Runa Svetlikova
(Belgium, 1982) debuted in 2014 with her poetry collection Deze zachte witte kamer (This Soft White Room), which won the Herman De Coninck debut prize and was nominated for the C. Buddingh Prize. She does regular readings and organizes small poetry festivals. For her, poetry is "a means to exercise control over what is uncontrollable, with a pen for a weapon and my magnifying glass for a shield." She writes about everything: "what I read in magazines about psychology and science, or something I saw, a man in a suit and yellow sneakers... Yet mainly it's people who inspire me: weaknesses and neuroses, beauty in ugliness: the death of my father, and the fact that my daughter's fingernails have the same shape as his did." In her book and on her website, Svetlikova pays a lot of attention to design. Not surprisingly: besides language and literature, she also studied graphic design.
Past events
Saturday Night Wintercafé: Storytelling
Listen to the most beautiful stories of the storytelling events that took place this afternoon in the Dakota Theatre and at the Institute of Social Studies. Poet Runa Svetlikova assists the storytellers, and Francis Broekhuijsen hosts this part-English event.
Friday Night Wintercafé: Spot On Young Poets
Francis Broekhuijsen presents the students of The Hague Montessori Lyceum, and the Johan de Witt College who read their own poetry, the result of workshops given by members of The Hague Poetry Guild. Young poets Jeroen van Rooij and Runa Svetlikova perform alongside.
Hello, Poetry and Music
Let yourself be seduced by poetry from home and abroad. Listen to the recitals of the poets, amongst whom three nominees of the VSB Poetry Prize. As a special commission by the festival, Dick van der Harst sets one of Adonis' poems to music.
