Alma Mathijsen
(The Netherlands, 1984) is a writer. In 2006 she debuted with Binnen spelen (Playing Inside), in which her namesake character Alma has sexual encounters with famous people such as former Dutch prime minister Balkenende and Bert from Sesame Street. Alles is Carmen (Everything is Carmen) followed in 2011, about a girl who has no purpose in life until she falls in love. In 2014 her biographically-tinged novel De grote goede dingen (Big Good Things) was published, about the daughter of an anarchist musician who travels to Israel to find out who her late father was. Her novel Vergeet de meisjes (Forget the Girls) was published in 2017; in her autobiographical Bewaar de zomer (Keep the Summer, 2020, longlisted for the Libris Literature Prize) she candidly writes about loss, growing up, language and love. Her new novel will be published in spring 2024.
Past events
Ode to Remco's Coat
A programme celebrating Remco Campert. Fado singer Cristina Branco and pianist João Paulo have set the celebrated Dutch poet's Ode aan mijn jas (Ode to My Coat) to music. Mustafa Stitou, Hanneke van Eijken, and VSB Poetry Prize nominees Hester Knibbe, Alfred Schaffer, and Peter Verhelst each dedicate a poem to him. Concluding performance by the Blue Moon choir. A collaboration with Poetry International and the VSB Poetry Prize.
