Romkje de Bildt new managing director

23 August 2023

On 1 November, Romkje de Bildt becomes the new managing director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. She succeeds Tiziano Perez, who announced in April that he will be leaving after ten years at the head of the national cultural foundation.

Romkje de Bildt. Photo: Teun Grondman

Roos Vermeij, chair of the foundation’s Supervisory Board, says, ‘Romkje de Bildt has wide experience in the field, and from her previous position, her managerial experience and her personality, she brings a great deal of knowledge and expertise. We are enormously pleased with her appointment.’

Romkje de Bildt (b. 1981) has worked at the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds since 2017 as adviser in the field of History and Literature. In that role she is responsible for its literature policy, which involves giving advice on applications and on adherence to guidelines such as the Fair Practice Code and the Diversity and Inclusion Code. She is also secretary to the Martinus Nijhoff Translation Prize and was involved right from the start with the latest Sleutelfigurenreeks, a series of literary and historical biographies. Her previous jobs include education staff member at the CPNB and editor at the Surinamese newspaper de Ware Tijd. She studied Classical Languages and Dutch Language and Literature at the University of Amsterdam.

De Bildt says of her appointment, ‘Sustaining a variegated literary landscape in the broadest sense is important for any society, and in that respect the Dutch Foundation for Literature has a crucial role to play. I look forward to being able to devote myself to that along with all the people who work at the foundation.’

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