Gerrit Komrij
(Winterswijk, 1944) was the first Poet Laureate of the Netherlands. He is considered one of the best columnists in the country, a novelist, renowned translator, and an enhtusiastic reviewer of poetry. Komrij is a cat in a Strange Warehouse, as he called a book of collected essays that came out in 2001. The world is never a trusted or obvious place, but if you look good, there's always something surprising around. 'I don't think I'm a no-nonsense guy. There's too much noise inside of me'. Komrij, who has lived in Portugal since 1984, is one of the most productive Dutch writers. Since 1968 he has published several works annually. Recently Komrij's choice of the one-hundred best Dutch poems (2008) appeared, in addition to an anthology of Dutch children's poetry in over 1000 poems (2007) and Kakafonie (2006), an 'encyclopaedia of shit'. In 2005 he published Eendagsvliegen (Ephemera, literary diary entries) and a volume of poetry Fata Morgana.
Past events
Wintercafé 2: Masquerades
Pupils from local secondary schools just do it: climbing the stage and reading their poetry on the topic of ‘masquerades’. In addition to them, Gerrit Komrij reads poems specially selected for Winternachten. In Dutch.
It really happened
Gerrit Komrij, Kristien Hemmerechts, P.F. Thomése and Naima el Bezaz in a debate on the question: how real is literary non-fiction really? Komrij opens with a pamphlet. Hosted by Koen Kleijn. In Dutch.
Long live satirical poetry
Five poets each wrote a satirical poem on the Dutch character: Maria Barnas, Frank Koenegracht, Gerrit Komrij, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer and Hans Verhagen. They breath new life into this literary tradition. Chaired by Joyce Roodnat. Dutch spoken.
