Maartje Smits

(Soest, NL, 1986) is a poet in imagery and language, which are subjects she also studied at the Gerrit Rietvelt Academy, graduating in 2009. In 2011 she completed her Master in design at the Sandberg Institute. She calls herself "a writing detective, because that's what I (once) want(ed) to become. Each subject demands its own form, that's why I must be flexible. One day I am a filming poet, then a subjective journalist, beekeeper, and tomorrow probably something else." Her first volume of poetry, Als je een meisje bent (When You Are a Girl) was published in 2015. In 2017 her second volume appeared, Hoe ik een bos begon in mijn badkamer (How I Started a Forest in my Bathroom). It won her the Dutch Foundation for Literature debutante scholarship. Smits teaches at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and at ArtEZ. On the side, she is a hobbyist beekeeper in Amsterdam-Noord.