Aya Sabi (1995) lives in Flanders and studies Arabic and Islamic Studies at KU Leuven. She is a columnist for De Morgen and published her debut short story collection Verkruimeld land (Crumbled Land) in 2017 with Atlas Contact. In 2020, NRC Handelsblad named her one of the literary talents of the year. Her first novel, Half leven (Half a Life), was released by Das Mag on August 23, 2022. The book was shortlisted for the Confituur Bookshops Prize 2023, the Hebban Debut Prize 2023, and the Opzij Literature Prize 2023. It went on to win the PrixFintro Audience Award 2023.
When Knack asked 70 literary experts to name the must-read Dutch-language books of the 21st century, Half leven landed at number 45 in the resulting top 50. In July, Sabi published the novella Juli (July), part of Das Mag’s series featuring twelve months, twelve books, and twelve authors. Her latest novel, Zo zingt de pijn (Thus Sings the Pain), was released by Das Mag on August 8, 2025.
Dounia Mahammad (she/they) graduated in 2015 from the drama program at KASK and describes herself as a queer, searching, writing, making performer—with a special love for plants, clay, color, chewing, wood, water, cornstarch (as a thickener!), questions, movement, and being moved. Dounia’s work often plays with language and sound, exploring the boundaries of (mis)communication. It seeks to express something about being human—yearning for connection, wavering between wonder and doubt. Alongside their artistic practice, Dounia is deeply engaged in loving activism and recently began working as a freelance confidant.
In 2015, Dounia created Salut Copain, a graduation performance that gently reflected on the strangeness of the ordinary and the ordinariness of the strange. In w a t e r w a s w a s s e r (2017, with Alan Van Rompuy), fluid associations around water and connection entered into dialogue with Alan’s live music, water, and cornstarch. PANIC & OTHER ATTACKS (2020, with Roos Nieboer) searched for recipes to save us in threatening situations—featuring endangered species on an endangered planet. GNAB◊RRETN¡ (2021, again with Alan Van Rompuy) was an experiment in (mis)communication, a surreal concert about finding and losing, something you remember but that never actually happened.
Dounia has also appeared in Het betreft liefde by Tine van Aerschot, Giants by Laurens Aneca, Lucas van der Vegt, and Jesse Vandamme, and Operette by Tibaldus. They wrote the text for Ophelia by Inne Goris, provided voice work and coaching for Bambiraptor by Jonas Baeke and Mats Vandroogenbroeck, and worked as writing coach and assistant director for Divide & Rule (postponed) by Khalid El Koujili.
Dounia occasionally writes for magazines such as rekto:verso, Terras, and Deus Ex Machina, serves as a writing coach for the European Theatre Convention’s Young Europe project—focused on non-dominant voices in repertoire—and recently participated in a panel discussion on microaggressions at Ghent University.
