Piet Gerbrandy
(The Hague, NL, 1958) is a poet, translator, essayist, classicist, and poetry critic. At the festival he will recieve the 2014 Jan Campert Prize for his book Vlinderslag (Stroke of the Butterfly) which the jury called "a grand synthesis of all of Gerbrandy's earlier experiments." In it, the author combines different genres such as lyrical poetry, prose poetry, and poetic essays. The language is mannered, gruff, short of articles, melancholy, but also humorous. Vlinderslag is an antiphony in which a thoughtful narrator muses about wind, rust, and a woman who runs into the sea; a lyrical poet sings about mulberries, stock market drops, and insomnia; and a sober commentator points out social trends. Gerbrandy studied classical languages and comparative Indo-European linguistics and now teaches Latin at the University of Amsterdam. He has written essays for De Groene Amsterdammer magazine since 1993. He later became the poetry critic at the Volkskrant newspaper. In 2009 he earned his PhD on the poetry of H. H. ter Balkt and Jacques Hamelink. Gerbrandy is the grandson of former prime minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy.
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The Writers' Fest
With: Aad Meinderts, Bart Moeyaert, Bas Heijne, Calliope Tsoupaki, Cristina Branco, De Règâhs, Dimitri Verhulst, Francis Broekhuijsen, Ivo van Hove, Jan van Mersbergen, Joris Wijsmuller, Kees 't Hart, Luc Coorevits - Behoud de Begeerte, Lucky Fonz III, Maarten 't Hart, Maria Barnas, Mensje van Keulen, Piet Gerbrandy
Francis Broekhuijsen hosts the festival's concluding celebration: the Writers' Fest, a varied programme centred around Dutch literature.
Poet Maria Barnas begins the afternoon with an ode to poetry. Writer and critic Kees' t Hart introduces the programme with his views on the state of Dutch literature, a speech about the literary highlights of 2014. Writer Bart Moeyaert, artistic manager of special guests Flanders and the Netherlands at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair, presents his plans to promote our literature in the global context. Fado singer Cristina Branco sings songs composed specially for the occasion, based on poetry by Remco Campert and others.
The core of the programme is the presentation of the Jan Campert prizes, the City of The Hague's prestigious literary awards, with inspired lectures by admirers of the laureates. For his poetry collection Vlinderslag (Stroke of the Butterfly), Piet Gerbrandy will receive the Jan Campert Prize and a tribute by composer Calliope Tsoupaki. Jan van Mersbergen, who will receive the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize for his novel De laatste ontsnapping (The Last Escape), will be serenaded by singer-songwriter Lucky Fonz. Bas Heijne will receive the J. Greshoff Prize for Angst en schoonheid. Louis Couperus, de mystiek der zichtbare dingen (Fear and Beauty: Louis Couperus and the mysticism of tangible things). He will be addressed by Ivo van Hove, director of the Amsterdam Theatre, which will stage the work of Couperus in 2015. Writer Dimitri Verhulst will honour Luc Coorevits, the passionate founder of the Flemish literary organization Behoud de Begeerte, which won the G.H. 's-Gravensande Prize for exceptional literary achievement. The evening's crowning glory is the Constantijn Huygens Prize for a body of work. This will be awareded to Mensje van Keulen for her novels, stories, and poems. Fellow writer and contemporary Maarten 't Hart will sing her praises, as will De Règâhs.
Presented in collaboration with the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Jan Campert Foundation.