Thirty years ago, our festival began as Indische Winternacht, in the context of the then 50th anniversary of Indonesia's independence. Indonesian poets, musicians, and other artists were guests at that first edition. Then the festival went on to be called Winternachten and now Writers Unlimited, but all these years the cultural and literary connection with Indonesia has remained an important part of our festival.

On this first grand festival night of our 30th anniversary and of the commemoration of 80 years of Indonesian independence, we bring a world premiere by Orkest De Ereprijs: a spectacular tribute to the Indonesian poet Sitor Situmorang (1924-2014). He was a welcome guest at the festival from the very beginning: in 1997, and in 2005 and 2007. Writer Marjolijn van Heemstra opens the concert with a short introduction.

Orkest De Ereprijs plays seven new compositions based on poetry by Sitor Situmorang in The Tale of Two Continents. Soloists are soprano Bernadeta Astari and tenor Georgi Sztojanov. Robin Block, who has family ties in Indonesia, had recitations of two of his own poems - chosen for their kinship with the work of Sitor Situmorang -, accompanied by new works from and performed by Indonesian composer and cellist Alfian Emir Adytia, who lives in the Netherlands.

The poems by Situmorang chosen by the composers have been published in his bilingual poetry collection Lembah Kekal/Eeuwige Vallei (Jakarta, 2004) and the collection To Love, To Wander with English translations of his poems.

Sitor Situmorang, one of Indonesia's greatest poets, was born on 2 October 1924 in Harianboho at the borders of Lake Toba, Indonesia and died on 20 December 2014 in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. He lived through tumultuous times of change: his early youth was rooted in traditional Batak culture, he came of age in colonial times and Japanese occupation, engaged in the strive for freedom as a young journalist, became Soekarno’s advisor on cultural affairs, was a political prisoner under Suharto and finally witnessed the beginning of democracy in the late nineties.

Orkest De Ereprijs is based in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn, the last hometown of Sitor as well. The orchestra has nurtured strong ties with the world of contemporary music in Indonesia through contacts of Sitor, notably by his widow who stimulated the application of Indonesian young composers to its yearly Young Composers Meeting.

The commemoration of Sitor therefore built on this connection: seven young Indonesian composers, former participants of the YCM wrote compositions to a poem by Sitor for the Apeldoorn orchestra and Indonesian soprano based in the Netherlands Bernadeta Astari or tenor Georgi Sztojanov. The composers were Septian Dwi Cahyo, Nursalim Yadi Anugerah, Wilson Leywantono, Hilmi Ridha Marhadika, Yayi Wira Pamungkas, Irene Tanuwidjaja and Gavin Wiyanto.

The orchestra performed, conducted by Mikel Fernández, in its permanent line-up of 14 musicians with two flutes, clarinet/bass clarinet, two saxophones, trumpet, two trombones, horn, tuba, electric guitar, bass guitar, piano and percussion (classical, modern, drums). Meer details bekijken

Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Abdelkader Benali.

Tommy Wieringa spoke about Train Dreams, an impressive novel of just one hundred pages by American author of novels, stories and poems Denis Johnson (1949-2017). It originally appeared as a story in 2002 in The Paris Review and was published as a novella in 2011. Meer details bekijken

Students of the John Dewey College in The Hague interpreted De stem van de stad (the Voice of the City) in a Very Short Story. They were inspired to write these stories during writing workshops at school and a walk through The Hague, led by Diann van Faassen.
While they presented their stories, Matthijs Sluiter created live illustrations of the movement of the walk through the city as an extra interaction between words and images. Meer details bekijken

In Speech, Silence, six poets responded to the question: what is poetry's relation to silence? Their poetry readings included new work, written especially for this purpose. You saw and heard Palestinian-American poet George Abraham, Danish writer and poet Asta Olivia Nordenhof, South African writer and poet Rešoketšwe Manenzhe and, from the Netherlands, poets Pelumi Adejumo, Yasmin Namavar and Maureen Ghazal.

This programme takes it's title from the poem Sprekers, zwijgers by the Dutch writer Lidy van Marissing, published in her latest collection De verwerping van het stilzitten (The rejection of inaction, 2024). Van Marissing's poem speaks of a "language half speaking, half silent, rocking back / and forth in between."

Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah commented on speaking and silence in an interview with The New Inquiry: "We need to learn how to listen in silence to the Palestinian in their silence. So far, when a Palestinian goes silent, it means they are dead or violable, digestible, liable for further erasure or dispossession. English has not begun imagining the Palestinian speaking, let alone understanding Palestinian silence."

Fady Joudah's words made us rethink poetry and silence. Poetry, and our discourse about poetry, always run the risk of degenerating into a domestication of silence, a way of making silence available and digestible to an audience, often in a language that is also used to commit the atrocities producing so many forms of silence.

The poets recited their new work written especially for Speech, Silence in their preferred language of writing. The poems were simultaneously projected in Dutch and/or English.

Speech, Silence was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Maarten van der Graaff. Meer details bekijken

Writer Andrei Kurkov and filmmaker Mariia Ponomarova are from Ukraine. Kurkov still lives there, Ponomarova lives in Rotterdam. Both their work deals with Ukraine and is strongly influenced by the war.

In what circumstances did their work come about? What is their working method and what are the differences in approach between a writer and a filmmaker? What do they hope to trigger in the reader or viewer with their texts or film?

Kurkov and Ponomarova read and showed excerpts from their work and reacted to each other's texts and images under a discussion moderated by Bahram Sadeghi. A cross-over programme with film and literature, on art and human rights, co-organised by Writers Unlimited and Movies that Matter. English spoken.

Andrei Kurkov is a Ukrainian writer world famous for the mix of harsh realism and absurdist humour in his novels and non fiction books. He is a respected commentator on the situation in his country. In The President's Last Love, Kurkov employs humour and cynicism to describe how a boy manages to work his way up to become the most powerful man in the country. Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev, his eyewitness account of political unrest in the Ukraine, was published in 2014. Dairy of an Invasion (2022) and Our daily war (2024) are collections of Kurkov's writings and broadcasts. In 2024, he published The Silver Bone, the first part of The Kyiv Mysteries, his series of crime novels in historical settings. The second part The Stolen Heart will be published in 2025; the third part The Public Sauna Case is in development.

Mariia Ponomarova is a Ukrainian film director, creative producer and film industry professional based in The Netherlands since 2014. Mariia studied directing at Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema & Television in Ukraine graduating in 2013. In 2016 she completed the Master of Film artistic research programme at the Netherlands Film Academy. Fiction and documentary films Mariia worked on were screened at such acclaimed festivals as DokLeipzig, IDFA, Sarajevo FF, Sheffield DocFest, Chicago IFF, Krakow FF, Clermont-Ferrand ISFF, Go Short ISFF, Palm Springs SFF and more. Her debut feature documentary Nice Ladies had an international premiere at HotDocs and received a Special Mention at DocudaysUA IHRFF. Mariia is a member of the European Film Academy and a Senior Consultant at the Documentary Association of Europe.


Bahram Sadeghi works as a programme maker and debate leader for Pakhuis de Zwijger and Movies that Matter, among others. In 2021, he published his second book, The Attack That Changed Our Lives, in which Bahram describes the impact of an attack in the Sinai desert, both on the lives of those directly involved and on his own life.

Festivaltip: Ukrainian writer Andrei Kurkov performs in the 2025 festival also during The Flame of Freedom (Thursday 23 January 2025) in which he reads his festival opening speech, and during Saturday Night Unlimited (25 January 2025, Theater aan het Spui) as a participant of the programme Writing in Times of War, together with US historian and writer Timothy Snyder and the Dutch-Ukrainian author Lisa Weeda.

Festivaltip 2: the 2025 festival edition of Movies That Matter takes place from 21 up to and including 29 March 2025 in Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. Meer details bekijken

Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Abdelkader Benali.

Benzokarim talked about The Forty Rules of Love by top author Elif Shafak, participating in Friday Night Unlimited tonight (24 January 2025). The novel, published in 2015 tells about Ella Rubinstein: forty-year-old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a proofreader at a literary agency. Her first assignment, reading a manuscript about the mystic Sufi Rumi, sheds new light on Ella's own life - and on her views on love. Meer details bekijken

Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Abdelkader Benali.

Yael van der Wouden spoke about In the Dream House (2019) by US author Carmen Maria Machado. In this memoir, Machado meets her on a weeknight: a dazzling smile, Carmen falls for this apparition like a log. They begin a relationship, but soon it takes a dark turn. To analyse the experiences and understand how they shaped her, she draws on numerous literary genres and pop culture. And in the midst of it all, there stands the dream house, the house where it happened, the symbol of what could have been and was not. Meer details bekijken

Meet up in the heart of the festival with a drink and a bite to eat. Host and DJ Francis Broekhuijsen created the right atmosphere with his virtual Writers Unlimited Radio Show, and guided you through the extensive festival programme. You were welcome to request your favourite song to be played.

Well-known Hague poet Sjaak Kroes created a tailor-made poem for you with his Woordenwisseling (Exchange of words). Poet Dorien Dijkhuis took you on a seven minute journey in VER, her poetic VR installation (Dutch spoken). De Vries Van Stockum's bookshop was open all evening and richly stocked with books or cd's by festival authors and artists; you could also meet them there and have their work signed:

20:30 hours: Tommy Wieringa
21:15 hours: Robin Block, George Abraham, Rešoketšwe Manenzhe
21:35 hours: Yael van der Wouden, Andrej Koerkov
22:30 hours: Elif Shafak, Asta Olivia Nordenhof, Dario Goldbach, Marjolijn van Heemstra
23:00 hours: Alejandra Ortiz
23:45 hours: Saartje van Camp

Together with the Silent Eclectic Disco Show by DJ Socrates, we were dancing into the late night from 23:15. Didn't want to dance but have a nice chat? Then there was plenty of room for that. No obligations, do as you like...that was the credo of the Writers Unlimited Festival heart! Meer details bekijken

International bestselling author Elif Shafak talked to Sophie Derkzen about her new novel There Are Rivers in the Sky. A conversation about how water remembers, and people forget. How we are connected to the past and what we can learn from those who have gone before us. Naaz, singer-songwriter and great admirer of Elif Shafak, paid tribute to her, acccompanied on piano by Willem 't Hart.

The conversation with Elif Shafak will be in English.

Elif Shafak is an award-winning Turkish-British bestselling author and important critical voice in world literature with a vast body of novels, essays and nonfiction. Her books, written in Turkish and English, have been published in 55 languages and nominated for major literary awards. Her oeuvre is praised for how she blends Eastern and Western narrative traditions into fiction that is at once local and global. In her books, she denounces religious fanaticism and xenophobia. She has a special interest in feminism, Sufism, Ottoman culture and the city of Istanbul. Well-read titles include The Bastard of Istanbul (2006), The Forty Rules of Love (2011), Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood and the Harem Within (2012), The House of the Four Winds (2013) and The Three Daughters of Eva (2017). In 2024 she published her novel There Are Rivers in the Sky, set on the shores of the Tigris and the Thames.

Naaz is an artist, singer-songwriter, producer and director. In 2017, Naaz shot to fame with tracks like Words and Up to Something, both now accounting for millions of streams. She released her debut EP Bits of Naaz in 2018, followed by the EP The Beautiful Struggle in 2019. In 2023, her debut album Never Have I Ever, was met with rave reviews. The record highlights her versatility with layered songwriting. Naaz makes contemporary, minimalist pop in which she uses Arabic influences and natural ambient sounds to deliver a sound that is very much her own and authentic. Naaz is currently working on new music, with releases of new songs in the next few months, and a new album scheduled for release autumn 2025! She is one of the four permanent club members of VPRO's Club Lees.

Willem 't Hart is a keyboard player, pianist and producer from Rotterdam. He grew up in a musical family, studied at the Utrechts Conservatorium and completed his education cum laude at the conservatoire (Codarts) in Rotterdam. As a keyboard player, Willem played with well-known artists such as Gregory Porter, Iris Hond and Naaz. Besides music, Willem also has a successful career in the fashion world. There, he worked with designers from top brands such as Prada, Dior and Gucci. In 2020, he decided to focus entirely on his passion for music, which resulted in the release of several EPs with a fine mix of electronica, pop and jazz.

Sophie Derkzen is a journalist and presenter with a fascination for international politics and culture. On Dutch national broadcaster NPO Radio 1 she presents Bureau Buitenland for VPRO, awarded the prestigious Silver Reiss Microphone for best radio programme of the year in 2022. She made the podcasts Stad in Oorlog: Charkiv een jaar onder vuur (City at War: Kharkiv one year under fire; winner Silver Reiss Microphone 2023) and Generatie Merkel (4**** in de Volkskrant).She previously wrote for major Dutch publications and was a guest editor at the German newspaper Die Zeit.

Elif Shafak - There are rivers in the sky was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens. Meer details bekijken

The trigger for this conversation about the destructive power of greed and capitalism was Danish author Asta Olivia Nordenhof's magnificent novel Money to Burn (Dutch title: Geld als water). English spoken.

Money to Burn is the first part of a novel project as impressive as it is daring, the kick-off of a seven-part series, the second part of which, The Devil's Book, will be published in January 2025. Each volume will be linked to the for-profit fire on the cruise ship the Scandinavian Star in 1990, in which 159 people lost their lives.

Dario Goldbach, in his debut novel De man die alles had (The Man Who Had Everything, 2023), takes readers on a world tour of the excesses of capitalism. And writer and theatre-maker Marjolijn van Heemstra describes how the human urge to colonise is no longer limited to other countries, but also extends to other planets.

Moderator Roos van Rijswijk lead the discussion and used the authors' books to explore this topic in more depth. Does capitalism have a future or is the moment of the bubble bursting near?

Money to Burn was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens. Meer details bekijken

Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Abdelkader Benali.

Yasmin Namavar chose as her favourite book Demian, considered the best novel by renowned German-speaking, Swiss author, poet and painter Herman Hesse (1877-1962). Demian explores the psychological and philosophical journey of the protagonist, Emil Sinclair, as he navigates through the dualities of existence and self-discovery amidst societal expectations. Meer details bekijken

Writer Alejandra Ortiz loves films. That is why she was the special guest in Films of My Life. In it, in conversation with Gerlinda Heywegen, she presented her work and life through her favourite film clips. English spoken.

Ortiz, who as a trans woman fled her native Mexico for fear of violence and transphobia, encountered a stalled refugee system in the Netherlands. She writes about it in her book De waarheid zal me bevrijden (2022).

The film excerpts Alejandra showed cover a lot: machismo in (Mexican) films, the position of women and especially trans women in films and the happiness you can find when watching films. Pedro Almodovar, for instance, is one of the directors she holds in high regard. Surprise snippets were also featured.

Sure to pass were Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965), Les Uns et les Autres (Claude Lelouch, 1981, the Mexican film El lugar sin limítes (Arturo Ripstein, 1978, also known as Hell Without Limits), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988) and the French-Mexican musical crime film Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard, 2024). Alejandra promised to narrate as honestly and openly as she does in her book.

Alejandra Ortiz works in The Netherlands she toward a better life for trans persons, and especially for trans persons of colour -- with or without papers. She has established a language centre, organized symposiums and co-authored research reports, all to improve the position of trans refugees. She received the 2023 Winq Community Award for her work and the Harper's Bazaar Woman of the Year Award 2024, Ortiz wrote the autobiographical De waarheid zal me bevrijden (The Truth Will Free Me, 2022) about her youth, her life as a transgender woman, her quest for a safe place to be herself, and her asylum application process in The Netherlands. It was selected as one of ten Dutch rainbow-books, and was nominated for the Opzij Literatuurprijs 2023.

Gerlinda Heywegen is a programmer, writer, organizer, lecturer and podcaster, mainly on the subject of film and often in combination with literature. She programs for Film by the Sea in Vlissingen and the Writers Unlimited festival. She founded Koning Film, a collective of film experts on various subjects, from music to philosophy. Heywegen's books include The Other Director, about eight directors of photography; she collaborated with Frans Westra on Passie voor Cinema (Passion for Cinema), which highlights four decades of film screenings in the Netherlands; and she edited and wrote for the film magazine Skrien. Currently, she writes regularly for the websites of the Netherlands Society of Cinematographers and Elders Literair.

Festival tip: Alejandra Ortiz, together with Shantie Singh, made Trans, Writing, Joy, one of the Saturday Night Unlimited programmes on Saturday night 25 January 2025. In it, Alejandra spoke with trans authors Alvina Chamberland and Alara Adilow, and they recited from their own work. Towards the end, spoken word artist Zaïre Krieger, trans man and performer Padri Roa Johansen and DJ Shari Jae took over and everyone is welcome to swing and dance.

Films of My Life: Alejandra Ortiz presents her favorite film fragments was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Gerlinda Heywegen. Meer details bekijken

Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Abdelkader Benali.

Maureen Ghazal told about A Flat Place (2023) by Noreen Masud. Masud’s memoir follows her journey to the east coast of Scotland, the birthplace of her mother, and her affection for the flatlands of Britain compared to those in her homeland. A lecturer at Bristol University in 20th century literature, she was diagnosed with CPTSD – complex post-traumatic stress disorder – after her “strange” childhood growing up in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Meer details bekijken

Writers Unlimited likes to make new connections between artists from different disciplines who then create something new together. In this unique, one-off programme Taalvonken, poetry, music and dance entered into dialogue with each other. Three duos presented new work they created especially for this festival night at the request of Writers Unlimited. Note: Dutch spoken.

You witnessed how sparks flew between language and music, and between spoken word and dance. Singer-song poet on guitar Mirte Hartland interacted with poet Benzokarim.

Poet and spoken word artist Rosabelle Illes entered into a dialogue with a new song by cellist, singer and theatre-maker Saartje Van Camp, taken from her new album In De Naam Van, released during this festival edition on 24 January 2025.

Poet and spoken-word artist ZaÏre Krieger and dancer Shaquille George found each other in the movements of dance.

Taalvonken was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens. Meer details bekijken

Erotica is often dismissed as a genre filled with stereotypes. Bouquet books with muscular men on the covers come to mind. Rarely, it is seen as an art form. Is this because erotic literature is inherently lacking, or is it because the open discussion of sexual desire, especially by women, is still considered taboo? English spoken.

Authors Yael van der Wouden, Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta guaranteed an engaging discussion on what makes erotica powerful, how voices of women are reshaping the genre, and whether erotic stories deserve the status of literature with a capital L. The programme opened with a short video made for the occasion by famous reviewer and reading vlogger Leonie Dams. Host was Mojdeh Feili.

Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher of creative writing and comparative literature. Together with Daphne Huisden and Simone Atangana Bekono, she wrote the mosaic narrative Vlucht/Dans/Vondst (Flight/Dance/Finding, 2023). Her debut as a novelist The Safekeep (2024) is one of six books shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Yael is the first Dutch author to make the shortlist.

Onjuli Datta (UK) is the co-author of Feast While You Can, a queer horror-romance which the New York Times described as 'adventurous, exciting, fantastical and erotic', and of the novel The View Was Exhausting. Her writing has been featured in Salon, Reactor Magazine, Lithub, Autostraddle, Vulture and more. She lives in Berlin with her wife and co-author Mikaella Clements.

Mikaella Clements is an Australian writer currently based in Berlin. With her wife Onjuli Datta, she co-wrote Feast While You Can (2024), an 'exciting new hybrid horror-romance  about queer love in a small town that serves as an unsettling reminder that the horrors of modern life are a monster ready to possess us all' (New York Times Book Review), as well as The View Was Exhausting. Her non-fiction has been published in the New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, TLS, and many others. She has a Masters in English Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Leonie Dams is a video creator, 'dweller of fictional worlds', makes reviews, reading vlogs and all sorts of other bookish, English spoken content that is viewed by many on her YouTube and Instagram platforms titled The Book Leo.

Mojdeh Feili is a writer, editor, book reviewer and programme maker. In 2021, her story Zeemeermens was published in the collection Damn Horny and in 2020, her story Eindelijk als Alice was published in the collection De goede immigrant.

Reading tip: the essay The Best Queer Sex Scenes in Literature (2024, published by the digital publisher Electric Literature).

Literary Heat - The Female Gaze was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Mojdeh Feili. Meer details bekijken

Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Abdelkader Benali.

Andrei Kurkov chose as his favorite book Martin Eden, a novel by American author Jack London about a young autodidact struggling to become a writer. It was first serialized in The Pacific Monthly magazine from 1908 to 1909 and then first published in book form in 1909. Meer details bekijken

Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Abdelkader Benali.

Viv Groskop chose as her favorite book Little Women, a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy — and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Little Women was adapted succesfully for film several times, recently in 20219 directed by Greta Gerwig featuring a.o. Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson and Timothée Chalamet. Meer details bekijken

DJ Socrates unleashed his beats on your headphones and got you into a deliciously swinging groove. Dance along at the Silent Disco! Meer details bekijken