For all readers, reading clubbers and festival fans: on Saturday afternoon 25 January, De Situatie Leesclub, VPRO Club Lees and Writers Unlimited created together a literary double bill during the International Literature Festival The Hague. In this live meet-up, you could listen or ask questions yourself to authors Adriaan van Dis and Sholeh Rezazadeh, and musician Firoza Mulahella.

De Situatie, the literary platform of The Hague cultural organisation PIP,  opened the programme with author Adriaan van Dis and musician Firoza, both also creators of programmes and podcasts. Adriaan van Dis devoted much of his oeuvre to his Indonesian background, Firoza looked closer to home and spoke to people who had to live creatively because of the housing crisis. When do you really feel at home? And what does ‘home’ mean in relation to identity, uprooting and migration?

In conversation with Dario Goldbach, Van Dis and Firoza talked about what it is like to make programmes, the differences between writing scripts, song lyrics and prose, and explore their shared theme of ‘home’.

Next, the VPRO Club Lees' regular team members continued on this theme in a conversation with novelist and poet Sholeh Rezazadeh, based on her novel De hemel is altijd paars (The sky is always purple), about a young Iranian woman who left the raw, mountainous landscape of Iran behind for good and moved to the flattest country in the world: the Netherlands. She marvels at this country where everyone is in a hurry and where it seems impossible to be connected to others. Starting January 20, 2025 the book was available in the Club Lees app!

Club Lees is VPRO's online book club with now more than 18,000 members. In the Club Lees app, young people read a free favourite book of one of the four regular club members every month: singer-songwriter Naaz (25), BookTokker Noah de Campos Neto (22), spoken-word artist Mahat Arab (28) and actress and theatre maker Hanneke van der Paardt (28); all young creatives for whom reading is important. Each book is enriched with content, such as notes, memes, videos or articles, by that month's leading club member. All readers can interact with each other in the app or on social media, and the month ends with a digital meet-up.

Adriaan van Dis grew up in a family with an Indonesian background, which is reflected in several of his novels including Indische duinen (1995), Familieziek (2002) and most recently in Naar zachtheid en een warm omhelzen (2023). Van Dis became famous with his TV programme Hier is... Adriaan van Dis (1983-1992). Besides novels, he writes novellas, travel stories, collections of essays and plays; presented TV documentary series and makes the podcast series Van Dis Ongefilterd, of which a live recording - free access, reservation required - will take place within the festival on Sunday morning 26 January 2025 in the Theater aan het Spui.

Firoza Mulahella is a music artist and presenter at KRONCRV of, among other things, episodes of the YouTube series Stereotypical in which she meets young people who have to deal with prejudice, clichés and breaking through them. She joined Burning Fik, the hip-hop label of Abel van Gijlswijk (known from punk formation Hang Youth) and Pepijn Lanen (Faberyayo of De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig) where she writes and releases songs under her (for)name Firoza.

Sholeh Rezazadeh is a writer and poet. Her first novel De hemel is altijd paars (The sky is always purple, 2021) has won several awards: readers are moved by the story of a young woman who falls in love with a musician, thinking back to her native Iran with love and pain. Her second novel Ik ken een berg die op me wacht (I know a mountain waiting for me, 2023) is about a woman who turns her life around and travels from Amsterdam to Iran to join a nomadic family: a story about longing for peace and space, told from the perspective of a river.


Festival tip 1: for the full festival experience, jaudiences joined us for the grand festival events Friday Night Unlimited (24 January) and Saturday Night Unlimited (25 January)! Both nights you chose your own route along some 20 performances, readings and conversations on five stages in Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. English and Dutch spoken.

Festivaltip 3: as in 2025 Writers Unlimited presented its literature festival for 30 years, we celebrated this anniversary with Playing with Fire, a show full of music, dance and literature at Amare (Danstheater) on Sunday afternoon, 26 January. You saw and heard Spinvis, Shirma Rouse, XILLAN, Babs Gons, Joost Oomen, Zaïre Krieger, Claudia Karapanou Flamenco Trio, Royal Conservatoire Dance and percussion group Pulse led by Eli Wing, among others. Note: Dutch spoken.


From 23 to 26 January 2025, Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague was to be found in theatres, libraries and schools throughout the city: from Theater aan het Spui, Filmhuis Den Haag, Amare and Paard to Theater Dakota, Theater De Vaillant, the Laakkwartier, Nieuw Waldeck, Schilderswijk and Ypenburg libraries, the Institute of Social Studies and De Haagse Hogeschool. With over 120 writers, poets and spoken-word artists and musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. With readings, prose, poetry, storytelling, spoken word, author interviews, topical talks, films and music.