At the last Frankfurt Book Fair, the Dutch Foundation for Literature presented a Dutch Classics brochure. One of the many titles in it was Oeroeg by Hella S. Haasse. Even though it was written in 1948, it is still considered one of the highlights of her literary career. This fall, Portobello Books published a new translation by Ina Rilke, The Black Lake, a reference to the black lake in which Oeroeg’s father drowns.

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.

After thorough deliberation the jury has unanimously awarded the Else Otten Übersetzerpreis 2012 to Christiane Kuby for her translation of Godenslaap by Erwin Mortier. The German translation Götterschlaf appeared in 2010 by publishers DuMont in Cologne.

Six authors have been nominated for the AKO Literatuurprijs 2012. From all the Dutch novels published over the last twelve months, the following titles have been selected: Grip (Grip) by Stephan Enter, Liefde heeft geen hersens (Love has no Brains) by Mensje van Keulen, Dinsdag (Tuesday) by Elvis Peeters, Post Mortem by Peter Terrin, Het boek Ont (Man & Post) by Anton Valens and De man zonder ziekte (The Man without Illness) by Arnon Grunberg.

Joke van Leeuwen writes poetry and prose, which she illustrates herself, for both adults and children. Her work includes dozens of titles, for which she has now been awarded the Constantijn Huygensprijs. ‘Whether she writes or draws, for adults or for children,’ the jury writes, ‘her very personal style makes her work always instantly recognisable as that of Joke van Leeuwen.’

Erik Menkveld has won the Academica Literatuurprijs 2012 for his novel Het grote zwijgen (The Great Silence). The jury described the novel as a wide-ranging and cinematic narrative: “Het grote zwijgen tells the story of a tragic friendship that is rooted in admiration and lofty ideals, but which founders on the banal and merciless reality of war, adultery and betrayal. Above all of that reigns the great, indifferent silence of the firmament.”

Following years of effort by translator Gerd Busse, the first volume of Het Bureau has recently been published in German by C.H. Beck. This event has not gone unnoticed. The first discussions of the book have already appeared in Germany, and it seems to have been well received not only by the media, but also by readers.

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.

Poet, writer and translator Francisco Carrasquer Launed, winner of last year’s Brockway Prize for poetry translators, passed away on 7 August in the Spanish town of Tárrega.

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.

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).

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.

Alsof het voorbij is, the Dutch translation of the novel Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes has been selected as the winner of the European Literature Prize. The novel was published by Atlas Contact and translated from English by Ronald Vlek.

The novel Alsof het voorbij is (published by Atlas Contact) by Julian Barnes, translated from English by Ronald Vlek, has been selected as the winner of the European Literature Prize. The prize goes to both the author and the translator of the best European novel to appear in Dutch translation in 2011. The author will receive the sum of € 10,000, the translator € 2,500. The prize will be presented on Saturday 1 September during Manuscripta in Amsterdam.

For La cena, the Spanish translation of Het diner, Herman Koch has been awarded the Premio Novela Europea Casino de Santiago prize. Koch will receive the prize in November during a gala dinner in the casino of the Galician city. Former prize-winners include Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, Sandro Veronesi and Kazuo Ishiguro. Through the awards, the prize also seeks to contribute to the European concept.

Amsterdam Stories by Nescio, translated by Damion Searls and published by NYRB Classics, is reviewed in The Guardian. The author Nicholas Lezard compares Nescio to his near-contemporary Robert Walser: “He found little time for writing, and wrote little: but what he wrote came out of the love of it, or the urgency to express something. And that something is, very often, about the grand scheme of things, and our insignificance within it – which would in itself not be the most earth-shattering of news, were it not for the fact that there is still something rather wonderful, something holy, about this insignificance.”

The shortlist for the European Literature Prize 2012 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 in early September, during Manuscripta 2012.

Writer A.F.Th van der Heijden has won this year’s € 50,000 Libris literature prize for his novel Tonio, based on the death of his son in 2010. The book, which has sold over 100,000 copies, was regarded as the favourite for the prize.

The Dioraphte Prizes for Youth Literature have been awarded by the jury to Anne-Gine Goemans (in the Dutch-language category) and Paul Murray (in the foreign-language category); Dutch writer Arjen Lubach received the prize awarded by the public. The prize money for each award consists of 15,000 euro.

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.