Jacobiene Ritsema (1962) studied Slavonic languages. She works as a sustainability consultant for a Dutch engineering firm. Additionally, she is a social entrepreneur in Kyrgyzstan (www.belzhan.org). She writes narrative non-fiction. Ritsema studied Russian and left in 1990 to represent a Dutch potato company in Moscow, because history was being made there. As a freelance journalist in Russia she wrote a column for the Dutch feminist magazine Opzij and articles for the Dutch newspapers Trouw and NRC Handelsblad. She then traveled all former Soviet states for environmental projects, lived in Kazakhstan for some time and later also frequently came to Africa for work. Ritsema is a committed global citizen and writes about themes that touch her personally.

In the corona year 2020, Ritsema wrote a family history in which she searches for the motivations of her biological grandmother who was a collaborator during the Second World War.