“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.