Novelist, essayist and philosopher Maxim Februari has been awarded two prestigious Dutch literary prizes, the P.C. Hooft Prize and the C.C.S. Crone Prize. Both are awarded for Februari’s complete works, and the juries of both prizes praise the exceptional quality of his oeuvre. His work has been translated into English, Danish, Spanish and Turkish.

The Dutch Foundation for Literature and NIAS-KNAW invite publishers and others to nominate a writer for the writer-in-residence fellowship at NIAS-KNAW in Amsterdam for the academic year 2020/21. This prestigious position is intended for a writer who is working on a project that would benefit from an extended stay as part of a diverse community of international scholars. Nominations can be submitted before 16 March (noon).

Once a year, during a large-scale literary festival in Shenzhen, China, the ten best children’s books of the year are chosen. Last Saturday it was announced that The Mystery of Life. How Nothing Became Everything (Shanghai 99) by Jan Paul Schutten and Floor Rieder is one of the lucky winners of the “Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year 2019”.

In The New York Review of Books (December 5, 2019), Dutch author Philip Huff discusses two recently translated works by famous Dutch writer Gerard Reve: his classics The Evenings: A Winter’s Tale, and Childhood: Two Novellas. Both books have been translated by Sam Garrett for Pushkin Press.

Under the title ‘New Dutch Writing’, Dutch literature will be presented at more than seventy festivals and events in the United Kingdom and Ireland from October onwards. By means of this major promotional campaign, the Dutch Foundation for Literature aims to introduce new generations of Dutch authors to an English-language readership. The campaign will also draw attention to literary translation.

Dutch poet and novelist Hagar Peeters will stay at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Amsterdam as writer in residence for one semester. The residency is a fellowship organised by the Dutch Foudantion for Literature together with NIAS-KNAW. During her stay, from 1 September, 2019 to 1 February, 2020, she will continue her inquiry into the relationship between writing and single motherhood.

The Christoph Martin Wieland Translation Prize, worth € 12,000, will be presented to Eva Schweikart this autumn for her German translation of Lampje, a novel by Annet Schaap that has been published in German by Thienemann Verlag under the title Emilia und der Junge aus dem Meer. It is the first time that the biennial prize, presented since 1979 for works in a wide range of genres, has gone to the translator of a children’s book.

The three-yearly Anna Blaman Prize has been awarded to Edward van de Vendel, author of novels and poems for children and young adults. ‘To write so convincingly, movingly and thoughtfully, and yet make it look as though you just happen to have tossed something off, is the sort of thing only a literary heavyweight can do,’ the jury concluded. Van de Vendel receives a goblet and the sum of € 10,000.

Two young Dutch authors have been awarded the ANV Debutantenprijs, a prize for the best debut novel in the last year. Mirthe van Doornik was named winner by the readers jury with her novel Other People’s Mothers, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld was awarded by the professional jury with her novel The Discomfort of the Evening.

On the evening of Wednesday 3rd July 2019 Dutch and British representatives from the world of books and translation will gather to celebrate the launch of New Dutch Writing at The Union Club in Soho.

This summer, Polish journalist and writer Kamil Bałuk will live and work as a writer in residence in our residency in Amsterdam. His first book All Louis’ Children about the case of the much-discussed fertility doctor Jan Karbaat was published last year in Dutch translation. During his residency period, Bałuk will make a series of reports about the contemporary Netherlands.

The shortlist for the European Literature Prize 2019 has been announced. Out of a longlist of twenty translated titles the jury has selected five from which the winner will be chosen. The prize will be presented 3 November 2019, during the Crossing Border festival in The Hague.

First Paris then the Grand Poetry Prize. Radna Fabias has been awarded the Netherlands’ Grand Poetry Prize 2019 at the 50th Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam, for Habitus (De Arbeiderspers). Her first collection made an impressive debut in Dutch-language poetry. It not only received exclusively laudatory reviews, but has now won all four major Dutch poetry awards, including the C. Buddingh’ Prize, the Awater Poetry Prize and the Herman De Coninck Prize 2019.

As part of a special cultural cooperation between Amsterdam and Paris, the Dutch Foundation for Literature makes a donation of children’s and youth literature books to the Médiathèque Françoise Sagan in Paris. Thanks to fifteen publishers, a gift of no fewer than 92 books has been compiled, of which 72 are Dutch-language and 20 are French translations of Dutch children’s books.

This year, the Netherlands is guest of honour at the Marché de la Poésie in Paris, the largest poetry festival in France. The festival takes place every year at Place Saint-Sulpice in the heart of Paris. A dozen poets will be included in the “official delegation” of the festival, they will read from their work at the main stage and will be interviewed during the festival.

On 24 and 25 May Luan Buleshkaj, Gershwin Bonevacia, Babs Gons, Cees De Beer, Onias Landveld and Naomi Veldwijk will participate in the first edition of Wintertuin Curaçao Festival, an inclusive, multilingual storytelling and literature festival for all ages.

Rob van Essen has won the prestigious Libris Literature Prize 2019 for his novel The Good Son (Atlas Contact). The prize is awarded annually to the best Dutch literary fiction title of the previous year, and consists of 50,000 euros and a bronze medal. The award ceremony was traditionally broadcast live in Nieuwsuur.

Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan will be living and working in Amsterdam from 2 to 31 May, upon invitation of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. She will be working on a book with the provisional title A Cold Case Diary, which is due to appear in 19 countries in the summer of 2020; in the Netherlands the book will be published by Ambo | Anthos.

From 2 to 7 May illustrator and children’s book author Mylo Freeman and children’s and youth literature author Benny Lindelauf will be in Berkeley, US to give several readings and performances at the annual Bay Area Book Festival. They will each present two panel sessions with fellow writers at the festival, Mylo Freeman will have an additional solo presentation in the Story Time Circle.

Flemish author Bart Moeyaert is the laureate of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2019, the ‘Nobel Prize for youth literature’. The award, which amounts to 5 million Swedish Kronor (€ 480,000) is given annually by the Swedish Arts Council. Moeyaert was nominated for the sixteenth time this year, and finally received the prestigious prize at the Bologna’s Children’s Book Fair.

Mathijs Deen was awarded the Halewijn Prize on the final evening of the national Book Week. The prize is awarded annually by the city of Roermond to a literary talent that deserves more attention, and consists of a sum of € 1500 and a bronze statue.

The third annual ESLT Summer School will bring together around 20 translators and educators from across Europe who are passionate about teaching literary translation. The three-day programme will include a mixture of seminars, workshops and panel discussions. Applications should be submitted by 15 April 2019.

On 21 March, World Poetry Day, Radna Fabias was awarded the Herman de Coninckprijs for her debut collection Habitus. The Flemish prize is awarded annually to the best Dutch language poetry collection and consists of € 7.500.

British writer Kate Mosse (1961) will be living and working in Amsterdam from 3 to 22 April, at the invitation of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. She will be working on a historical novel set in 16th-century Amsterdam, the second part in a series of four about the French religious wars and the Diaspora of the Huguenots. During her stay she will give several public performances.

From 21 to 24 March, seven Dutch illustrators and authors of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books will visit Germany. Dutch literature will be presented in ten events at the Leipziger Buchmesse and the corresponding Leipzig Liest reading festival.

Tommy Wieringa is one of the ‘Man Booker Dozen’ – the longlist of thirteen novels that are in contention for the Man Booker International Prize 2019 – with his novel The Death of Murat Idrissi, translated by Sam Garrett (Scribe). The Man Booker International Prize celebrates the best works of translated fiction from around the world and consists of £50,000, to be split equally between the author and the translator.

From 11-14 March Barbara den Ouden, Victor Schiferli, Mireille Berman, Agnes Vogt, Bas Pauw and Alexandra Koch will represent the Dutch Foundation for Literature at the London Book Fair (table 34V at the International Rights Center). They will have meetings with approximately 125 international publishers and editors to promote Dutch literature.

Tsead Bruinja has been appointed as the new Poet Laureate of the Netherlands for a period of two years. Bruinja is the seventh Poet Laureate of the Netherlands, appointed by a commission of experts and prominent writers. The next two years he will write poems on the occasion of national events and act as poetry ambassador.

From January until July 2019, Syrian poet Ghayath Almadhoun (Damascus, 1979) will stay at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Amsterdam as writer in residence. During his stay he will be working on his fifth book of poetry in Arabic, an extensive text of life, love in the wartime, memories that became home, and the exile as background of the new wave of literature.

The Stripschap Prize 2019, the annual Dutch oeuvre award for cartoonists, has been awarded to Amsterdam cartoonist and illustrator Typex. Ever since the appearance of his overwhelming biography of Andy Warhol, eyes have been constantly focused on the Amsterdam comic strip maker and illustrator. Andy: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol has been published in six languages and fourteen countries and was praised all over the world.

All in 2018 awarded Translation Grants (and other grants) can be found in the annual report of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. An overview of translations of Dutch and Frisian literature worldwide, both published and in preparation, both subsidized by our Foundation and not, may be found in our Translations Database.

Marga Minco (b. 1920) has been awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize 2019, one of the most prestigious Dutch literary awards, for her prose. The jury praised her as the author of a modest and intensely powerful body of work. ‘Without psychologizing, without resorting to pathos or pretention, she enables us to understand and fully engage with an inconceivable reality.’

This autumn the Les Phares du Nord campaign is taking twenty-one Dutch and Flemish authors to five French cities. A great deal of attention is also being paid to Dutch-language children’s and young adult literature, a much sought-after export product. From 28 November to 3 December, the Netherlands and Flanders are the ‘focus country’ at the Salon du Livre et de la Presse Jeunesse in Montreuil, France’s biggest and most important children’s book fair.

Cees Nooteboom has been awarded the Horst Bienek Prize for his entire poetic oeuvre, the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste announced Tuesday afternoon. The Akademie praises 85-year-old Nooteboom as one of the most renowned European writers.

Pieter Waterdrinker has won the Tzum prize for the best sentence from a book published in 2017. Waterdrinker wins a trophy and 95 euros, as many euros as words in the sentence, for a sentence published in his novel Tsjaikovskistraat 40. The English translation rights were sold to Scribe this summer. The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street: a century of revolution in St Petersburg will be published in 2020 in England, Australia and New Zealand.

Flemish author Jeroen Olyslaegers will be living and working as a writer-in-residence in Amsterdam from 2 October to 30 November, upon invitation by the Dutch Foundation for Literature. During his residency in Amsterdam, Jeroen Olyslaegers will work on a new historical novel and give a series of public lectures and interviews.

This month a bilingual collection of Frisian literature in Frisian and English, almost 400 pages in length, will be published by UK-based Francis Boutle Publishers. It is the first anthology in the world to present a comprehensive range of Frisian prose and poetry past and present in translation. Swallows and Floating Horses will be launched in Boekhandel Van der Velde in Leeuwarden on Thursday 4 October.

The jury of the European Literature Prize 2018 has announced that the award goes to Norwegian author Johan Harstad and his translators Edith Koenders and Paula Stevens, for the novel Max, Mischa & het Tet-offensief (Podium). The prize will be presented to the author and his translators on the evening of Wednesday 31 October at the Crossing Border Festival in The Hague.

Joost Swarte was awarded de Prix spécial du jury at the BD comic festival in Sollies-Ville, France, for his New York Book. The book provides a complete overview of his illustrations for The New Yorker, over 450 sketches, illustrations, ‘spots’ and covers, together with hitherto unpublished sketches, with commentary by the artist himself.

Simone Atangana Bekono was awarded the Poetry Debut Prize Aan Zee for her collection How the First Sparks Became Visible, translated from Dutch by David Colmer (2017). The prize is intended to stimulate young talent in poetry. Atangana Bekono was praised for the anger that resounds in her poetry and her unique voice.

Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s debut novel De avond is ongemak (The Discomfort of the Evening) was a huge success in the Netherlands, going straight into the bestseller lists, even before the booksellers’ panel of television’s De Wereld Draait Door made it its book of the month. More than 40,000 copies were sold within a few months in the Netherlands, and, internationally, rights were rapidly sold to Suhrkamp in Germany and Faber & Faber in Britain and America. In Italy the book will be published by Nutrimenti, and a Korean translation is in preparation for Gimm-Young Publishers.

From 4 to 7 July the literary festival Bookstan - No East, No West took place in Sarajevo for the third time, with as this year’s theme Borders and Boundaries. There was an important place for literature in Dutch at this year’s festival. Curator Geert Mak, with the support of Mireille Berman of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, invited Dutch and Flemish writers to discuss borders in culture, literature and politics.

The shortlist for the European Literature Prize 2018 has been presented in Spui25 in Amsterdam. Five titles have been selected by a professional jury led by Anna Enquist as the best Dutch translations of contemporary European novels published last year. A special feature of the prize is that it is awarded to both authors and translators.

Dutch author Cees Nooteboom has won the Premio Internazionale Elena Violani – Landi, the international literary prize from the poetry centre of the University of Bologna. The prize was awarded to Nooteboom at the opening ceremony of the Oven Poetry Festival in Bologna in Italy on Wednesday 6 June. The prize money awarded with the prize is € 6.000

The BookSpot Gouden Strop (Golden Noose) 2018 has been awarded to Willem Asman for his book Enter (Ambo | Anthos) by jury chairman Anniko van Santen. The Shadow Prize went to Eva Keuris for her debut Over het spoor. Willem Asman wrote Enter with a scholarship from the Dutch Foundation for Literature. Thanks to the new sponsor BookSpot, the Gouden Strop is worth an amount of € 20,000 this year.

Flemish poet Miriam Van hee has won the Ultima 2017 Prize for literature for her poetic oeuvre. Her latest collection, ‘As If We Were Summoned Somewhere’ (Als werden wij ergens ontboden), was described by the Ultimas’ jury as “an undeniable crowning achievement in this author’s unique, somewhat hushed oeuvre”. The jury went on to say that it is “a collection that deserves recognition, attention, and many readers.” Van hee received this Flemish Culture Award - a bronze statue and a sum of 10.000 euro - on 27 February 2018.

The prestigious, triennial Theo Thijssen Prize for children’s and youth literature goes to Bibi Dumon Tak, the board of the P.C. Hooft Prize for Literature announced. She is the first author of literary non-fiction to be awarded this prize. She regularly received scholarships from the Dutch Foundation for Literature for writing her books. Her work has been translated into many languages, including Chinese, German, English, Japanese and Polish.

A special edition edited by David Colmer has been published in print by The Enchanting Verses Literary Review.

For the Dutch and Flemish presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016, the Dutch Foundation for Literature participated in the making of a series of 25 video portraits of Dutch and Flemish writers. The portraits are now available on a dedicated website.

The Woutertje Pieterse Prize 2018, one of the most prestigious prizes for Dutch children’s and youth literature - worth 15.000 euro, has been awarded to Annet Schaap for her debut Lampje (‘Little Lamp’). The jury praised the beautiful use of language in the book and the sense of recognition it evokes.

All in 2017 awarded Translation Grants (and other grants) can be found in the annual report of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. An overview of translations of Dutch and Frisian literature worldwide, both published and in preparation, both subsidized by our Foundation and not, may be found in our Translations Database.

Dutch and Flemish literature are in the spotlight at this year’s Leipziger Buchmesse, the second largest book fair in Germany, and its simultaneous literary festival Leipzig Liest. From Thursday 15 until Sunday 18 March graphic novelists and illustrators are live at work in Atelier Parade, more than ten Dutch and Flemish authors will read from their work or be interviewed on stage, and last but not least, new digital literature is introduced to publishers and the general public.

Once every four years the Dutch Foundation for Literature asks an independent agency to find out what ‘users of the Foundation’, particularly publishers, other literary organisations, writers and translators, think of the policies, communication and service of the Dutch Foundation.

Over 100 Dutch and Flemish authors will present themselves at more than twenty literary festivals throughout France. All this in the context of Les Phares du Nord (The Lighthouses of the North), an intensive campaign aimed at presenting Dutch literature in France, the second largest book market of Europe and the fifth worldwide.

Eighteen Dutch and Flemish writers are nominated for the Libris Literature Prize 2018: one of the most prestigious literary awards in the Netherlands, modeled after the Man Booker Prize, and worth 50,000 euro. Last years laureate Alfred Birney sold more than 85.000 copies of his magnum epos ‘De tolk van Java’, an English translation is in preparation.

‘What I would most like to do is write lines that seem as if they have always existed,’ so wrote Menno Wigman (1966-2018) in a recent letter to the Volkskrant literary critic Arjan Peters. Wigman produced a body of work that can rightly be called classic, not just because of the style, but also because he is one of the few contemporary poets who wrote sentences that are known and can be quoted by many readers.

The BNG Bank Literature Prize, the annual Dutch prize for young writers − worth 15.000 euros, has been awarded to poet, novelist, and playwright Marjolijn van Heemstra for En we noemen hem… (And His Name Is..). German, English, French, Italian and Spanish translations of this novel are in preparation.

Poet Nachoem Wijnberg will receive the P.C. Hooft Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes for literature in the Netherlands, on 24 May 2018. According to the jury, reading Wijnberg is “to enter a sharp way of thinking in a flawless and dangerous language.” The annual award, worth 60.000 euros, is alternately awarded for prose (fiction), essays (non-fiction) or poetry.

This year, the Taalunie Playwriting Prize – worth 10.000 euros – has gone to novelist and poet Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (1968) for his play De advocaat (‘The Lawyer’). The jury stated that “De advocaat balances magisterially on the thin line between tragedy and comedy, realistic drama and meta-consideration, slapstick and emotion.”

Roel Schuyt (b. 1948) has been awarded the Dutch Foundation for Literature’s Translation Prize 2017. Since the 1990s he has translated work by a wide variety of writers from Central Europe, including Danilo Kiš, Dubravka Ugrešić and Borislav Čičovački, as well as young authors such as Goce Smilevski and Olja Savičević. He also wrote translation history by being one of the first to translate the work of Nobel Prize candidate Ismail Kadare directly from the Albanian. The prize, which includes the sum of €10,000, was presented in Amsterdam on Friday 8 December, during the Literaire Vertaaldagen.

Dutch poet Alfred Schaffer has been awarded the Charlotte Köhler Prize for Mens Dier Ding (Man Animal Thing). This poetry collection met with instant acclaim: it was nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize 2015 and awarded the Awater Poetry Prize 2014, the Paul Snoekprijs 2016, and now the Charlotte Köhler Prize - worth 15.000 euro. A French translation is in preparation. Alfred Schaffer (1973) is currently based in South-Africa, where he works as a lecturer at Stellenbosch University.

The 2017 Golden Slate Pencil has been awarded to Koos Meinderts for his children’s book Naar het noorden (To the North). This prestigious prize for the writer of the best Dutch children’s book of the year was presented at the launch of Dutch Children’s Book Week. The Dutch Foundation for Literature featured this title in its spring brochure Children’s Books from Holland.

The Golden Paintbrush 2017, the most important Dutch prize for an illustrator of children’s and young adult literature, goes to Martijn van der Linden for Tangram Cat. The book’s author Maranke Rinck has already won a Silver Slate Pencil for her part in this remarkable collaboration.

The jury of the 2017 European Literature Prize has chosen to honour British author Max Porter and his Dutch translator Saskia van der Lingen for Verdriet is het ding met veren (De Bezige Bij), the Dutch translation of the novel Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. The author will receive a sum of €10,000 and the translator €5,000. Chair of the jury, poet and novelist Anna Enquist, will present the prize to Porter and Van der Lingen on Thursday, 2 November, at the opening night of the Crossing Border Festival in The Hague.

‘This Is What We Share. Flanders and the Netherlands, guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair’ is to have a sequel. Several dozen Dutch and Flemish authors will be making appearances in cities across Germany in the coming months, from the International Literature Festival Berlin via Leipzig and Munich to the Harbourfront Festival in Hamburg.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the first publication of Anne Frank’s diary. Her story was the inspiration for Amsterdam City of Refuge, which offers a safe haven to persecuted writers and which is hosted by the Dutch Foundation for Literature in the former house of the Frank-family, where Anne Frank started her diary before they went into hiding. Deutsche Welle’s Fred Muvunyi talks with poet Lety Elvir and the Foundation’s managing director Tiziano Perez about the City of Refuge-project.

Gips oder wie ich an einem einzigen Tag die Welt reparierte by Anna Woltz and her translator Andrea Kluitmann (published in Germany by Carlsen Verlag) has been awarded the 2017 Silberne Feder. The German association of women doctors selected Woltz’s book from a record number of over 100 submissions.

Two prizes in a row this week for Dutch non-fiction author Frank Westerman! His book Een woord, een woord received both the Brusseprijs for the best journalistic book of the year and the Bob den Uyl-prijs for the best travel story of the year.

Every two years IBBY publishes the Honourlist, a list of high-quality children’s and youth books published in IBBY’s more than seventy-five countries. The national sections of IBBY nominate one book for each category that excels in text, illustrations or translation.

At the beginning of June an exciting new international initiative dedicated to the training of emerging literary translation teachers was launched, the European School of Literary Translation. ESLT aims to support professional literary translation by creating a sustainable pan-European infrastructure for the education of literary translation teachers. ESLT will contribute to enhancing the quality of literary translations and, consequently, to the promotion of European cultural and literary diversity and the European ideal of a shared European culture.

Alfred Birney has won the prestigious Libris Literature Prize - worth 50.000 euro - for his novel De tolk van Java (The Interpreter of Java). It is the second award that Birney receives for his book, in which he tells the story of his father who fought against alternating enemies in the independence war in former Dutch-Indies.

With his fourth novel, Een honger (A Hunger), previously awarded with the Dutch BNG Bank Literatuurprijs, Jamal Ouariachi wins the European Union Prize for Literature. “Besides exploring the nature of love and examining the wisdom and folly of development aid”, the jury praised _A Hunger _ for delivering “a fierce polemic against rigid sexual mores and is above all an exhilarating tour de force.”

The Gouden Lijst, a Dutch prize for youth literature for ages 12 to 15, is awarded to Benny Lindelauf for Hoe Tortot zijn vissenhart verloor. Ludwig Volbeda provided the tale about war and friendship with beautiful illustrations. An English and German translation are to be expected at Pushkin Press and Jacoby & Stuart.

The International Literary Prize Mondello goes to Dutch author Cees Nooteboom. The award ceremony will take place during the Salone Internazionale del Libro in Turin (Turin Bookfair) on Sunday May 21st. On this occasion he will talk with Ernesto Ferrero, Italian writer and literary critic, for an open public meeting at Sala Azzurra.

From the 30th of May till 4th of June, Poetry International will bring approximately 20 of the most prominent contemporary poets worldwide to Rotterdam for the 48th Poetry International Festival. This means it’s time for a new edition of the translation project In Other Words.

All in 2016 awarded Translation Grants (and other grants) can be found in the annual report of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

Dutch children’s author Anna Woltz and translator Andrea Kluitmann have been awarded the Katholischen Kinder- und Jugendbuchpreis for Gips oder Wie ich an einem einzigen Tag die Welt reparierte (Plaster Cast or How I Fixed the World Within A Day). The prize of 5,000 euro goes to both author and translator. Anna Woltz previously also received the Gouden Griffel, a prestigious Dutch award for children’s literature, for this novel.

Great success for Madla de Bruin-Hüblová and her Czech translation Pole je tento svět of the Dutch novel The field by Dola de Jong. The novel is nominated for the Magnesia Litera Prize, together with work by Irish author Sara Baume, Tunesian writer Hédi Kaddou, and their translators. The classic The Field was rediscovered in 2015 by Amsterdam based publishing house Cossee, and will or has been translated into nine languages, including English, German, French and Swedish.

The BolognaRagazzi Digital Award for the most innovative mobile app or web product for children is awarded on an annual basis by Bologna Children’s Book Fair in partnership with Children’s Technology Review. Out of 152 entries from 32 countries, the jury has chosen the winners of the Bolognarazzi Digital Award. In addition to the winners, six digital works received a special mention and some works were selected for a short-list. Een verre reis a children’s story of Dutch writer Toon Tellegen (Querido Kinderboek) produced by Yip Yip was chosen for a special mention.

The Flanders-Netherlands Guest of Honour programme at the Frankfurt Book Fair was a resounding success. In 2016, under the motto This Is What We Share, Flanders and the Netherlands organised the Guest of Honour programme at the largest trade book fair in the world. The ambitious programme ensured that more than 450 Dutch-language books were translated. The number of literary translations into German tripled compared to previous years. A new generation of writers was also successfully introduced into Germany. These are some of the conclusions of an evaluation conducted by the Flemish Literature Fund and the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

The Young Academy and the Society of Arts of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences have joined forces to develop Mingler: a virtual meeting place that encourages interaction and synergies in scientific and artistic research. A goldmine for scientists and artists seeking to collaborate across institutional boundaries.

American writer Sherill Tippins will work as writer in residence at The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS-KNAW) in Amsterdam from February until June 2017.

Ester Naomi Perquin has been appointed as the new Poet Laureate of the Netherlands for a period of two years. Perquin’s great experience of the literary world makes her perfectly suited to the role of poetry’s ambassador in the Netherlands. She has edited a literary magazine, hosted a national radio show, written columns, compiled a poetry calendar and served as the Poet Laureate of Rotterdam. Perquin does not, however, limit her activities to poetry and literature; two years ago, for instance, she wrote the memorandum of basic principles for Rotterdam’s cultural policy.

On February 1st Five Dials and guest editor Philip Huff will present it’s Dutch issue. The issue is devoted to introducing English-language readers to authors who haven’t yet become established in translation. It will serve as a showcase of the finest young authors writing in Dutch today.

On January 1, 2017 nine European organisations officially launched the PETRA-E Network for the Education and Training of Literary Translators. The partners will expand, implement and further develop the PETRA-E Framework, the result of the successful Erasmus+ funded PETRA-E project (2014-2016), and will provide a collaborative space for the discussion of related topics.

“It was still dark, in the early morning hours of the twenty-second of December 1946, on the second floor of the house at Schilderskade 66 in our town, when the hero of this story, Frits van Egters, awoke.” Almost seventy years after this fact of fiction, the Dutch postwar classic De avonden has awoken in the minds of English readers, and how! Thanks to the the superb translation by Sam Garrett and raving reviews Pushkin Press managed to sell 14,000 copies of The Evenings. A Winter’s Tale - so far. The U.S. edition will follow soon, in 2017.

January the 17th, Dutch and UK writers come together to perform in one of the most exciting venues in London, The Tabernacle. Join best-selling authors Herman Koch and David Nicholls along with a host of all-star writers from the Netherlands and a cabaret-style evening of High Impact entertainment: readings, chat, music, food and drink.

The ECI Literature Prize 2016, worth 50,000 euro and one of the most prestigious of Dutch literary prizes, has been awarded to Martin Michael Driessen for Rivieren (Rivers). He won not just the prize from the jury of professional critics but the new readers’ award as well, organized by quality newspapers NRC and De Standaard.

Dutch author Edward van de Vendel, Flemish illustrator Anton Van Hertbruggen and German translator Rolf Erdorf have won a German Children’s Literature Award in the picture book category for the German translation (Bohem Press) of The Dog that Nino Didn’t Have (De Eenhoorn, 2013).

On 18 October, the Dutch King Willem-Alexander and the Belgian King Filip and Queen Mathilde open, in the presence of the Flemish Prime Minister and the Dutch Minister of Culture, the guest-of-honour pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Flanders and the Netherlands will be presenting their culture and literature to a German and international public. This is the culmination of a great project that the Netherlands Foundation for Literature and the Flemish Literature Fund have been working hard on for almost four years.

Both Edward van den Vendel and Erna Sassen have been nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2016.

Never before has the Frankfurt Book Fair seen a guest-of-honour country manage to clock up so many translations in the run-up to the fair. The tally for translations into German of books from and about the Netherlands and Flanders, varying from travel guides and art books to literature, has exeeded the 450 mark.

Pieter Steinz passed away yesterday, at the age of fifty-two, in his home town, Haarlem. He was suffering from ALS, a progressive muscular disease with which he was diagnosed in 2013. He gradually laid aside his tasks as director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature but remained closely involved with the Foundation’s activities. He also published several successful books: Made in Europe (2014), Lezen met ALS (2015), and in 2015 the Book Week essay Waanzin in de wereldliteratuur. In that same year a completely revised edition appeared of Lezen Etcetera, first published twelve years earlier, with the title Steinz – Gids voor de wereldliteratuur. He wrote this ‘Dikke Steinz’ (‘The Thick Steinz’), as it became known, along with his daughter Jet Steinz.

The Frankfurter Buchmesse opens on the evening of Tuesday 18 October, when the official presentation of the Netherlands and Flanders as guest of honour begins with the motto, ‘This Is What We Share’. Not one, but two authors will be representing the guest of honour country. For the Netherlands, the renowned author, actor and columnist Arnon Grunberg will take to the stage, while Flanders will be presenting the youngest guest country speaker in the history of the trade fair, in the person of Charlotte van den Broeck.

Today former managing director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, Pieter Steinz received the very first copies of Der Sinn Des Lesens, the German translation of his book Lezen met ALS (Reading with ALS). It will be available in German bookstores mid July. Sooner than expected, as the title was announced for August. Thanks to translator Gerd Busse and to Reclam Verlag the production process was shortened.

More than ten Dutch-language graphic novelists have been invited to the 17th International Comic-Salon Erlangen, the most important international comic festival in Germany. Recent work by all the authors has been translated into German. Flemish and Dutch graphic novels will be featured in two exhibitions, a live drawing workshop, a special magazine, ‘Parade’ that will be printed on the spot on the Risograph and in loads of readings and encounters.

Friesian author Hanneke de Jong has won the Simke Kloosterman Prize 2016 with her youth novel Trettjin dagen om in spetterjend feest te organisearjen. The prize is awarded once every three years for the best Frisian youth or children’s book.

Dutch author Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer will be on book tour in March visiting Washington DC, New York, Houston and Dallas to present the English translation of his novel La Superba. The book was translated by Michele Hutchinson and published by Deep Vellum.

Appearances today, 10 March, by Saskia de Coster and Connie Palmen at the literary festival lit.Cologne mark the start of an extensive range of literary programmes presenting the Netherlands and Flanders as joint guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In total more than 120 Flemish and Dutch authors will make appearances in seven German cities. The kick-off in Cologne coincides with the opening of Book Week in the Netherlands.

Ted van Lieshout and Marit Törnqvist are on the shortlist of the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2016, the highest international recognition for authors and illustrators of children’s books. This is the second nomination for Van Lieshout, who was also nominated in 2014. He now shares his nomination with authors Cao Wenxuan (China), Louis Jensen (Denmark), Mirjam Pressler (Germany) and Lois Lowry (USA).

This year the Prix des Phares du Nord has been awarded to Isabelle Rosselin for Villa avec piscine, the French translation of Herman Koch’s novel Zomerhuis met zwembad (Summer House with Swimming Pool). The jury was composed of Danielle Bourgois, translator Alain Van Crugten and literary critic Margot Dijkgraaf.

All in 2015 awarded Translation Grants (and other grants) can be found in the annual report of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

Iperborea recently published an Italian translation of Tumbas by Cees Nooteboom. The book, in which Nooteboom travels to see the graves of poets and thinkers all over the world, has been very well received in the Italian newspapers.

The ECI Literature Award 2015 has been awarded to Jeroen Brouwers for The Wood. With this award the jury honours the ‘command of the language’ on display in Brouwers’ stylistic tour de force about a young teacher’s struggle to escape a brutal boarding school regime. Weissbooks will publish a German translation (by Christiane Kuby) of the novel in the autumn of 2016.

In the run-up to the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016, where the Netherlands and Flanders will be guest of honour, an impressive list of German translations is in preparation.

Although still a year away, the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016 is already bearing fruit for the Netherlands and Flanders, which will be joint guest of honour. German publishers are planning more translations of Dutch literature next year than ever before, with some 250 titles in all genres currently in preparation.

The 2015 Libris History Prize has been awarded to Alexander Münninghoff for Heir and Successor, his account of the stirring history of his family. According to the jury the award is bestowed upon a book that ‘is well written, moving and it takes you off guard’.

The Golden Slate Pencil (Gouden Griffel) has been awarded to Bette Westera at the opening ceremony of the Dutch Children’s Book Week. It is the first time since 20 years that this prestigious prize for children’s literature goes to a poetry book. For Dead Simple (Doodgewoon, Gottmer Publishers), written by Westera and illustrated by Sylvia Weve, it is is the third award this year. It also received the Woutertje Pieterse Prize 2015, and a ‘Zilveren Griffel’ and ‘Vlag & Wimpel’.

The jury of the Vondel Translation Prize 2015 has awarded the prize jointly to Laura Watkinson for The Letter for the King, her translation into English of De brief voor de koning by Tonke Dragt, and to Donald Gardner for In Those Days, his translation into English of a selection of poetry by Remco Campert. The jury was made up of British critic Paul Binding and translators David Colmer (Australia) and David McKay (US).

Adriaan van Dis (1946) has been awarded the Constantijn Huygens-prijs 2015, an important Dutch oeuvre award. His wide-ranging oeuvre consists of poems, novels, stories, plays, and essays.

The European Literature Prize 2015 goes to Een handvol sneeuw (The End of Days) by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated into Dutch by Elly Schippers. This was announced today in the radio programme Opium on 4 by Margot Dijkgraaf, chairwoman of the jury. The prize awards both author and translator of the winning novel, the author receives €10.00 and the translator €5.000.

The German newsmagazine Die Zeit and Radio Bremen have awarded Anna Woltz the July LUCHS-award for her young-adult novel Meine wunderbar seltsame Woche mit Tess, translated in German by Andrea Kluitmann and published by Carlsen Verlag.

The film version of Belcampo’s The Surprise is in the running for the Parel (Pearl) Audience Award for the best literary adaptation. Of the six films nominated, it is the only one based on the work of a Dutch-language author.

In the year in which the Netherlands and Flanders will jointly present themselves as guests of honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the Dutch Boekenweek (Bookweek) aims at Germany, under the motto Was Ich nog zu sagen hätte. This was reported today by CPNB in a press release.

This year, the Poesiefestival Berlin has invited six Dutch-speaking poets from the Netherlands and Flanders to participate in the VERSschmuggel (“verse smuggle”) translation workshop.

Tommy Wieringa’s Questi sono nomi (These are the names, translated by Claudia Di Palermo and Claudia Cozzi for Iperborea) and Stefan Hertmans’s Guerra e trementina (Oorlog en terpentijn, translated by Laura Pignatti, for Marsilio) feature both on the Premio Strega Europeo shortlist.

For his novel I will return Adriaan van Dis has been awarded the Libris Literature Reward, the most prestigious annual award for Dutch novels. I will return explores the relationship between a writer and his 98-year-old mother. As the always distant mother approaches the end of her life she is persuaded to open up about the hardships which plagued her life. She makes a deal with her son, she tells him her life-story and he will provide her with a peaceful death through pills.

The Wouterje Pieterse Prize 2015, one of the most prestigious prizes for Dutch children’s and youth literature, has been awarded to writer Bette Westera and illustrator Sylvia Weve for Doodgewoon (‘Dead Simple’). The jury praised their unique approach to the central theme of this illustrated poetry collection: death in all its aspects.

Each year the London Book Fair hands out awards in a number of categories as part of its International Excellence Awards program. We’re very proud to announce that the Dutch Foundation for Literature has made the shortlist for this year’s International Literary Translation Initiative Award.

No less than four German translations of Dutch-language children’s books are nominated for the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.

In the February 20th edition of TLS, writer Claire Lowdon praises Tommy Wieringa’s These Are the Names, the third of his novels to be translated into English. She compares the novel favourably to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road:

In The Independent blogger Ann Morgan recommends Cees Nooteboom’s Rituals as one of the ten foreign books we should all read.

Mikis and the Donkey by Dutch author Bibi Dumon Tak and illustrator Philip Hopman and translated by Laura Watkinson is the winner of the 2015 Mitchelder L. Batcheler Award. Dumon Tak, Hopman and Watkinson have the pleasure of receiving this prize - given to the most outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States - for the second time. Soldier Bear, published in Dutch as Soldaat Wojtek, won the 2012 Batchelder Award.

From January the 19th until the 23rd 10 German fiction publishers visited the Netherlands and Flanders for an extensive tour through the literature landscape of the Low Countries. During this tour the German publishers presented their publishing houses.

Last Thursday, author Maartje Wortel won the BNG Bank Literature prize. She receives the oeuvre award for young talent for her novel IJstijd.

Journalist and author Geert Mak is the recipient of the 2015 Gouden Ganzenveer (golden feather quill). The Academy honours Mak for his extraordinary engagement in both national and international history. The award will be presented to Mak on the 16th of April in Amsterdam.

Maartje Wortel will stay as a writer in residence at the Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht for a period of two months. The writer in residence programme is a joint initiative of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Van Eyck Academy.

On Friday 12 December 2015 Edgar de Bruin was awarded the Dutch Foundation for Literature’s Translation Prize for the translator as cultural ambassador. His oeuvre demonstrates his sharp eye for modern Czech literature; he has introduced writers including Petra Hůlová, Jáchym Topol, Patrik Ouředník and Markéta Pilatová to a Dutch readership.

The Belgian translation prize ‘Prix Scam de la Traduction littéraire’ has been awarded to Marie Hooghe for her translations from Dutch to French.

Die Jury des Else Otten Übersetzerpreises hat beschlossen, den Preis 2014 zwei Übersetzern zu verleihen: Bettina Bach für ihre Übersetzung von Hotel Linda von Arjan Visser, im Februar 2014 unter dem Titel Der blaue Vogel kehrt zurück erschienen bei Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag in München, und Rainer Kersten für seine Übersetzung von De laatkomer von Dimitri Verhulst, im April 2014 erschienen als Der Bibliothekar, der lieber dement war als zu Hause bei seiner Frau bei Luchterhand Verlag in München.

The P.C. Hooft Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes for literature in the Netherlands is awarded to poet Anneke Brassinga (1948), whose work has been supported by by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and has been translated in more than ten languages including German and French. The annual award is alternately given for prose (fiction), essays (non-fiction) and poetry and will be presented to Brassinga on Thursday May 21th 2015 for her body of poetry.

On the 4th of December The Independent published an overview of the best debuts of 2014. Bonita Avenue by Peter Buwalda was one of the novels on Eimear McBride’s list: “If I had to choose one first novel, it would be the addictive bedlam of Bonita Avenue by Dutch novelist Peter Buwalda (Pushkin, £12.99).”

Joost de Wit has passed away at the age of seventy-five in his home village of Muntendam. De Wit (1938-2014) was director of the Foundation for the Promotion of the Translation of Dutch Literary Works, the forerunner of the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch literature (NLPVF).

This morning at the Frankfurt Book Fair Marente de Moor was announced the winner of the European Union Prize for Literature 2014 for her second novel The Dutch Maiden (De Nederlandse maagd), published by Querido.

The two most important Dutch prizes for children’s and young adult literature, the Golden Slate Pencil and the Golden Paintbrush have gone to one and the same book, for the first time since 1985: The Mystery of Life – and the Stinky Socks of Jos Grootjes from Driel, published by Gottmer. Author Jan Paul Schutten and illustrator Floor Rieder introduce earth’s origins, the universe and the story of evolution in ways that are witty and factual, technical and anecdotal.

Poet Gerrit Kouwenaar died on 4 September 2014 in his hometown of Amsterdam. He was 91 years old. Kouwenaar was one of the most important Dutch poets and a member of the Vijftigers, a group of 1950s experimental Dutch poets, who changed Dutch poetry forever.

The Jenny Smelik-IBBY prize 2014 goes to author Hans Hagen and illustrator Philip Hopman for their youth novel Het hanengevecht (The Cockfight), published by Querido. This title was also selected for the 10 Children’s Books From Holland brochure (spring 2013) from the Dutch Foundation for Literature. Previous work by Hans Hagen has been translated into fourteen languages, including German, English, French, Spanish, Turkish, Chinese and Papiamento.

The renowned Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk is the Grand Prix winner of the 2014 Helena Vaz da Silva European Award for Raising Public Awareness on Cultural Heritage. This Award acknowledges exceptional contributions to the communication on cultural heritage and European ideals. The Jury also gave a Special Award to the Portuguese Art Historian José-Augusto França and a Special Mention to Pieter Steinz.

Flemish author Bart Moeyaert has been appointed artistic director of the programme to be presented by Flanders and the Netherlands as guests of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2016.

The shortlist for the European Literature Prize 2014 has just been announced at a festive gathering in Amsterdam. The jury selected five titles from a longlist of twenty translated novels. The European Literature Prize is unusual in recognizing both the author and the translator of the winning book. The prize will be presented on Sunday 7 September, during Manuscripta, in Utrecht.

The prestigious Libris Literature Prize 2014 has been awarded to Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer for his novel La Superba (De Arbeiderspers). The jury described it as “an important novel with a powerful universal message which deserves many new readers outside our own language”.

Words without Borders dedicates a special issue of its webmagazine to New Dutch and Flemish Writing, under the title ‘Taboos’. This issue presents short prose exploring the intrusion of the forbidden, the illegal, the unspoken into people’s lives and homes. Editors Sanneke van Hassel (writer) and Victor Schiferli (Dutch Foundation for Literature) selected work from fourteen authors, most of whom grew up in the prosperous years that the Netherlands enjoyed from the mid-1970s until the 2008 financial crisis.

Der VvL-penning 2014 geht an die Übersetzerin Andrea Kluitmann und würdigt ihr großes Engagement für das Übersetzerfach. Andrea Kluitmann setzt sich schon seit vielen Jahren für die Literatur und ihre Übersetzung in den Niederlanden ein. Als Mitglied im Beratungsgremium des Nederlands Letterenfonds in Amsterdam sowie des Expertisecentrum Literair Vertalen in Utrecht, als Mitbegründerin der Website Vertaalverhaal.nl, und nicht zuletzt als Mitorganisatorin der ‘Übersetzerglücktournee’ (Vertalersgeluktournee).

The English translations of Tirza by Arnon Grunberg (tr. Sam Garrett for Open Letter Books) and The Forbidden Kingdom by Jan Jacob Slauerhoff (orig. Het verboden rijk, tr. Paul Vincent for Pushkin) have reached the finals of the 2014 Best Translated Book Awards in Fiction.

As of 1 April 2014, the Dutch Foundation for Literature’s board of directors will become a supervisory board. On that same date, Tiziano Perez will take up the post of managing director.

On Monday 17 March, the Dutch and Flemish Ministers of Culture, Jet Bussemaker and Joke Schauvliege, signed an agreement with Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurter Buchmesse. That makes it official: the Netherlands and Flanders will jointly present themselves as guests of honour at the publishing industry’s most important international book fair in 2016. The Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Flemish Literature Fund will assume responsibility for the practical organization of the guest-of-honour programme. They will receive a significant part of the necessary funding from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Flemish Ministry of Culture, Youth, Sport and Media.