A multidisciplinary creative who wears many hats: as a musician, activist, and speaker.
Brussels, Belgium

Since 2021, Kriticos created “The Book Club”, a book club for people that didn’t read the book. Kriticos seeks to create safe spaces for intimate honest conversations, while educating people on art, literature and culture. His hope is to make knowledge accessible to all.

Researcher
University of Turku
Helsinki, Finland

PhD Leea Lakka works as a university lecturer at the University of Turku. She is especially interested in the role of literacy skills in everyday life. Her dissertation study, Literacy practices in the backrow, sparked wide discussion in Finnish media in the spring of 2024.

Library manager
Reykjavik City Library
Reykjavík, Iceland

Unnar Geir holds a degree in acting and directing from ASAD in London and a Master’s in Culture Management from Bifröst University in Iceland. He is currently working on developing the literacy project Ylfa and Úlfur, Let’s Read the Whole World! in collaboration with a primary school. The project aims to create a methodology where visual and performing arts support literacy teaching for primary school children all over Iceland.

Librarian
Bergen Public Library
Bergen, Norway

Joanna Pacula is a librarian at the Bergen Public Library where she leads the team that works with the literary promotion. She is responsible for several projects including deep reading. She has a master in cultural history, bachelor’s in library and information science and she is currently studying comparative literature.

Head Specialist of Youth Work
Tallinn Central Library
Tallinn, Estonia

If I were a book, I would be a horror story with cute cats.

Coordinator
Seinäjoki Public Library
Seinäjoki, Finland

Emilia Koski works as a coordinator in the national task of promoting children and young people’s reading and literacy. Her responsibilities include communication and tasks requiring pedagogical expertise. She is also a self-proclaimed organization enthusiast who loves making lists and checking them off.

Coordinator
Seinäjoki Public Library
Seinäjoki, Finland

Lena Sågfors works as a coordinator at Sjk Erte – the national task of promoting children and young people’s reading and literacy. Her responsibilities include Sjk Erte’s services and activities in Swedish. Shared Reading-sessions with a group of young people is the most meaningful work assignment she has done recently.

Manager of Library Services
Aarhus Public Library
Aarhus, Denmark

Susanne Gilling is Manager of Library Service in Aarhus Public Library. She has been a part of the Aarhus team for many years and has had various leader positions. She has worked with many different topics in the library field among them branch libraries, organizational changes, recruitment, reading programmes, digital services, Citizen services in libraries etc. Susanne graduated from The Royal Danish Library School in 1997 and has since then taken different management training.

Literature Facilitator
Aarhus Public Library
Aarhus, Denmark

Karina Høyer is a library communicator at Aarhus Public Libraries. She primarily works with the dissemination, communication, and development of literary event and communities for adults. She is trained as Reader Leader in 2018 and has since led many different reading groups. She was also involved in the project ‘Healthy Reading Communities for Vulnerable Citizens.’ Karina graduated from Aarhus University with a Master of Arts in 2014.

Head of Department
Vilnius County Adomas Mickevičius Public Library
Vilnius, Lithuania

Head of the Regional Methodology and Management department at the Vilnius County Adomas Mickevičius Public Library (Lithuania). Žydrūnė is a professional librarian with experience in various library activities. Currently, she is a member of an interlibrary group coordinating the national initiative dedicated to developing media and information literacy competencies in Lithuanian libraries. Žydrūnė is interested in literature and culture, sustainability, informational behavior, information services and IT.

Information Specialist
Helsinki City Library
Helsinki, Finland

I work as an information specialist at the Multilingual Library Finland. I am especially interested in children’s literature and encouraging family reading. 

Project manager
Aarhus Public Library
Aarhus, Denmark

Project manager at Aarhus public libraries. Sif works with projects for and together with children and schools. She is the project manager of Albus children’s literature festival and the Danish writing competition for children: ‘500 words’.

Literature consultant
Aarhus Public Library
Aarhus, Denmark

Lise works with strategy, innovation and project management in the field of mediating literature to young people and adults. She is the program manager of the international literature festival LiteratureXchange and has been in charge of several literature project, among others ‘litteraturen som upoleret spejl’ – a project about literature, loneliness and young people.

Information Specialist
Helsinki City Library
Helsinki, Finland

Information Specialist at Helsinki City Library. Johanna is a co-creator of Activist diploma, a tool for environmental literacy, eco-social education and active citizenship to encourage people to help fight the climate crisis.

Researcher
University of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä, Finland

I am a PhD student in creative writing at University of Jyväskylä. I am interested in how public libraries can promote reading and writing and prevent social exclusion.

Information Specialist
Helsinki City Library
Helsinki, Finland

I work as an information specialist at the nature-themed Viikki Library. I’m passionate about promoting eco-social education in the library. To me, the most important aspects of the library are the connections we make with different people, the power of imagination, and the stories we share.

Librarian
Helsinki City Library
Helsinki, Finland

Liisa Uimonen is a librarian in Itäkeskus branch of Helsinki City Library. She is a co-creator of Activist diploma, which encourages people to take action for our common environment and is used as a tool for environmental literacy, eco-social education and active citizenship. She also coordinates the collection work of eco-shelves.