Donald Niedekker

(Netherlands, 1963) is a poet and writer. He debuted as a novelist with Hier ben ik (Here I Am, 2002). This was followed by an oeuvre full of characters who find themselves somewhat in the shadows of society, such as a cloakroom manager in the theatre monologue De garderobier (The Cloakroom Manager, 2002), or a man who sharpens pencils at Ikea in the novella Zo zie je alles (That's How You See It All, 2019). Under the pseudonym Ellen Winkelbach he published Het moet wel beschaafd blijven (It's Supposed to Remain Civilized, 2008). His 2016 novel Oksana was nominated for the Fintro Literature Prize; in 2021, he received the Brussels VUB Luc Bucquoye Prize for idiosyncratic literature. His most recent novel Waarachtige beschrijvingen uit de permafrost (True Descriptions from the Permafrost, 2021) was shortlisted for the Boekenbon Literature Prize and won the 2022 F. Bordewijk Prize.