at Georgian society of today.

In the project "Where to?" authors and intellectuals from almost 40 countries were given a questionnaire on refuge and migration. The sources of inspiration were questionnaires by the Swiss writer Max Frisch, who in his diaries formulated them in a concise manner on general topics like friendship, marriage, death or money.

Jørgen Lorentzen is a scholar in the field of gender studies, film producer and author. He has published various books and articles and developed a number of widely discussed TV documentations. At present he is director of the Hedda foundation which focusses on human rights, gender equality, democracy and development through artistic projects.  

Petra Hulova was born in 1979 in Prague. Her debut novel (Memory to my Grandmother) is one of the most successful books in the Czech republic in the last decade.

Choi Zin A is a Corean playwright and theatre director. She runs the Noddang Theatre Group.

Geneviève Brisac is a writer of short stories, theatre plays, film scripts and children’s books. She also writes book reviews for Le Monde.

Colum McCann is an Irish writer and journalist living in New York. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages and been awarded numerous prizes.

Dragan Velikić, born 1953 in Belgrade, is a writer, journalist and former ambassador to Austria. He published several novels and collections of stories and wrote for numerous well known European papers.

Sirpa Käköhnen is a Finnish writer. Central themes in hew works are human fates in times of crisis, stories of women and children.

Tong Yali, born in Taiwan in 1978, writes for the liberal weekly Pots Weekly, the Taiwanese edition of the homeless magazine The Big Issue and the online film journal Behind the Screen.

In the project "Where to?" authors and intellectuals from almost 40 countries were given a questionnaire on refuge and migration. The sources of inspiration were questionnaires by the Swiss writer Max Frisch, who in his diaries formulated them in a concise manner on general topics like friendship, marriage, death or money.

Milagros del Corral is a librarian by profession. She was director of the National Library of Spain, general secretary of the Spanish Federation of Publishers and deputy head of the UNESCO.