20210423112933 1

At the request of Writers Unlimited, five authors wrote a letter to a family member of another generation asking: "What concern or fear about this time would you like to present to a family member in the past or in the future?" Five artists responded to the letters and created an unique illustration. Graphic designer Herman van Bostelen turned it into a paper gem: from leporello to postcard.

We launch the analogue issue (in Dutch only) of Inheritance with an online program. Enjoy the conversations with four authors and illustrators involved: Eva Meijer, Fleur Kotten, Babeth Fonchie and Jessica Bacuna talk about the special collaboration from our favorite bookshop in The Hague, De Vries Van Stockum. (Dutch spoken)

With: authors Annemarie Estor, Babeth Fonchie, Jens Meijen, Eva Meijer and Babah Tarawally and artists Mignon Nusteling, Jessica Bacuna, Rachel Sender, Fleur Kotten and Kenneth Aidoo. Read the English translation via our site. Paper edition (in Dutch) available (€7,50) via The Haguestore or webshop De Vries Van Stockum.

Read and watch the English translations of Inheritance:


Program concept: Joëlle Koorneef (Writers Unlimited)
Design: Herman van Bostelen
Book sales: De Vries Van Stockum Boeken
Videoregistration: Wilbert Eerland

Information

Date and time Friday 30 April 2021 from 19:13 to 19:13 hrs
Location Online

Line-up

Babeth Fonchie

(1993) is a poet, word artist and lawyer. Searches and the raw version of life are central themes in her work. She challenges you to look past first impressions. Since Fall 2019, she has been resident poet of online feminist media platform Lilith. Magazine ELLE published two poems she wrote about the death of George Floyd. Her work has also been published in De Groene Amsterdammer, online magazine Hard // Hoofd and literary magazine Kluger Hans. In 2020, she was part of the Op de Schans program at festival Into the Great Wide Open, and was selected for Vers van het Mes and for the Schrijfresidentie (Writing Residence), initiatives of deBuren, the Flemish-Dutch house for culture and debate. Fonchie is a legal advisor to the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences. She worked for, among others, the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands at the United Nations and the European Union.
20220125154245 2

Annemarie Estor

(1973) is a poet, essyaist and illustrator of her literary works. She twice won the Herman de Coninck Prize: for her debut poetry collection Vuurdoorn me (Firethorn Me) in 2011 and for De oksels van de bok (The Buck's Armpits) in 2013. In 2015 she published Dit is geen theater meer (This Goes Beyond Theatre). Characteristic of her poetry is an erotic or more generally sensual and sensory approach. Her collection Niemandslandnacht (No-Man's-Land Night) is a "crime poem" about a divided city where little is what it seems. It's a world of extremes - exotic but often terribly recognizable. It was awarded the 2018 Jan Campert Prize. In 2020 she published the poetry collection De bruidsvlucht (The Bride Flight) and the long poem Een nieuwe biotoop (A New Biotope) in Zwemlessen voor later (Swimming Lessons for Later), a collection of climate poems featuring 160 Dutch and Flemish poets.
20181114132157 1

Babah Tarawally

(Sierra Leone, 1972) is a writer and journalist. In his essayistic book Gevangen in zwartwit-denken. En hoe we kunnen ontsnappen (Trapped in black-and-white thinking. And how we can escape, 2018) he describes how this mechanism determined his thinking for a long time, until he let it go. He pleads for a Civil Rights Movement, inspired by Ubuntu, the African philosophy that revolves around giving and taking, and sharing in groups to strengthen the 'us'. In 1995 he fled Sierra Leone. In 2010 his novel De god met de blauwe ogen (The god with blue eyes) appeared. He was programme coordinator of the Winternachten Festival 2012 and wrote columns in One World; he is also project leader at De ToekomstAcademie (The Future Academy) that is part of New Dutch Connections, an organisation that motivates and inspires (former) refugees. In 2016 he published his second book, De verloren hand (The Lost Hand), a novel about the experiences of asylum seekers and their struggle to overcome traumas.
20110601100602

Eva Meijer

(Netherlands, 1980) is a visual artist, philosopher, writer and singer-songwriter. After publishing short stories and poetry in Dutch literary magazines, her debut novel Het schuwste dier (The Shiest Animal), about coping with a sudden death, appeared in 2011. In Dagpauwoog (Day Peacock Eye, 2013), the protagonist lands in a grey area between idealism and terror due to a love of animals. Het vogelhuis (The Birdhouse, 2016) portrays the profound passion for birds of the British Gwendolen Howard. De soldaat was een dolfijn (The Soldier was a Dolphin), an essay about political animals, came out in 2017. In 2018, Meijer was awarded the Halewijn Prize for her oeuvre. After a philosophical treatise on depression, De grenzen van mijn taal (The Limits of my Language), the novel Voorwaarts (Onward), and the academic study When Animals Speak: Towards an Interspecies Democracy (all 2019), she published the 2020 novel De nieuwe rivier (The New River), a magical-realist murder mystery.
20170313110517 1

Jens Meijen

(Belgium, 1996) completed a Master's degree in Western Literature, Literary Sciences and European Studies at the Catholic University Leuven. He is a journalist, critic and columnist for Flemish publications, the editor of Greenpeace Belgium, and an editor with the literary magazine dw b (Dietsche Warande & Belfort). He was also the (first) Young Flemish Poet Laureate. His poems have appeared in De Revisor, deFusie, Hard//hoofd and Deus ex Machina. Xenomorf (2019), his debut collection, passionately opposes the demise of Earth through pollution, increased production and maximum profits with a great deal of linguistic pleasure; it was awareded the C. Buddingh Poetry Prize. His debut novel De lichtjaren (The Light Years) was published in 2021.
20201204134424 2

Fleur Kotten

(2000) is a multidisciplinary artist and teaches art history and drawing. She studies at the Breitner Academy of the Amsterdam University of Arts. In her paintings, illustrations, laser cuts, installations and sculptures, she searches for an image that exudes a certain harmony in form, colour or rhythm. In 2021 she illustrated a short story by Eva Meijer for the Winternachten festival-programme Erfstukken (Heirlooms).
20220125155403 1

Mignon Nusteling

(Dordrecht, 1991) is an artist and poet, but also known for her Instagram account @Mignonnus, where she unabashedly addresses topics such as art, autism, cyberbullying, sexuality and feminism. One of her missions is to make art accessible and she carries this out both on- and offline. In 2017 she published the illustrated collection of poems Zon- & Sodeflikstralen and in 2020 her personal city guide about Dordrecht: De Maaspiraat. She works autonomously, but also illustrates under the alias @StudioStout. The illustrations of Studio Stout are recognizable by their bright colours and black lines, and are made both freely and on commission. In 2021 she made an illustration for a poetic letter by Annemarie Ensor for the Winternachten festival programme Erfstukken (Heirlooms).
20220125160722 1

Kenneth Aidoo

(1988) makes films, paintings, drawings and video installations. He graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 2019 with a series of portraits, exploring the everyday experiences he had in the Netherlands. Other topics in his work include the triangular connection between Ghana, the Netherlands and Suriname, and what it is like to have a bi-cultural identity. He has been nominated for the Royal Award for Modern Painting in 2021. For the Winternachten festival programme Erfstukken (Heirlooms) he made an illustration for a short story by Babah Tarawally.
20210421155522 1

Jessica Bacuna

(1996) studied illustration at AKV | Sint Joost in Den Bosch. Her illustrations have appeared in Trouw, Mest Magazine, Hard//hoofd and One World, among others. In her work she responds to things that fascinate her such as social phenomena that raise questions. To be able to experiment with the use of different materials she makes traditional illustrations with for instance wax crayons, oil pastels, gouache or coloured paper. In 2021 she illustrated a poem by Babeth Fonchie for the Winternachten festival programme Erfstukken (Heirlooms).
20210421075341 1

Rachel Sender

(Spain, 1981) is an illustrator and a ceramist. She makes editorial illustrations, works with ceramics and teaches at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. In 2021, she made an illustration for a short story by Jens Meijen for the Winternachten festival programme Erfstukken (Heirlooms).
20220125155813 1

Discover

29 September 2026

De gesmoorde stem van de vrouw door Alicja Gescinska

Dit korte essay werd geschreven door Alicja Gescinska voor het programma Vrouwen (her)schrijven geschiedenis op 14 september, over de stem van vrouwen in hun streven naar vrijheid, soms met gevaar voor eigen leven.

15 September 2026

Get your 2027 tickets!

Get your Early Bird tickets for the big festival nights, Friday & Saturday Night Unlimited!