News

Remco Campert

In memoriam

14 July 2022 - General and Authors

In Remco Campert (1929-2022) Dutch literature has lost one of its best-loved writers. He wrote poems, stories, novels, novellas and columns, and in 1976 was awarded the PC Hooft Prize for poetry, in 2011 the Gouden Ganzenveer and in 2015 the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Dutch Literature Prize) for his oeuvre as a whole. In recognition of his major contribution to Dutch literature, Campert had been in receipt of an annual ‘honourgrant’ from the Dutch Foundation for Literature since 2004.

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Shortlist European Literature Prize 2021

29 June 2021 - Press releases, Translators, Awards and Authors

Jury chair Manon Uphoff has announced the shortlist for the European Literature Prize 2021. Five titles have been selected, all of them contemporary European novels in Dutch translation. The prize is being presented this year for the eleventh time; it goes to both the author and the translator.

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Gerda Blees wins EU Prize for Literature

We Are Light

19 May 2021 - Awards, International and Authors

Gerda Blees has been awarded the European Union Prize for Literature for Wij zijn licht (Podium publishers). The jury unanimously picked her novel as the Dutch winner of 2021. Through 25 narrators, Blees offers a new perspective in each chapter and thus describes the members of a commune who stop eating because they want to live on light and air. The novel was previously selected as Best Book of the Year by Dutch bookstores and shortlisted for the Libris Literatuur Prize 2021.

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Shortlist European Union Prize for Literature 2021

15 April 2021 - Awards, International and Authors

Gerda Blees, Jente Posthuma and Raoul de Jong are nominated for the European Union Prize for Literature. The Netherlands is one of the 14 participating counties in the EUPL 2021. The EUPL awards one winner per country.

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Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis

Four Dutch books nominated

25 March 2021 - Awards, International and Authors

Four Dutch children’s books are nominated for the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2021. The jury selected 24 books in four categories from 667 submitted new publications, either written in or translated into German. The prize announcement and award ceremony will take place on Friday 22 October, during the Frankfurt Book Fair. Writer, translator and illustrator share the award.

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Royal distinction for Selma van de Perre-Velleman

17 February 2021 - International and Authors

Selma van de Perre-Velleman received a Royal distinction at a festive, digital award ceremony. Dutch Ambassador to the UK, Karel van Oosterom, presented the award. Selma van de Perre, who now lives in London, was a member of the Dutch Resistance in World War Two. She is one of the few survivors of the Ravensbrück concentration camp who are still alive today and has spent the last few decades tirelessly informing younger generations about the horrors of the War.

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Open Call: Writer in residence

NIAS-KNAW: 2021-2022

10 February 2021 - Authors

The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) and the Dutch Foundation for Literature invite applicants for the position of writer in residence. The position is tenable at NIAS in Amsterdam from 1 February 2022 until 31 June 2022.

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Dublin Literary Prize

Three Dutch titles nominated

8 February 2021 - Translators, Awards, International and Authors

Two Dutch and one Flemish author and their translators have been longlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize 2021. The longlist is nominated by libraries around the world making it a great spotlight for international writing. The first Dutch winner of this prestigious award were in 2010 Gerbrand Bakker and translator David Colmer for The Twin, which has been translated into 25 languages.

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Lieke Marsman

Dutch Poet Laureate

25 January 2021 - Authors

Lieke Marsman has been appointed as the new Poet Laureate of the Netherlands. The next two years she will write poems on the occasion of national events and act as poetry ambassador. She is the youngest Dutch Poet Laureate to date.

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P.C. Hooft Prize to poet Alfred Schaffer

16 December 2020 - Awards, General and Authors

Alfred Schaffer (b. 1973) has been awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the Netherlands. He is the first laureate of this poetry oeuvre award to have debuted in the 21st century. This year his twelfth volume of poetry, Wie was ik, strafregels was published at The Busy Bee. So far, his work has been translated into Afrikaans, English, French, German, Macedonian, Turkish, Indonesian and Swedish.

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Gold for Bette Westera and Yvonne Jagtenberg

1 October 2020 - Awards and Authors

The 2020 Golden Slate Pencil for the writer of the best Dutch children’s book of the year has been awarded to Bette Westera for her book Uit elkaar (Breaking Up, Gottmer Publishers), illustrated by Sylvia Weve. The Golden Paintbrush 2020, the most important Dutch prize for an illustrator of children’s and young adult literature, goes to Yvonne Jagtenberg for Hup Herman! (Gottmer Publishers). These prestigious prizes were presented on national television at the launch of the Dutch Children’s Book Week.

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New Voices in Dutch Contemporary Literature Published in English

22 September 2020 - Press releases, Events, International and Authors

The Dutch contemporary writing scene is experiencing an exciting discovery moment for UK readers. Marieke Lucas Rijneveld was announced as the first Dutch International Booker Prize winner on 26th August 2020 and the work of historian Rutger Bregman is hugely popular, along with others from the increasingly influential The Correspondent. Now Verzet offers readers the opportunity to delve deeper into works by young, diverse, emerging Dutch writers translated into English for the very first time.

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International Booker Prize for The Discomfort of Evening

Rijneveld and Hutchison awarded

28 August 2020 - Awards, International, Authors and Translators

For the first time ever, a Dutch novel has been awared the International Booker Prize. The Discomfort of Evening (Faber & Faber) by author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and translator Michele Hutchison has won this prestigious award. Rijneveld is not only the first Dutch author to be awarded this honour but also the first debut novelist and the youngest author ever to receive the International Booker Prize. The foreign rights to their novel have been sold to 21 countries, so far.

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Italian prize for Jan Brokken’s The Just

7 August 2020 - International and Authors

I giusti, Claudia Cozzi’s Italian translation of De rechtvaardigen for Iperborea has been awarded the Premio Tribùk dei Librai. This book trade prize, whose jury comprises 105 booksellers, is aimed to emphasize the important role bookshops play as cultural mediators.

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Stephan Sanders Guest of the Director at NIAS

11 June 2020 - Authors and Press releases

Author Stephan Sanders has been invited by the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and the Dutch Foundation for Literature to be a fellow as the Guest of the Director. Sanders will write a book on the increasing dichotomy between ‘white’ and ‘black’ in politics and public debate.

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Rutger Bregman’s Humankind

Glimmer of hope

3 June 2020 - International and Authors

Humankind: A Hopeful History, the English translation of historian Rutger Bregman’s bestseller De meeste mensen deugen, has been published by Bloomsbury in the UK to rave reviews. The book was hailed as the new Sapiens; the first reprint followed within a week. Online events with Bregman sold out immediately. The English translation (by Elizabeth Manton and Erica Moore) will be released in the US today by Little Brown.

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Aleid Truijens and Jennifer N. Makumbi

writers in residence at NIAS Amsterdam 2020/21

27 May 2020 - Press releases and Authors

From September 2020, Dutch biographer Aleid Truijens will be writer-in-residence at NIAS for a period of 5 months, followed by Ugandan-British author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi in February 2021. The writer-in-residence fellowship in the international and academic environment of NIAS is part of a cooperation of the Dutch Foundation for Literature with NIAS.

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Support measures

12 May 2020 - Translators, International, Authors and General

In this uncertain time in which authors, illustrators, translators and publishers face major challenges, the Dutch Foundation for Literature is aiming to give as much support as possible to our partners.

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The Letter for the King

Netflix release March 20

18 March 2020 - International, Authors and General

The Letter for the King, a new Netflix Original series based on the Dutch children’s classic by Tonke Dragt, will be released on March 20. It is the first time a Dutch novel is adapted by Netflix.

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Longlist International Booker Prize 2020

Rijneveld and Hutchison nominated

27 February 2020 - Awards, International and Authors

The longlist of UK’s International Booker Prize 2020 is announced. Among the 13 nominated titles is The Discomfort of Evening by Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and translator Michele Hutchison. The novel will be published by Faber & Faber on March the 19th. The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a single book translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. The contribution of both author and translator is given equal recognition, with the £50,000 prize split between them.

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‘Lampie’ nominated for Carnegie Medal

26 February 2020 - Awards, International and Authors

Lampie and the Children of the Sea by Annet Schaap and translated by Laura Watkinson for Pushkin Press, is nominated for the Carnegie Medal. It is the first time ever that a translation has been longlisted for this prestigious prize for children’s literature. Little Wise Wolf by Hanneke Siemensma and Gijs van der Hammen won a nomination for the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustrators.

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New Dutch Poetry

Maartje Smits and Simone Atangana Bekono

10 February 2020 - International and Authors

In cooperation with Poetry International the Dutch Foundation for Literature introduces two new voices in Dutch poetry: Simone Atangana Bekono and Maartje Smits. Bekono writes sweeping epistolary poems, in which she explores the relationship between body and identity. Smits’ poetry is musical, playful, feminist and innovative.

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Mischa Andriessen wins Awater Poetry Prize

24 January 2020 - Awards and Authors

Mischa Andriessen wins the annual Awater Poetry Prize. A jury consisting of 27 Dutch and Flemish critics, journalists, and other poetry specialists, chose his Winterlaken [Winter Sheet] as the best poetry collection of 2019.

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Residency at NIAS-KNAW Amsterdam

Open call

18 January 2020 - General and Authors

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).

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Maxim Februari’s oeuvre twice crowned

17 January 2020 - Awards, Authors and General

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.

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Hagar Peeters writer in residence at NIAS-KNAW

30 August 2019 - Authors and Press releases

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.

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Cees Nooteboom Honorary Doctorate

University College London

22 August 2019 - Awards, International and Authors

Dutch poet, novelist and travel writer Cees Nooteboom will be granted a honorary doctorate at the University College London. The ceremony will take place at Tuesday 3 September 2019 at UCL in London. Nooteboom already holds honorary doctorates from universities in Brussels, Nijmegen and Berlin.

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Edward van de Vendel wins the Anna Blaman Prize

10 July 2019 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Winners ANV Debutantenprijs

Mirthe van Doornik en Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

8 July 2019 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Kamil Bałuk as WiR in Amsterdam

Writer in residence programme 2019

1 July 2019 - Press releases, Authors and General

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.

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Grand Poetry Prize to Radna Fabias

17 June 2019 - Awards, General and Authors

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.

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Rob van Essen wins Libris Literature Prize

7 May 2019 - Awards and Authors

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.

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NIAS-KNAW writers in residence 2019-2020

Open call

19 March 2019 - Authors

The Dutch Foundation for Literature and NIAS-KNAW invite publishers and others to nominate a writer for the witer-in-residence fellowship at NIAS-KNAW in Amsterdam for the academic year 2019/20. 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 until 1 May.

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Marga Minco wins P.C. Hooft Prize

11 December 2018 - Awards, General and Authors

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.’

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The Netherlands and Flanders ‘focus country’ at France’s largest children’s book fair

Literary autumn marathon in France: 21 authors in five cities

22 November 2018 - Press releases, International, Authors and General

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.

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Cees Nooteboom wins German poetry prize

27 November 2018 - Awards, International and Authors

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.

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Stuttgarter Buchwochen & Karlsruher Bücherschau

Follow-up campaign ‘This is what we share’

14 November 2018 - General, Authors, International and Press releases

In November, nine Dutch and Flemish authors will perform during the Stuttgarter Buchwochen and the Karlsruher Bücherschau. Their performances are part of the campaign organised in Germany in 2017-2018, as a follow-up to the successful Flemish-Dutch Guest of Honour programme at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016. With these two, almost simultaneous festivals in Stuttgart and Karlsrühe, the ‘This is what we share’ campaign in Germany comes to an end.

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‘Vote for the Okapi’ wins Estonian award

19 November 2018 - Awards and Authors

The Estonian translation by Kerti Tergem of Vote for the Okapi (published by Päike ja Pilv), an illustrated children’s book by Edward van de Vendel and Martijn van der Linden, has won the Tower of Babel Honour Diploma. The Tower of Babel Honour Diploma is awarded annually to an outstanding foreign book published in another country by a living children’s book author that is translated into Estonian and published in Estonia. Previously Vote for the Okapi has won the Woutertje Pieterse Prijs 2016 (best Dutch children’s book of the year), Zilveren Griffel 2016 (best informative children’s book) and an honorary mention for the illustrations.

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Tommy Wieringa wins BookSpot Literature Prize

8 November 2018 - Awards and Authors

Tommy Wieringa has won the BookSpot Literature Prize 2018 for his novel Santa Rita (translated into English by Sam Garrett). The prize is one of the biggest Dutch literature prizes, and consists of €50.000. In addition to the jury prize, he also has won the reader’s prize, consisting of €10.000.

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‘Ditët e Naimit’ to Gerry van der Linden

international poetry award

30 October 2018 - Awards, International and Authors

Dutch poet Gerry van der Linden has received the literary prize of the International Poetry Festival Ditët e Naimit. The 22nd edition of this Macedonian festival hosted twentyfive poets from across the globe. At the opening of the festival Van der Linden received the ‘Ditët e Naimit’ award, given for one’s literary career and poetry oeuvre, from festival director Shaip Emërllahu.

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Pieter Waterdrinker wins prize for best sentence

26 October 2018 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Jeroen Olyslaegers as WiR in Amsterdam

Writer in residence programme 2018

2 October 2018 - Press releases and Authors

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.

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Willem Asman wins Golden Noose

7 June 2018 - Awards, Authors and General

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.

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Miriam Van hee wins Ultima Prize for literature

29 May 2018 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Flanders and the Netherlands in the spotlight at Comedie du Livre

leading literary festival in South France invites 30 Dutch authors

24 May 2018 - Press releases, International, Authors and General

No less than 30 Dutch and Flemish authors are on stage this weekend at the ‘Comédie du Livre’ festival in Montpellier, with nearly 100,000 visitors the most important literay festival in the south of France. This years 33rd edition of the festival has a special focus on the Low Countries. Both new, recently introduced authors - such as Joost de Vries, Niña Weijers, Lize Spit, Inge Schilperoord - and in France well known names are part of the invited group of writers. Many genres are represented: novels, but also graphic novels, thrillers and literary non-fiction.

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Dumon Tak wins Theo Thijssen Prize

15 May 2018 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Oeuvre prize for poet Mustafa Stitou

2 May 2018 - Awards and Authors

Moroccan-Dutch poet Mustafa Stitou will be awarded the triennial oeuvre prize for poetry from the A. Roland Holst Fund. ‘In a grand way Stitou addresses urgent themes. His oeuvre may be modest, but his voice is unique in Dutch poetry’, according to the jury report.

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Judith Herzberg wins Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren 2018

1 May 2018 - Awards and Authors

The Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (Dutch Literature Award), the prestigious literary prize awarded once every three years to an author whose oeuvre occupies an important place in Dutch literature, will be awarded to Judith Herzberg this fall. This was announced by minister Ingrid Engelshoven on behalf of the Committee of Ministers of the Taalunie. The jury calls Herzberg’s poetry “heartbreakingly simple yet complex precisely because of it. Her precise observations from daily life reveal something essential about human traffic”.

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Writing in the Lowlands

25 Portraits of writers from the Netherlands and Flanders

19 April 2018 - International and Authors

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.

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Longlist Libris Literature Prize 2018

7 February 2018 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Menno Wigman (1966-2018)

In Memoriam

2 February 2018 - Authors

‘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.

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BNG Bank Literature Prize to Marjolijn van Heemstra

12 January 2018 - Awards, Authors and General

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.

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Nachoem Wijnberg wins P.C. Hooft Prize

16 December 2017 - Awards, Authors and General

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.

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Taalunie Playwriting Prize to Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer

15 December 2017 - Awards, Authors and General

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.”

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Charlotte Köhler Prize to Alfred Schaffer

24 November 2017 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Silberne Feder 2017 for Anna Woltz

5 July 2017 - International and Authors

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.

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Silver Slates and Paint Brushes 2017

23 June 2017 - Authors

This week the winners of the Zilveren Griffels (Silver Slates) and Penselen (Paint Brushes) were announced. The Griffel Jury awarded seven children’s books Zilveren Griffels, recognition from the book trade for the best children’s titles of the past year. The Penseel Jury awarded two Zilveren Penselen and two Zilveren Paletten.

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Gouden Lijst goes to Benny Lindelauf

25 April 2017 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Nooteboom wins Mondello Prize

19 April 2017 - Awards, International and Authors

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.

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ECI Literature Prize awarded to Martin Driessen

Two awards

11 November 2016 - Awards and Authors

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.

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German Children’s Literature Award for Van de Vendel

23 October 2016 - Translators and Authors

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).

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Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2016

Edward van den Vendel and Erna Sassen nominated

2 October 2016 - Authors

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

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Pieter Steinz’s ‘Der Sinn des Lesens’

Reading with ALS

15 June 2016 - Translators, International and Authors

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.

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Dutch Olympic cultural programme in Rio de Janeiro

8 June 2016 - Press releases, Events, International and Authors

In the period leading up to the Olympic Games, the Dutch cultural programme HOBRA will be held in Rio de Janeiro from 11 to 31 July. Ten Dutch and ten Brazilian artists and other creative professionals will form teams of 2. Each duo will create a new work within three weeks. The results will be presented to the Brazilian and international public during a large-scale concluding event.

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Comics festival Erlangen focuses on Flanders and the Netherlands

18 May 2016 - Press releases, Events, International and Authors

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.

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Hanneke de Jong wins Simke Kloosterman Prize

16 April 2016 - Awards and Authors

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.

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US tour Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer

Presenting La Superba

10 March 2016 - Translators, Events, International and Authors

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.

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Es geht los!

Guest of honour programme kicks off in Germany, coinciding with the opening of Dutch Book Week

9 March 2016 - International, Authors and General

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.

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Subsidy for two literary games

Literature and games come together in innovative productions

22 January 2016 - Press releases, Authors and General

The Game Fund and the Dutch Foundation for Literature are jointly subsidizing two literary games. Flemish writer Joost Vandecasteele is collaborating with indie game studio Happy Volcano to create a game in which the gameplay determines the course of a dark story. In the game ‘Puzzling Poetry’ by Studio Louter and poet Lucas Hirsch, players transform poems.

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Mairisch goes Amsterdam

3 December 2015 - International, Authors and General

In February 2016, the entire team of the Hamburg-based publishing house mairisch will be moving to Amsterdam for a month. This is related to the joint guest of honour status of the Netherlands and Flanders at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2016.

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Jeroen Brouwers wins ECI Literature Award 2015

13 November 2015 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Libris History Prize for Alexander Münninghoff

Heir and Successor awarded

26 October 2015 - Authors

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’.

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Dutch authors and film directors in Brazil

4 August 2015 - Press releases, Events, International, Authors and General

From 26 August through 5 September, seven Dutch authors will take part in a ten-day festival in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, organized by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and EYE International, with the theme of Dutch literature and film.

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Nomination for Belcampo film

7 July 2015 - Authors

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.

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Verse smuggle

Poesiefestival Berlin

19 May 2015 - Events, Authors and International

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.

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Wieringa and Hertmans shortlisted

Premio Strega Europeo

18 May 2015 - Authors

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.

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The Independent recommends Nooteboom’s Rituals

‘A foreign book we should all read’

10 February 2015 - Authors

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

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P.C. Hooft Prize for poet Anneke Brassinga

16 December 2014 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Buwalda’s Bonita Avenue debut of the year

Selected by Eimear McBride (The Independent)

11 December 2014 - Authors

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).”

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Marente de Moor wins EU Prize for Literature

8 October 2014 - Awards, International and Authors

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.

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Two times gold for Schutten and Rieder

‘The Mystery of Life’

1 October 2014 - Awards, General and Authors

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.

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Gerrit Kouwenaar

In Memoriam

7 September 2014 - Authors

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.

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Jenny Smelik-IBBY prize for Hans Hagen and Philip Hopman

5 September 2014 - Awards and Authors

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.

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Interview with WiR Carrasco

31 July 2014 - International, Authors and General

Jesús Carrasco talks about the overwhelming success of his debut Intemperie (Dutch translation: De vlucht) in a video that Marieke Kessel made during his period as a writer in residency in Amsterdam. During his residence Carrasco worked on his second novel: “it’s an investigation about the relationship between a man and the land. If you take away all the things, everything that sustains him, affections, material goods, safety - then what happens? What remains of the man as a human being?”

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La Superba

Libris Literature Prize for Pfeijffer

14 May 2014 - Awards and Authors

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”.

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Words Without Borders presents

Taboos: New Dutch and Flemish Writing

5 May 2014 - International and Authors

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.

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Batchelder Award for ‘Mister Orange’

Praise for Dutch youth literature

3 February 2014 - Awards and Authors

Mister Orange is the 2014 Batchelder Award winner. Originally published in Dutch in 2011, the book was written by Truus Matti, translated by Laura Watkinson, and published by Enchanted Lion Books. Another translation from Dutch by Watkinson, The War Within These Walls (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers), written by Aline Sax and illustrated by Caryl Strzelecki, was selected as one of three Honour Books. The Batchelder Award is given to the most outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States.

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Longlist Libris Literature Prize 2014

28 January 2014 - Awards and Authors

Eighteen Dutch and Flemish novels have been selected for the longlist of the Libris Literature Prize 2014: the biggest Dutch literary award next to the AKO Literature Prize, modeled after the famous Booker Prize. The annual Libris prize for the best Dutch novel of the previous year consists of € 50.000.

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Perquin wins VSB Poetry Prize

Holland’s most prestigious prize for poetry

31 January 2013 - Awards and Authors

Ester Naomi Perquin‘s third poetry collection titled Cell Inspections (Celinspecties) has been awarded the VSB Poetry Prize, Holland’s most prestigious prize for poetry, worth 25,000 euros. The other nominees were H.H. ter Balkt, Luuk Gruwez, Sybren Polet and Menno Wigman.

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Bernlef

In memoriam

30 October 2012 - Authors

The day the 2012 AKO Literature Prize was presented, its first winner died. Bernlef was awarded the AKO Prize in 1987 for Public Secret. Best known as the author of Out of Mind (1984), which was published in twenty languages, he served on the board of the Literature Foundation from 1968 to 1970. He was also a poet whose twenty collections won him the P.C. Hooft Prize in 1994 and the translator of many novels and poems from Swedish and French.

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Death of author Willem G. van Maanen

21 August 2012 - Authors

Writer Willem G. van Maanen passed away last Friday at the age of ninety-one, his publisher De Bezige Bij announced today. Van Maanen (1920-2012) was the author of a varied and highly respected body of work in which music, theatre, fine art and architecture played an important part. In 2004 he was awarded the Constantijn Huygens Prize for his work as a whole.

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Villa Marguerite Yourcenar

23 July 2012 - Authors

The Institut Néerlandais in Paris kindly requested us to bring to your attention the writers residence Villa Marguerite Yourcenar in the North of France. The residence offers accommodation to authors from all over Europe for a period of one or two months during which they can work on their manuscript. Applications for 2014 are now welcome and can be submitted by writers of all literary genres: novel, poetry, theatre, essay, comics, young adult and children’s literature. In order to apply one must have published at least one book with a European publishing house.

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Gerbrand Bakker wins Spanish literature prize

26 June 2012 - Awards and Authors

Gerbrand Bakker has won the Premi Llibreter 2012 for his debut novel Boven is het stil (2006), which was published this year by the new publishing house Rayo Verde in Barcelona, both in Spanish (translated by Julio Grande as Todo está tranquilo arriba) and in Catalan (translated by Maria Rossich Andreu as A dalt tot està tranquil).

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German edition of Winter in Wartime published

22 June 2012 - Authors

Since yesterday, the German edition of Winter in Wartime (Oorlogswinter) by Jan Terlouw has been available in German bookshops. It has been translated by Eva Schweikart. Terlouw’s novel has been published by Verlag Urachhaus, a firm that has published 109 Dutch children’s books in German over the years. That is a record number of translations from the Dutch for any publisher.

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Doeschka Meijsing (1947-2012)

In memoriam

8 February 2012 - Authors

With a cigarette in one hand and a glass in the other, Doeschka Meijsing was a well-known figure in the Amsterdam literary world. Her aim in life was to write ‘as if every morning is sparkling new and the remains of last night’s party need to be swept together in language,’ as she puts it in her novel 100% chemie (100% Chemistry). The last thing she wanted was to make things easy for herself. She wrung life out until it hurt.

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