Experts Panel Choice - Autumn 2009

Alex is a bookseller at the Calder Bookshop, opened in 2000 by publisher John Calder on the Cut, London. The bookshop is now undergoing a period of expansion. It specializes in literary fiction, poetry and drama, and hosts a variety of discussions, literary readings, film showings, music events and theatre performances.

Christine Toomey is an award-winning writer with The Sunday Times Magazine, who has been covering foreign affairs for The Sunday Times for twenty years. Previously based as a correspondent in Mexico City, Paris, Berlin and now London, she has been nominated for various awards and twice won Amnesty International’s magazine story of the year in 2002 and 2006, both times for stories about Latin America.

Deirdre McDermott is the Picture Book publisher at Walker Books, the largest independent children’s publisher in the UK. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, she has been in children’s publishing for 20 years and has worked with picture book makers such as Helen Oxenbury, Anita Jeram, Allan Ahlberg, Jimmy Liao and John Burningham amongst many others.

Gary McKeone is board member of the British Centre for Literary Translation. He was Director of Literature at Arts Council England from 1996-2006 and has previously worked in literature at the Royal Festival Hall and in theatre with Derry-based Field Day Theatre Company. He is currently working in a freelance capacity on a number of arts and other projects.

Meike Ziervogel is a German writer and founder of Peirene Press, a new independent publishing house based in London, that specializes in the English translation of contemporary European literature. In spring 2010 Peirene will publish the Catalan modern classic by Maria Barbal, Pedra de Tartera - English title: Stone in a Landslide.

Sonia Soto studied Modern Languages at Newnham College, Cambridge. She has translated many works of contemporary Spanish fiction, including novels by Antonio Munoz Molina, Almudena Grandes, José Carlos Somoza and Arturo Perez-Reverte.