Lucas Hüsgen

(Weert, NL 1960), penname of Lucas de Jong, made his debut in 1992 with Zeehond in wormgat (Seal in Worm Hole). Followed a year later by the collections of poetry Nevels orgel (Nebula's Organ; nomination C. Buddingh' Prize). The anthology Deze rouwmoedige schoonheid (This Mourncourageous Beauty, 2005) was nominated for the Ida Gerhardt Poetry Award.

 According to the jury the laboured language demands a lot from the reader, but his poems are 'so seductive and witty that we become detached from every callibrated mode of reasoning or poetic tradition.' His novel Plooierijen van geschik (2007) made it to the 2008 longlist of the Libris Literature Prize and the Gouden Uil. Hüsgen translates Korean poetry and his recent novel De Windbel (The Wind Bell) reads like a road movie through Korea and the virtual world. He also works for the literary magazines Yang and Parmentier and regularly writes for musical projects. For Nazi te Venlo (Nazi In Venlo, 2011), a quest for the alleged Nazi past of his great-grandfather, he was recipient of the J. Greshoff Prize.