Yentl van Stokkum

(1991) used to be a high-school art teacher; now she writes theatre scripts, audio plays, poetry and essays. In 2017 she graduated in Writing for Performance from the Utrecht Art Academy, after which she was selected for the Slow Writing Lab talent-development program of the Dutch Literature Foundation. She edits and writes for Dutch literary publications and is developing a project with the De Nieuwe Oost | Wintertuin production company. Van Stokkum has appeared at various Dutch festivals. She also contributed to the 2018 anthology NYX: berichten uit de nacht (NYX: Dispatches from the night) and was nominated for the 2019 BNG Bank Theatre Prize for her written performance Chimo zei Lila (Lila said Chimo). Van Stokkum's debut collection Ik zeg Emily (I Say Emily), about the life and work of the English writer Emily Brontë, was published in 2021; it straddles poetry, narrative prose and seance. In the same year she received the C.C.S. Crone stipend.
Archive available for: Yentl van Stokkum
-
Phantom Voices
With: Corinne Heyrman, Pola Oloixarac, Vampire Boyfriend, Yentl van Stokkum
The spirits visited us during this afternoon at PIP! Were you there too? A literary haunted house in bright daylight, where you could enjoy poetry, literature and music to your heart's content. During this Winternachten event, you saw and heard the complete spectrum of modern, feminist horror, haunted stories and poetry in one Saturday afternoon. You heard poetry by Yentl van Stokkum (from her spooky volume Ik zeg Emily); Corinne Heyrman performed the experience of psychosis via music and text; and Argentinian writer Pola Oloixarac, whose novel Mona delightfully satirizes the literary world, read some wonderfully gruesome literature. The Dutch/Flemish band Vampire Boyfriend joined sweetness and darkness in self-assured, frayed songs.
Ticket: €11, including a spooky cocktail
Or a combination ticket (€17,50) for this event and When did it all go terribly wrong?, the film discussion with Pola Oloixarac.English and Dutch spoken.
-
This House is Haunted
Magnificent literary nightmares from Latin America - with Pola Oloixarac, Agustina Bazterrica, Yentl van Stokkum & Elfie Tromp (moderator)
Dreamy jungle villages, the mysterious mazes of Borges and the tender poetry of Pablo Neruda - that is how we know "traditional" Latin-American literature. But in recent years a new generation of (primarily) female writers has emerged that requires a different, darker imagery to describe its (political) realities. In the new, encroaching magic realism of these authors, you won't find dreamy mazes but ghosts, voodoo, blood and horror. Gothic and horror elements are used by these writeres to strengthen stories and drag readers into the depths. What does this genre offer writers, and how does it affect readers?
During this event, we talked to writers who bring nightmares to life in brilliant, literary ways. Argentinian authors Pola Oloixarac and Agustina Bazterrica are invited. Oloixarac's work sketches a reality that doesn't quite make sense with subtle, eerie imagery, and in her book Tender Is the Flesh, Bazterrica depicts a blood-curdling world in which cannibalism has become the norm. Writer and poet Yentl van Stokkum wrote a haunted summer poem especially for this event and performed it live. Author and enthusiastic horror fan Elfie Tromp moderated the event. Walid Ben Selim, half of the musical duo N3rdistan, was also there: he and Pola Oloixarac brought a musical performance.
English spoken.Not familiar with the work of these two Argentinian literary sharpshooters? Some reading tips for those who want to familiarize themselves:
- Mona by Pola Oloixarac
- Savage Theories by Pola Oloixarac
- Dark Constellations by Pola Oloixarac
- Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica