Joost Oomen

(The Netherlands, 1990) is a poet, writer, theatre-maker and drummer. He was city poet of Groningen. His debut novel Het Perenlied (The Pear Song, 2022) is a ‘tender, joyful, optimistic and overwhelming story’ (Tzum). Visjes: een avontuur op Salina (Small fish: an adventure on Salina, 2022) is both travelogue and paean to Italian islands. His poetry collection Lievegedicht (Dear Poem, 2023), received - unusually for poetry - reprint after reprint. His novel Het paradijs van slapen (The Paradise of Sleeping, 2024) is about love, death, Friesland, Terschelling, art and euthanasia. Joost regularly recites poems in TV programmes. He is also one of the three founders of the instagram channel @poezieiseendaad. The three of them put together the anthology Voor alle dagen (For All Days, 2023). From early 2025, he tours with the theatre performance Liefde in tijden van hopjesvla, a collaboration of garagejazz formation Kruidkoek and Explore the North.