Toef Jaeger
(Bloemendaal, NL, 1971) is an editor with the daily NRC Handelsblad newspaper. Her book Koning eenoog, en migrantenverhaal (King One-Eye: An immigrant story) about Henk van Woerden was presented during the 2015 festival; the story of ever-seeking immigrant Van Woerden (1947-2005), who was a writer as well as a visal artist. He wrote a trilogy abut South Africa that received national and international attention, and which, in its rootlessness, forever changed Dutch literature about South Africa. In 2014 Het Boekenparadijs. De opkomst en ondergang van de grootste boekhandelsketen in Nederland (Book Paradise: The rise and fall of the biggest bookstore chain in the Netherlands) was published, which he co-wrote with NRC Handelsblad editor Hanneke Chin-A-Fo. It is a revealing and incisive reconstruction of the recent demise of the Polare chain.
Past events
Writers Formerly Known as African
Maaza Mengiste was born in Ethiopia and moved to the US as a child. Nii Ayikwei Parkes was born in London to Ghanaian parents. How defining is their parents' country in their work and identity? Toef Jaeger opens with a commentary. She is the biographer of the writer Henk van Woerden, who grew up in South Africa and emigrated to the Netherlands.
