Lida Dijkstra
Lida Dijkstra (b. 1961), or Dykstra in Frisian, her mother tongue, grew up in Friesland. She trained as a museum worker in Leiden, where she later studied art history and archaeology. She worked in museums for some years, but after her daughter was born, she began to write more and more. Her work has been published in both Dutch and Frisian, and her oeuvre also includes read-aloud stories and exciting tales for readers who are a little older. History often plays a role in her writing.
In 2000 Wolken fan wol appeared, an adaptation of six tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The book was selected for the 2002 IBBY Honours List and was published in Dutch in 2001 by Lemniscaat, as Waiting for Apollo (Wachten op Apollo). This Dutch version was given an honourable mention in 2002 by the Golden Kiss jury, one of the most important youth literature prizes in the Netherlands. She won a Vlag and wimpel for her Verhalen voor de vossenbroertjes (Stories for the Little Fox Brothers), a surprising and quirky take on the medieval classic Van den vos Reynaerde, the story of Reynard the fox. In 2017 De ring van koning Salomo was nominated for the Woutertje Pieterse Prize.
