Boris Akunin's latest Erast Fandorin mystery, The Death of Achilles, is set in 1882 and finds the detective in Moscow investigating the death of a national hero.

Henning Mankell writes the Kurt Wallander series set in Sweeden. The tenth book in the series, Before the Frost , takes a turn from his usual character of Kurt Wallander and instead features his daughter Linda.

Lawrence Venuti, translator. His translations include the work of Massimo Carlotto. Carlotto is often called the master of Mediterranean noir. His latest is The Goodbye Kiss.

Panel description: How do writers of crime fiction manage to combine literary prowess with white-knuckle reading? Why do people love to read crime novels? Authors reflect on their key influences and the role this genre plays in the collective imagination.

Gioconda Belli is from Nicaragua. Her memoir The Country Under My Skin was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2003.

Roberto Calasso's work includes The Forty-Nine Steps

Elias Khoury was awarded the Palestine Prize for Gate of the Sun

Yusef Komunyakaa is a professor at Princeton University. His writings on contemporary poetry and music can be found in Blues Notes

Ayu Utami's first novel Saman was awarded the Best Novel from Dewan Kesenian Jakarta in 1998.

Jeanette Winterson wrote her first novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit at age 23.

Duong Thu Huong's work, including No Man's Land, have been translated into more than ten languages.

Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her novel Beloved won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

Zadie Smith's On Beauty was nominated for a Booker Prize

PEN World Voices Festival