Onjuli Datta
(UK) is the co-author of Feast While You Can, a queer horror-romance which the New York Times described as 'adventurous, exciting, fantastical and erotic.' She is also co-author of The View Was Exhausting, a Goop and Good Housekeeping book club pick named 'a perfect summer read' by Vogue. Her writing has been featured in Salon, Reactor Magazine, Lithub, Autostraddle, Vulture and more. She lives in Berlin with her wife and co-author Mikaella Clements.
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Archive available for: Onjuli Datta
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The Flame of Freedom - Opening Writers Unlimited Festival 2025
With: Andrej Koerkov, Andrew Makkinga, Jan van Zanen, Judith Uyterlinde, Mamar, Mikaella Clements, Nelleke Noordervliet, Onjuli Datta, Rešoketšwe Manenzhe, Viv Groskop
The 30th edition of the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague has the theme On Fire. Fire symbolises destructive forces such as war and global warming on the one hand, but also love and freedom on the other. Jan van Zanen, mayor of The Hague, will officially open the festival.
The opening night is dedicated to free speech, with a keynote speech by Ukraine's most important writer Andrei Kurkov, whose two new books have just been published in Dutch translation: the gripping war diary Our Daily War and the Kyiv-based historical thriller The Silver Bone.
Other speakers are author Nelleke Noordervliet, who will read a column and British author and stand-up comedian Viv Groskop who will represent PEN International, the writers' organisation dedicated to freedom of expression.
This programme is also a preview and kick-off of the 30th edition of the festival, with readings, music and talks. Dutch national broadcaster NPO Radio 1-programme Kunststof presenter Andrew Makkinga will interview writers who will also perform elsewhere in the festival:
South African author Rešoketšwe Manenzhe wrote Scatterlings, her first novel about a young family broken up by the law that criminalised interracial relationships. The New York Times wrote: "a novel that is at once exquisitely intimate and globally ambitious." Rešoketšwe will also perform at both grand festival evening programmes Friday and Saturday Night Unlimited.
Famous British author, stand-up comedian, podcast creator, TV and radio presenter Viv Groskop has written seven books and creates the podcast How to Own the Room, listened to millions of times, on topics including self-confidence, public speaking and dealing with stressful situations.
Onjuli Datta and her wife Mikaella Clements, who work and live in Berlin, co-authored the novels The View was Exhausting and Feast While You Can. They will read a fragment of their own work in the form of a dialogue.
Mamar, a formation of young musicians from Syria, Turkey, the US, Italy and the Netherlands provides musical contributions. The band members are Barış Ofluoğlu (double bass), Sebastiaan West (piano), Rita Brancato (drums), Talaf Fayad (ud) and Leah Uijterlinde (clarinet, vocals).
The programme includes the screening of the short film Monument for murdered writers and journalists 2024, a project by Theatre of Wrong Decisions, Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) and PEN International.
The Flame of Freedom - Opening Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 is curated by Ilonka Reintjens.
Festival tip 1: after the opening night programme, join us for the spoken word event Mensen Zeggen Dingen x Writers Unlimited Festival, at Paard (starts 21:30 hours): the literary afterparty with poetry, poetry slam, prose and punchlines by Palestinian-American poet George Abraham, Aruban spoken word artist and poet Rosabelle Illes and, from The Netherlands, Sabina Lukovic, Duimalot and Damaris. Host will be Dean Bowen.
Get a discount here by buying a reduced price ticket for Mensen Zeggen Dingen x Writers Unlimited Festival at the online Paard box office for only 5,- (regular price 10,-).Festival tip 2: Rešoketšwe Manenzhe, Viv Groskop, Onjuli Datta and Andrei Kurkov will also perform during the grand festival nights Friday and Saturday Night Unlimited: experience the full festival experience here and choose your own route along performances, readings, talks, music and films with many authors and artists from home and abroad on five stages of Theater aan het Spui and the adjacent Filmhuis Den Haag.
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Book of My Life: Onjuli Datta in conversation with Ellen Deckwitz
Writers tell us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Ellen Deckwitz.
Onjuli Datta speaks abut Theft by Finding by American author and humorist David Sedaris, famed as the 'king of comic tales'. Those who saw his him perform live know: the diary reading is the highlight of the evening. For Theft by Finding (2017), he selected his own diary stories from 1977-2002, the period when he held all sorts of odd jobs and his writing developed.
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Literary Heat - The Female Gaze
Erotica is often dismissed as a genre filled with stereotypes. Bouquet books with muscular men on the covers come to mind. Rarely, it is seen as an art form. Is this because erotic literature is inherently lacking, or is it because the open discussion of sexual desire, especially by women, is still considered taboo? English spoken.
Join authors Yael van der Wouden, Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta for an engaging discussion on what makes erotica powerful, how voices of women are reshaping the genre, and whether erotic stories deserve the status of literature with a capital L. The programme will open with a short video made for the occasion by famous reviewer and reading vlogger Leonie Dams. Host will be Jennifer Muntslag.
Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher of creative writing and comparative literature. Together with Daphne Huisden and Simone Atangana Bekono, she wrote the mosaic narrative Vlucht/Dans/Vondst (Flight/Dance/Finding, 2023). Her debut as a novelist The Safekeep (2024) is one of six books shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Yael is the first Dutch author to make the shortlist.
Onjuli Datta (UK) is the co-author of Feast While You Can, a queer horror-romance which the New York Times described as 'adventurous, exciting, fantastical and erotic', and of the novel The View Was Exhausting. Her writing has been featured in Salon, Reactor Magazine, Lithub, Autostraddle, Vulture and more. She lives in Berlin with her wife and co-author Mikaella Clements.
Mikaella Clements is an Australian writer currently based in Berlin. With her wife Onjuli Datta, she co-wrote Feast While You Can (2024), an 'exciting new hybrid horror-romance about queer love in a small town that serves as an unsettling reminder that the horrors of modern life are a monster ready to possess us all' (New York Times Book Review), as well as The View Was Exhausting. Her non-fiction has been published in the New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, TLS, and many others. She has a Masters in English Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin.
Leonie Dams is a video creator, 'dweller of fictional worlds', makes reviews, reading vlogs and all sorts of other bookish, English spoken content that is viewed by many on her YouTube and Instagram platforms titled The Book Leo.
Jennifer Muntslag makes music, presents, sings, acts and leads workshops. She has presented events at Pakhuis De Zwijger, Kunstbende, Oerol, Amsterdam Roots Festival, spoken word nights, and was host/MC of events like Vieze Poezendek, Milkshake Festival, Kwaku and Into the Great Wide Open.
Reading tip: the essay The Best Queer Sex Scenes in Literature (2024, published by the digital publisher Electric Literature).Literary Heat - The Female Gaze is curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Mojdeh Feili.
