Frank Westerman
(Emmen, NL, 1964) studied tropical agricultural engineering and was a correspondent for the Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad newspapers in Belgrade and Moskow. He wrote about his time there in 1994's De Brug over de Tara (The Bridge over the River Tara). Together with journalist Bart Rijs he wrote 1997's Srebrenica, Het zwartste scenario (Srebrenica, the Blackest Scenario). Ingenieurs van de ziel (Engineers of the Soul) was published in 2002, an inquiry into the foundations of the Soviet system and the role of writers. De Graanrepubliek (The Grain Republic), about the struggle between rich gentlemen farmers and communist workers in Groningen, was published earlier. Westerman's novel El Negro en ik (El Negro and Me), inspired by a preserved South African in a Spanish museum, was published in 2004 and won the Gouden Uil prize. His revised and augmented 2015 edition of De Slag om Srebrenica (The Battle for Srebrenica) won the Prinsjes Book Prize for best political book. Een woord een woord (One Word One Word) appeared in 2016, in which he tests the strength of free speech under the pressure of terrorist threats. As a child, he experienced the Molukkan train hijacking at close quarters; as a correspondent, he witnessed Chechen terror in Russia. Drawing on these gripping experiences, he describes a series of hostage dramas. In Zeven dieren bijten terug (Seven Animals Bite Back), Frank Westerman encounters seven magnificent creatures in the wake of Willem Barentsz. Along the way, the reader becomes captivated by the wondrous tale of seven polar animals and what they have to tell us at our latitude.
Past events
IS: The Counter-Narrative
A conversation, a video essay, a poem and music about how to counteract the horror campaign and propaganda machine of the so-called Islamic State.
It's the War, Stupid!
How do extreme circumstances turn normal people into monsters capable of heinous crimes? How did 'Srebrenica' come about? This year, Frank Westerman published his Balkan reports and Slavenka Drakulić looked into the background of Yugoslavian war criminals to find a reason.
Frank Westerman: The text of my life
is a a two-line quote from Andrei Platonow. He explains why. In Dutch.
Lying the Truth
In his books the world famous Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932-2007) reported historical events, with a great deal of attention to human detail. One of his pupils, Artur Domosławski, wrote his biography. Wim Brands hosts a conversation with Artur Domoslawski, Joris van Casteren and Frank Westerman. Are writers allowed to lie the truth? In English.
