K. Schippers

(Amsterdam, 1936) is a writer, poet, essay writer and art critic. He has a wide-ranging oeuvre of more than thirty works to his name, of which Waar was je nou (Where were you) was the most successful. This novel, in which Schippers calls into being the Amsterdam and Zandvoort of his youth, was awarded the 2006 Libris literature prize. The novel is characteristic for his work, in which language experiments play an important part. K. Schippers (pen name of Gerard Stigter) was one of the founders of the avant-gardist literary magazine Barbarber, in which he once published a menu. He looks at language the way he looks at art. One of his great heroes is Marcel Duchamp. He followed in the footsteps of the artist who some 100 years ago introduced an autographed lavatory bowl as art. That journey resulted in 2010 in the boek De bruid van Marcel Duchamp (Marcel Duchamp’s bride). Schippers held the 4 May commemoration speech in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, entitled De komst van de jazz (The advent of jazz). In 1996 Schippers received the PC Hooftprijs for his entire oeuvre.