Marja Pruis
(The Netherlands, 1959) has been writing about the expectations men and women have of each other and of life since her debut novel Bloem (Flower). Her novel Atoomgeheimen (Nuclear Secrets is about intimacy and the loss of ideals. She has been called the chronicler of contemporary womanhood; she explores her themes further in her novels De vertrouweling (The Confidant) and Zachte riten (Soft Rites). Pruis works at De Groene Amsterdammer weekly as a literary editor and columnist, writing essays on topics as diverse as humour, shyness and greed. She received the Jan Hanlo Prize for her collection of essays Kus me, straf me, and the J. Greshoff Prize for essayism with Genoeg nu over mij. For her columns, collected in Oplossingen (Solutions), she received the J. Heldring Prize. In Boos Meisje. Over vrouwen en frictie (Angry Girl. About Women and Friction), she writes about the split in which girls and women find themselves, including portraits of writers she admires such as Renate Rubinstein and Vivian Gornick. Her recently published confrontational novel Huiswerk (Homework) is about white privilege and the tension between employer and employee.
Past events
Book of My Life with Marja Pruis
About Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
The writer as accomplice
Writers like to give bad guys their say. The novel Muidhond generates sympathy for Jonathan, a convicted pedophile; in Alles verandert Iris violates a student but shifts from offender to victim. Are the authors accomplices to these unconscionable deeds?
The comfort of the bedside table
Elif Batuman (US/Turkey) reveals in The Possessedhow to bring literature as close to your life as possible. Manon Uphofftells us in Hoe te lezen (How to read) what the writer tries to get across. Marja Pruis questions them about the comfort literature can offer. In English.
Wintercafé 4: Late Night Utopia
Jeroen van Kan talks to Marja Pruis about her collected essays on literature. The Congolese/American spoken word artist Omékongo Dibinga enters into a poetic battle with Martijn Knol and Hagar Peeters on the feasibility of a better world. In Dutch and English.
Love's Golden Rules
Love's sincerest golden rules from world literature with Ramsey Nasr and Marja Pruis. Host: Raoul Heertje, music: Wolter Wierbos. NL/ENG
