Friday Night Unlimited

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Friday Night Unlimited, part of Winternachten festival, is a grand festival evening on Friday 18 January 2018, 20:00-01:00 hours, in five auditoriums of Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. You choose your own ideal route from some twenty literary performances or conversations, each a half hour to an hour long. A ticket gives access to all events of that evening. Events will be 50/50 in Dutch and English, with book signing and sales by Van Stockum.

YOU CAN NOW DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAMME SCHEDULE HERE!

Buy your Friday Night Unlimited tickets
- Up to and including 26 December one regular ticket costs 20 euro.
- From 27 December one regular tickets costs 28,50 euro.
- Reductions: with UITpas 26 euro; CJP, students, Ooievaarspas: 14,25 euro.

Easy: BUY TICKETS ONLINE HERE
Buy your tickets online through the website of Theater aan het Spui / Het Nationale Theater. After paying online your ticket(s) will be mailed to you. Print your ticket(s) and show on the festival evening at the entrance of Theater aan het Spui.

Winternachten international literature festival The Hague
Some eighty writers, poets and up-and-coming literary talents from all parts of the globe gather in The Hague. During the four atmospheric days of the Winternachten international literature festival The Hague, they discuss from their own perspectives and imaginations the renaissance of collective idealism. The 23rd edition of the festival, carrying the motto We the People, focuses on the desire for a collective experience and the resurgence of social movements.

Information

Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 from 20:00 to 01:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui & Filmhuis Den Haag

Tijdschema 19 January

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Time Location
20:00 - 20:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Liberté! The Revolutionary meaning of Freedom
20:00 - 20:40 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 The Netherlands on the Sofa: Peter Buwalda
20:00 - 20:50 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Speech!
20:01 - 20:45 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of my life: Gustaaf Peek
20:10 - 21:00 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Friday Night Wintercafé: Spot on Young Poets
20:55 - 21:45 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Égalité! The Legacy of the Soviets
20:55 - 21:55 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Books Unlimited: Mohsin Hamid
20:55 - 21:15 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of my life: David Van Reybrouck
21:00 - 23:45 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Friday Night Wintercafé
21:15 - 21:55 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Power to The People: Film as Weapon
21:20 - 21:40 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of my life: Joost Baars
21:45 - 22:05 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of my life: Ghayath Almadhoun
22:00 - 23:00 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Fraternité! The Forgotten Value of Brotherhood
22:00 - 22:55 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Writing poetry in Dunglish and other languages
22:10 - 22:30 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of my life: Alain Mabanckou
22:10 - 22:30 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Introduction to Manifesto by Ivana Ivkovic
22:35 - 00:10 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Film: Manifesto
22:35 - 22:55 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of my life: Mohsin Hamid
23:05 - 23:45 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Ode to Joy
23:45 - 01:00 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Dancing into the Friday Night

Line-up

Alain Mabanckou

(Congo-Brazzaville, 1966) is one of the best-known Franco-African writers. In novels such as Verre cassé, African Psycho and Black Bazaar he sketches his African youth and the life of the African inhabitants of Paris, the city where he went to study in 1989. In 2012 he returned to his birthplace Pointe-Noire. His novel Petit  Piment (Little Pepper, 2015) resulted from that trip. He very humorously describes the life of a boy who flees an orphanage to move to the coastal City of Pointe-Noire, where he lives among thieves and whores. The novel is dedicated to the boys of the Côte Sauvage, the edge of that city, with whom the author spoke. Mabanckou teaches French literature at the University of California Los Angeles. His work has been translated into more than ten languages.
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Louise O. Fresco

(Meppel, NL, 1952) is a writer, agricultural scientist and columnist. In her novels De Kosmopolieten (The Cosmopolitans, 2003), De Tuin van de Sultan van Rome (The Roman Sultan's Garden, 2005) and De Utopisten (The Utopians, 2007) idealism, power, and friendship play important roles. Subsequently, she published Nieuwe Spijswetten (New Laws for Food, 2006), Hamburgers in het paradijs. Voedsel in tijden van schaarste en overvloed (Hamburgers in paradise. Food in times of shortage and abundance, 2012), Kruisbestuiving. Over kennis, kunst en het leven (Pollination. About knowledge, art and life, 2014) and various others works among which Verraad, Verleiding en Verzoening (Treason, Temptation and Reconciliation, 2010, with Helen Westerik). Fresco's Paradijs (Fresco's Paradise, 2013) is a six-part documentary TV-series broadcast by Human, published with an accompanying text. In 2014 she was appointed chair of the executive board at Wageningen University and Research. Her latest novel De Idealisten (The Idealists) will be published late January 2018.
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Magda Cârneci

(Romania, 1955) wants to connect people and ideas with her poetry and work. Her volume Chaosmos, translated into Dutch, is about a chaotic world that is highly ordered in a larger cosmic sense: thus, a chaosmos. Cârneci studied art history in Paris and is one of the leading members of the Romanian 1980s Generation. After the 1989 revolution that finished off Ceaușescu's communist reign, she became active in Romanian political and cultural life. She later moved to Paris, where she became Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute and a member of the European Cultural Parliament. Cârneci is chair of the Grupul pentru Dialog Social (GDS), a Romanian NGO that aims to protect democracy, human rights and civil rights. She is also the chair of PEN-Romania and editor-in-chief of Revista ARTA. Her work has been translated into French and English.
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Nino Haratischwili

(Tbilisi, 1983) had her breakthrough in 2014 with The Eight Life. In this award-winning, 1300-page family epic, the Hamburg-based Georgian writer tells the story of the fictitious Georgian Jasji family. She takes the reader to the Soviet Union, in particular during the dramatic years when Georgian-born tyrant Stalin was in power. She also takes the reader to the Swinging London of the 1960s and '70s, to the Prague Rebellion of 1968 and to the Caucasus, the area where she is from. Despite all the horrors she describes, it is not a terrible book but rather a tragicomic fairy tale with malicious traits. The main theme is the question of whether destiny still matters, even here and now in the West. Haratischwili made her debut in 2010 with Juja, followed by Mein sanfter Zwilling (My Gentle Twin) in 2011. She studied film directing in Tbilisi and theatre directing in Hamburg. Her plays have won many awards.
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Paul Scheffer

(1954) worked as a correspondent in Paris and Warsaw before becoming a research assistant at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation. Since 1978 he has written about 200 essays for NRC Handelsblad and Volkskrant newspapers and De Groene Amsterdammer magazine, gaining particular notice in 2000 for The Multicultural Fiasco. In 2007 he published Het land van aankomst (Immigrant Nations), a book that seeks out what really goes on under the surface of multiculturalism. He held the position of Professor of Metropolitan Issues at the University of Amsterdam from 2003 to 2011. Since 2011 he has been professor of European Studies at the Universities of Tilburg and Amsterdam. In 2013 he published Alles doet mee aan de werkelijkheid. Herman de Wolf (1893-1942), his grandfather's biography followed by the essay De grens van de vrijheid (The border's freedom, 2016) in which he states that an open society can only exist by a certain spatial demarcation.
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Leïla Slimani

(Morocco, 1981) is an internationally renowned French-Moroccan writer. She won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 2016 for Lullaby (US title: The Perfect Nanny) and was the International Booker Prize jury president in 2023. In her work, Slimani writes about female sexuality and autonomy; she denounces the oppression of female sexuality and the double sexual morality towards women. She draws on her own family's story for her novel trilogy The Country of Others (part 1), Watch Us Dance (part 2) and J’emporterai le feu (part 3, to be published in English translation). Starting off in part 1 after WWII during Morocco’s struggle for independence with French-born Mathilde and her Moroccan husband finding themselves caught in the crossfire, part 2 takes place during the 1960s: on the cusp of adulthood, two biracial siblings search for their place in a newly independent Morocco brimming with both possibility and peril. Part 3 takes writer Mia after a COVID-infection to Morocco to explore her family history.
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Efe Murad

(Istanbul, 1987) studied philosophy at Princeton and is working towards his Ph.D. in Ottoman History and Arabic Philosophy and Theology at Harvard. He has published five books of poetry and five books of translations from the Iranian poets M. Azad and Fereydoon-e Moshiri and from the American poets C.K. Williams, Susan Howe and Lyn Hejinian in Turkish. Together with Sidney Wade, he prepared a selection from the œuvre of Turkish poet Melih Cevdet Anday. His poems, writings and translations in English have appeared in a wide range of journals, such as Guernica, Jacket, Five Points, and The American Reader, and in exhibitions including the 13th Istanbul Bienniale. He is currently working on the complete Turkish translation of Ezra Pound’s Cantos. He published Matter-Poetry Manifesto together with Cem Kurtuluş in 2004, and his new work combines paleography, Islamic manuscript tradition, found footage and soundscapes.
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Damiaan Denys

(1965) is a prominent psychiatrist, neuroscientist, writer and theatre actor. Born in Flanders, he works and lives in The Netherlands. He studied philosophy and medicine in Belgium, graduated in psychiatry from Utrecht University, and worked as head of anxiety disorders of UMC Utrecht. He is a professor at the University of Amsterdam and department head of psychiatry at AMC Amsterdam. Denys developed Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), a method to master compulsive thoughts. In his book Angstparadox (Anxiety Paradox, 2016) he states: "If there is a single word that holds the essence of the world in which we live now, of what guides us and of what holds us back, it is anxiety." Denys writes and acts in theatre monologues, among them Van angst naar vrijheid (From Anxiety to Freedom, 2016), which is "about the sense and nonsense of our contemporary culture of anxiety".
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Mohsin Hamid

(Lahore, 1971) grew up in the US and Pakistan. He started writing his debut Moth Smoke (2000) during his studies at Harvard. This innovatively written novel, in which an ex-banker becomes addicted to heroin, became a cult hit in India and Pakistan. The international bestseller The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), about a Pakistani who gives up his top job in the US due to his disappointment with the West, was turned into a film. After his third novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013), he wrote Discomfort and Civilization (2014), an autobiographical acount about politics, culture and religion, and Exit West (2017), a novel focused on a refugee couple in love. He also writes essays and opinion pieces in publications such as The Guardian, The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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Margot Dijkgraaf

(The Netherlands, 1960) is a literary critic, writer, curator, interviewer, debate leader and "ambassador between France and the Netherlands in the field of literature", as a French ambassador once said. She has been writing about literature for some 30 years, mainly for the NRC daily. She published books on French and European literature, on Hella S. Haasse and Cees Nooteboom. Her In de voetsporen van mijn grootvader (2021) is an autobiographical search for her literary genes. Before that, she published Met Parijse pen. Literaire omzwervingen (in collaboration with photographer Bart Koetsier, 2020), which takes readers to Paris for walks in the footsteps of famous Dutch and French writers. She was joint artistic curator of the Netherlands' Guest of Honour role at the 2024 Leipzig Book Fair with German journalist Bettina Baltschev.

Go to the website of Margot Dijkgraaf
Instagram: @margotdijkgraaf
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Maarten van der Graaff

(The Netherlands, 1987) debuted in 2013 with Vluchtautogedichten (Getaway Car Poems), which won the C. Buddingh' Prize. The jury praised his "boasting, swagger, and bravado." Van der Graaff escapes everyday reality in his very own getaway car — namely poetry — looking for new dimensions. His second volume Dood werk (Dead Work, 2015) won the J.C. Bloem Prize. He publishes poetry and prose in various magazines, performs regularly, and is editor and co-founder of the online literary magazine Samplekanon. His first novel Wormen en engelen (Worms and Angels, 2017) is a contemporary quest for the meaning of faith. In 2020 he published the poetry collection Nederland in stukken (The Netherlands in Pieces), followed by his second novel Onder asfalt (Under Asphalt, 2022). He curates compelling poetry recitation programmes each year for Writers Unlimited.

Go to website Maarten van der Graaff
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Hassnae Bouazza

(Morocco, 1973) is a journalist, columnist, translator, researcher and producer. She publishes in various media (including Dutch national daily newspaper NRC and women's magazine Linda); runs her own online magazine for culture lovers, Aicha Qandisha. She compiled a story collection about Arab women, Achter de sluier (Behind the Veil, 1999); 2013 saw the publication of her book Arabieren kijken (Looking at Arabs), about "ordinary" people in the Arab world. She made TV programs for various broadcasters, including the documentary series Seks en de Zonde (Sex and Sin). Together with Michelin-starred chef Soenil Bahadoer, she wrote the culinary books Spicy Chef (2020) and Streetfood (2022). She published two further books in 2022: Een koffer vol citroenen (A Suitcase Full of Lemons), a requiem for and portrait of her mother, and Arbeidsmigranten in Nederland (Migrant Labourers in the Netherlands).
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Marjolijn van Heemstra

(Amsterdam, 1981) - writer, poet, and journalist – gained attention in 2009 with her first poetry collection Als Mozes had doorgevraagd. In 2012, her debut novel De laatste Aedema was published. In her work, she explores how we can think differently about ourselves and the world. Since 2019, she has written about how space can help us see the Earth from a new perspective, in a.o. her essay Wat is ruimte waard. The theatre play based on this book, Maankoorts, premiered in June 2024. Since 2019, Van Heemstra has been a space correspondent at De Correspondent. She creates podcasts (including Sør, Stadsastronaut en Als geschiedenis in je opstaat) and recently conducted research on the value of the night. In 2025 she performs her stage play Observaties van een theaterrat.
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Jet Steinz

(The Netherlands, 1990) is a writer and programme maker for the Writers Unlimited Festival The Hague. Together with her father, Pieter Steinz, she published Steinz. Gids voor de wereldliteratuur (Steinz: Guide to world literature, 2005). In this reference book, the writers give an overview of narrative fiction including 416 writers, 104 masterpieces, 52 bookwebs, 52 literary maps, 26 themes, 26 quizzes and 26 one-book wonders. In 2016 her novel De tranen van Saar (The Tears of Saar) were published as part of the Young Adult-book series Sterren van morgen (Stars of Tomorrow). In 2019, she published P.S. Van liefdespost tot hatemail (P.S. From Love Letters to Hatemail), a collection of 150 remarkable, funny or moving letters in Dutch she found in archives. Together with her essayistic descriptions, the facsimiles tell the history of letters while also revealing a portrayal of The Netherlands through the ages.
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Max Lerou

Poet and performer Max Lerou (The Hague, 1953) started out as a society hair stylist, journalist and manager of national Dutch broadcaster VPRO, among other jobs. As a young man he travelled across Europe with a circus. At later age he was based in Asia ,where he wrote English-language poetry and fiction. After returning to the Netherlands he quickly made himself a name as performance poet. Lerou was a Dutch Championship Poetry Slam finalist and was awarded, among others, the ABN AMRO Almere Poetry Prize. His performance during the official opening of Parkpop 2017 was a first in the history of this large open-air music festival in The Hague.
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Mira Feticu

(Romania, 1973) is a writer, poet and columnist. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1993, after which she devoted herself to prose. In 2005, she moved to The Hague with her Dutch husband André. There she decided to write in Dutch rather than Romanian. In her novels, she has successfully developed a personal and candid writing style. Her publications include Lief kind van mij (My Dear Child, 2012), De ziekte van Kortjakje (Kortjakje's Illness, 2013), Tascha. De roof uit de Kunsthal (Tascha: The Robbery at the Kunsthal, 2015), Al mijn vaders en Picasso's keerzijde (All My Fathers and Picasso's Other Side, 2019), and Liefdesverklaring aan de Nederlandse taal (Declaration of Love to the Dutch Language, 2021). After the loss of André, she wrote her latest novel Gewone Hollandse jongens (Ordinary Dutch Boys, 2025) about grief, physical desire and the search for stability in the company of others. Her articles and columns appear in Tirade, De Groene Amsterdammer and Den Haag Centraal, among others.

Go to the website of Mira Feticu
Instagram: @mirafeticu
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Hizir Cengiz

(1998) won, at age 18, the first Jan Paul Bresser Prize for his essay "The World is a Bucket of Mud", published in De Groene Amsterdammer. From the perspective of student, he describes coming to the Netherlands from Turkey as a small boy and ending up in the Hague's Schilderswijk neighbourhood. There, he sees boys choosing the wrong path, and the hate towards Muslims and the mudslinging increasing. "How is it possible, then, to build something for yourself?" he wonders, finishing with the words: "We have to wait for the mud to dry, to be hard enough to build fortresses." Cengiz has written for Scholieren.com and Mindshakes people profiles for the Hague and Rotterdam Straatniews newspapers. Since winning the prize, he regularly writes columns for De Groene Amsterdammer and is working on a novel.
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Anne Vegter

(Delfzijl, NL, 1958) studied at the Akademie voor Expressie in Utrecht. With illustrator Geerten ten Bosch she created the children's book De dame en de neushoorn (The Lady and the Rhino, 1989), followed by her second children's book Verse Bekken! (Fresh Snouts) and poetic debut Het veerde (Something Bounced). She has also written prose, such as Ongekuiste versies (Unclear Versions) and Harrie's hoofdingang (Harrie's Main Entrance), and plays such as Struisvogels op de Coolsingel (Ostriches on the Coolsingel, 2005). She received the Anna Blaman Prize for her oeuvre. Vegter also published poetry: Aandelen en obligaties (Shares and Bonds, 2002) and Spamfighter (2007). From 2013 to 2017 she was the Dutch Poet Laureate; the work she created during that time is collected in Wat helpt is een wonder (What Helps is a Miracle, 2017). In spring of the same year, she published the joint poetry collection Ik hier jij daar (Me Here You There) with the Palestinian-Syrian poet Ghayath Almadhoun.
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Ghayath Almadhoun

(Damascus, 1979) published Weg van Damascus (Away from Damascus, 2015), a Dutch language collection of his poems that was for weeks in the top ten of best-selling poetry volumes, followed in 2017 by Ik hier jij daar (Me Here You There), a collection he wrote with poet Anne Vegter. Almadhoun was born in a Palestinian refugee camp, the son of a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother. He studied Arabic literature and worked as a cultural journalist in Damascus, where he also set up a house of poetry. In 2008 he asked for political asylum in Sweden. Two poetry collections were published there, one of them written with Marie Silkeberg, with whom he also created poetry films. His poetry is imbued with feelings of homesickness and the guilt of a young intellectual who left his native country. His work has been translated into many European languages as well as Chinese.
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Amer Shanati

(Syria) is a Palestinian-Syrian oud player, composer, bandleader and music professor. At the first refugee centre he landed in while seeking asylum, he distinguished himself as gifted musician. Since then, he has performed at the Concertgebouw and been heard on the radio. He lives in The Hague, where he founded The Hague Orchestra for Peace, in which musicians from various countries play music and new compositions with the aim of creating bonds. They see music as the perfect means of attaining peace, because people from differing cultures can easily reach one another with it. Shanati wants to expand his message with his Foundation Amer Music for Peace. He studied at the music institute in Homs, Syria, and at The Hague's conservatory. Together with Stefka (Stephanie Ruijsenaars) he created the poetic musical performance Eerst was er Thuis (First there Was Home), in which four musicians seek a lost home.
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Sanam Sheriff

(India, 1995) is a poet and artist from Bangalore. In 2018 she graduated from Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, USA, with a BA in Creative Writing. She was a 2018-2019 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee, and the winner of the 2018 Button Poetry Video Contest. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Virginia Quarterly Review, The Offing, Vinyl Poetry & Prose, The Academy of American Poets, The Shade Journal, DW B, and elsewhere. She is currently an MFA candidate in Poetry at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is poetry editor of The Spectacle Magazine. Sheriff was a guest of the 2018 Winternachten International Literature Festival The Hague.
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Luuk van Middelaar

(Eindhoven, NL, 1973) is a leading historian and political philosopher. From 2010 to 2015 he was the speechwriter and political advisor to the first chairman of the European council, Herman Van Rompuy. After his time in Brussels, he became Professor of Foundations and Practices of the EU and its Institutions at the University of Leiden. Van Middelaar is a political commentator for national newspaper NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands) and De Standaard (Belgium). His Passage to Europe, about the political developments in Europe of the last 50 years, has been multiply awarded and translated. His book De nieuwe politiek van Europa (The New European Politics) describes how European leaders are rushing from one incident to the next. Van Middelaar offers clarity and perspective.
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Bas Heijne

(Nijmegen, NL, 1960) writes essays, short stories and plays, and is a columnist with the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad. He published the novels Laatste woorden (Last words) and Suez and received the Henriëtte Roland Holst Prize in 2005. In 2011's Moeten wij van elkaar houden, het populisme ontleed (Do We Have to Love One Another? Populism Dissected) Heijne shows how globalisation and individualism pave the way for populism. Angst en schoonheid (Fear and Beauty) was published in 2013, an essay about Dutch writer Louis Couperus, whom Heijne admires. In the same year his documentary about Couperus was broadcast. In 2015 he hosted the five-part documentary De volmaakte mens (The Perfect Human). In 2016 his essay Onbehagen – nieuw licht op de beschaafde mens (Discontent - new light on civilized man) was published. In 2017 Heijne received the P.C. Hooft Award for his essayistic works.
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Shervin Nekuee

(Iran, 1968) is a sociologist, writer and producer. He studied at the University of Utrecht and lives in The Hague. He wrote De Perzische paradox: verhalen uit de islamitische republiek Iran (The Persian Paradox: Stories from the Islamic Republic of Iran) in 2006, published by De Arbeiderspers. At age 19 he fled Iran because he refused to fight in the war against Iraq. In his professional life he is especially interested in the cultural and social aspects of multicultural society and political developments in the Middle East. Nekuee is a curator and programmer of the Winternachten international literature festival of The Hague, as well as artistic director of the Mystic Festival Rotterdam. He is also a member of the Grote Midden Oosten (Great Middle Eastern) Platform, an organisation that brings together experts from the Middle East living in The Netherlands for training, analysis and publications.
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Gustaaf Peek

(The Netherlands, 1975) is a writer of novels, poems, stories, essays, and screenplays. His work is characterized by the compelling way in which he brings characters involved in historical injustices to life. His debut novel Armin (2008) is about children adrift after World War II. In Ik was Amerika (I Was America, 2010), a Dutch prisoner of war in World War II befriends a farm worker in a camp in the US. Decades later, he seeks him out again. Peek received the BNG Literature Prize and the F. Bordewijk Prize for this work. Godin, held (Goddess, Hero, 2014) is a candid novel about the mysterious and all-too-human nature of love. In his pamphlet Verzet! Pleidooi voor communisme (Resistance! A Plea for Communism, 2015), he undermines decades of capitalist indoctrination. His novel A.D. (2021) tells about the events and hardships aboard one of the first seaships in the 16th century to present-day Indonesia and the arrival there. In 2025, his poetry collection Orang/oetan was published.
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Grażyna Plebanek

(1967) is a Warsaw-born novelist, columnist and playwright living in Brussels. A graduate of Polish philology at Warsaw University, she is the author of best-selling novels Girls from Portofino and Illegal Liaisons, published in the UK, US and Canada. Plebanek is also the author of the novels Box of Stilettos, A Girl Called Przystupa and The Boxer as well as a collection of literary essays, Robbermaid’s Daughters. In 2017 she published her sixth novel, Miss Fury. Her books show the difficult truths about the integration between cultures. She writes a regular column in the Polish weekly Polityka, as well as in Poland’s daily Gazeta Wyborcza and in Trendy magazine. She was awarded the Zlote Sowy Literary Prize for her contributions to promoting Poland abroad.
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Ilonka Reintjens

is a producer and project coordinator for literary events. Before this, she worked as publisher and editor at various publishing houses. She currently is business and artistic leader of the literary festival Meet Me at the Lighthouse on the Dutch island Schiermonnikoog, and for Writers Unlimited as a program coordinator and curator for the Writers Unlimited international literary festival The Hague and the monthly Writers Series.
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Rodaan Al Galidi

(Iraq, 1971) fled his country in 1998 after completing architecture studies, was given asylum in the Netherlands and settled there legally in 2007. Since then he has published poetry, novels and collections of his columns. He received the 2000 El Hizjra literature award and the 2011 Literature Prize of the European Union. In 2013 he published Liever niet, antwoordt de liefde (Maybe Not, Was Love's Reply), an anthology of refreshing love poetry. His novel Hoe ik talent voor het leven kreeg (Two Blankets, Three Sheets) tells of his experiences as an asylum seeker in the Netherlands. Al Galidi published the short story collection Duizend-en-een-nachtmerries (A Thousand and One Nightmares) in 2017 and a poem collection Neem de titel serieus (Take the title seriously) in 2018.
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Gerlinda Heywegen

(1968) is a programmer, writer, organizer, lecturer and podcaster, mainly on the subject of film and often in combination with literature. Koning Film is the collective of speakers on film that she established. Heywegen's books include The Other Director, about 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 literary magazine Elders.
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Felix Rottenberg

(Amsterdam, 1957) is chairman of LIRA, a Dutch collective management organization (CMO) for (screen)writers, translators and freelance journalists. He also chairs the Amsterdam Kunstraad, a permanent and independent advisory body of the Amsterdam City Council as well as Nieuw Genootschap van Nederlandse Componisten (New Association of Dutch Composers, Nieuw Geneco). He founded and was director of political and cultural debate centre de Balie in Amsterdam and was chairman of Dutch political party Partij van de Arbeid.
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Tom Dommisse

(1958) is a philosopher and lecturer on the esthetics of music and cultural philosophy at the Royal Conservatory. Since his time as a university researcher, he has worked in the border areas of philosophy where it encounters literature, theatre and politics. He has published on themes of esthetics, metaphysics, political philosophy and the philosophy of law. According to Dommisse, all philosophy again faces the challenge of linking an academic level of thought with the need to carefully bring it into the public sphere. Theatre companies seek him out for wanted and unwanted dramaturgical advice. He is involved with the work of Thomas Mann and Pasolini and nurtures a passion for Shakespeare. Together with STET English Theatre, he organized a Shakespeare festival in 2016 and 2018.
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Francis Broekhuijsen

(The Netherlands, 1970) is a presenter, producer, actor and voice-over artist specializing in music, literature, arts and culture. After graduating as actor from the Toneelschool Amsterdam he was a member, among others, of the ensemble of the Nationale Toneel. He was a presenter at Amsterdam-based broadcaster AT5 and a radio producer with the KRO on national network NPO Radio 1. He narrates audio books, and was shortlisted for the Storytel Award 2019 for Best Audio Book with his reading of Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer's novel Grand Hotel Europa. Until last year, he presented on radio station Sublime the daily morning show Sublime Sunrise, the Instagram poetry programme Sublime Smooth and evening show The Sublime Experience. In 2025 he wrote and hosted the tv-series Kringlopen met Francis on regional Dutch broadcaster NH. Broekhuijsen works for Writers Unlimited as festival curator and presenter.

Go to the website of Francis Broekhuijsen
Instagram: @francisbroekhuijsen
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Lisa Weeda

(Rotterdam, 1989) is a Dutch-Ukrainian writer, literary programme maker, theatre maker and VR director. Her debut novel Aleksandra was published in 2021. Her grandmother is the central character in the story. She sends the main character Lisa to the Donbas to bring a cloth to the grave of her murdered uncle Kolya. In 2024, Dans Dans Revolutie (Dance Dance Revolution) was published, a novel in which Weeda tackles the issue of looking away from and looking at war in four storylines. The immersive theatre installation of the same name, Dans Dans Revolutie, won the Designers' Prize at the Dutch Theatre Festival in 2025. In Het archief Jilles - brief aan mijn grootvader (The Jilles Archive - Letter to My Grandfather, 2025), she describes how an archive discovery brings a loved one closer. Together with Teddy Tops, she compiled J'accuse (2025), a collection of texts by forty Dutch, Flemish and international writers who speak out against the erasure of the Palestinians. Lisa's work has been translated in eight countries.

Go to the website of Lisa Weeda here
Instagram: @lisa_weeda
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Fatma Aydemir

(Karlsruhe, 1986) made a splash with her controversial debut novel Ellbogen (Elbow). The book won the Klaus Michael Kühne Prize. Aydemir, granddaughter of Turkish labourer immigrants, writes about a girl with Turkish antecedents who is so frustrated by the discrimination she encounters daily that, during a drunken spree, she pushes a student in front of the metro and then flees to Turkey. She feels no remorse. "Ellbogen is a punch in the gut. Or rather, two. One for the misogynistic Turkish community. And one for the hypocrisy of our oh so liberal society," wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Aydemir studied German and American Studies in Frankfurt. She writes for the newspaper taz about Turkish pop culture. She also set up the bilingual webportal taz.gazete as a reaction to the restriction of press freedom in Turkey.
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Stephan Sanders

(Haarlem, NL, 1961) is a columnist, presenter, essayist and writer. In 2015 he came out of the closet for the second time: he publicly acknowledged that he believes in god, even if this is "not done" in intellectual circles. Since mid-2016 he has been a regular columnist with the Volkskrant newspaper. In his 2007 book Zon, zee en oorlog (Sun, Sea and War) he describes experiences in places like Capetown, where he discovered that his biological father was South African. Sanders, who was adopted by Dutch foster parents, studied philosophy and political science and has written for various dailies and weeklies since 1982. He has published story and essay collections, novels, journalistic pieces, and the 2013 book Iets meer dan een seizoen (A Little More than One Season).
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Charlotte Van den Broeck

(1991) is a Flemish poet from Turnhout. After finishing her Language and Literature Studies at the University of Ghent, she explored word art at the Antwerp Conservatory. In the Poëziebordeel van Vonk en Zonen, Ondernemers in de letteren she performs as Lulu Wedekind. She toured with Saint Amour 2015. The same year, she was the closing act of the 33rd Night of the Poetry in Utrecht; in 2016, therefore, she opened the 34th Night of the Poetry. January 2015, her debut Kameleon was published by De Arbeiderspers. October 2016, she opened the Frankfurter Buchmesse together with Arnon Grunberg, as the youngest guest-country speaker ever. Her second poetry collection Nachtroer (2017) is nominated for the VSB Poëzieprijs (VSE Poetry Award) 2018.
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Monir Goran

(Iraq, 1975) has played guitar and oud since childhood and grew up with Kurdish music. He studied music in Baghdad. In Jordan, he taught at a music school. He played in the band 'Al-Nagam-Alasil, which performed regularly at festivals in Amman and Zerkah. In the Netherlands, he has performed at festivals and venues including Rasa, Paradiso, the Dunya festival and the Global Village festival and on Radio 4 & 6.
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Joost Baars

(Leidschendam, NL, 1975) is a poet, essayist and bookseller. His very well received debut poetry collection Binnenplaats (Inner Space) was nominated for the 2017 C. Buddingh Prize and awarded the 2018 VSB Poetry Prize. According to the jury of the C. Buddingh Prize: "How must one love in the shadow of insecurity? Joost Baars gropes in the dark and find poems there that reveal unmistakable mastery and dizzying depth". Baars' poems are mystical but not religious. They attest to an enormous erudition and are simultaneously worldly, funny and romantic. The collection consists of four parts and includes translated sonnets of the English Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). Baars was a programmer with the Perdu Foundation and organizer of the poetry Festival Dichtersmarathon (Poets' Marathon), and is the publisher of Halverwege Chapbooks and the spiritual father of VersSpreken, a podcast about poetry.
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Hans Tentije

(Beverwijk, 1944) is the winner of the 2017 Constantijn Huygens Prize, which is awarded for an entire body of poetic work. Tentije, the pseudonym of Johann Krämer, has written 16 volumes of poetry since his 1975 debut. Cynicism - motivated by the fact that the promise and expectations of the late sixties never materialized - is a constant in his work. His poetry is not subject to fashion and seeks precise words to express the elusive. His style is in line with the American epic tradition. In long, descriptive poems, he visits places where the passage of time is tangible. His eye for detail and striking characters and landscapes distinguishes his work. At the same time, he sometimes creates a certain indefinability whereby dreams, reality and imagination merge, leading to special insights. Tentije previously took home awards such as the Van der Hoogt Prize and the Guido Gezelle Prize.
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Annet Schaap

(The Netherlands, 1965) had illustrated about 200 children's books, including the work of Francine Oomen, Jacques Vriens and Janneke Schotveld, when she wrote her first children's book Lampje (Little Lamp) in 2017. It won the Nienke van Hichtum Prize, the first time it was awarded to a debut. She also wrote YA plays, songs and the libretto for a children's opera. She won the 2015 Willem Wilmink Poetry Prize with Marianne. Lampje is an impressive adventure story about the daughter of a one-legged lighthouse keeper. When everything goes wrong after a terrible storm, Lampje is taken away from her home. Together with musician Fredrike de Winter, she made the storytelling performance Lampje (7+). She is a born storyteller with a clear message: freedom lies mainly in the acceptance of individuality, peculiarity and fallibility.
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Jeroen Olyslaegers

(Mortsel, 1967) writes columns, theatre texts and prose. His novels WIJ (WE, 2009), WINST (GAIN, 2012) and WIL (WILL, 2016) form a triptych about the turbulent history of the last century in which the individual must determine his attitude toward community. WIJ is about a group of friends holidaying in 1976 in a Spain that has just liberated itself from Franco's yoke. In GAIN, an art dealer organizing an exhibit in Berlin observes how the city has changed since 1989. WIL is a WWII novel in which the protagonist sees how some people try to save Jews while others try to hunt them to their deaths. The latter won Olyslaegers the F. Bordewijk Prize. "His impressive sentences and ingenious composition make the vagueness of the war years tangible," wrote the jury. Olyslaegers has also taken home various theatre prizes, in part for his social engagement.
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Marije Langelaar

(Goes, 1978) is poet. Her third poetry volume, Vonkt (Sparks), was published in 2017, won the Jan Campert Prize and has been nominated for the 2018 VSB Poetry Prize. In Langelaar's poems, a fairy-tale atmosphere meets grimness, and passion meets death. In her debut, De rivier als vlakte (The River as a Plain), there was lots of partying and sex, and lightness dominated. Her second collection, De schuur in (Into the Barn) was darker, with people often a plaything of larger forces. According to the Jan Campert jury, Vonkt is "an infectious collection bursting with a passionate love of life and language."
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Jurgen Maas

is founder and director of Jurgen Maas Publishers in Amsterdam, which focuses on Dutch and foreign literature (prose and poetry) and literary and journalistic non-fiction. Special areas of expertise are the Middle East, North Africa and multicultural society. Maas studied journalism and policial science. For almost fifteen years he worked as a radio journalist and host at IKON.
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Kader Abdolah

(1954, Iran) is the pen name of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani. Since his debut De Adelaars (The Eagles) in 1993 he has navigated between two worlds, the Netherlands and the country of his birth. Abdolah grew up in a harsh, Islamic region. Since he was twelve he read western literature and caught the scent of freedom. While studying physics in Teheran, he joined a secret leftwing party. In 1980 he published two collections of short stories clandestinely under the name Kader Abdolah. In 1988 he fled Iran and ended up in the Netherlands where he has since published a large body of works consisting of novels, short story collections and collected columns, published under the pen name Mirza in de Volkskrant. In Papegaai vloog over de IJssel (Parrot flew over the IJssel, 2014) four migrant families build a new existence in typically Dutch villages along the river; in Salam Europa (2016) the Shah of Persia travels through Europe late in the 19th century, accompanied by a large following of bickering courtiers.
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Funda Müjde

(Turkey, 1961) is an actress, comedienne, moderator, hostess and columnist. She is well-known due to her leading role in the film Julia’s Secret and roles in a number opf popular Dutch TV series. From 1999 to 2012 she wrote a weekly column in national Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, providing a humourous and critical view of Dutch intercultural society. A selection of her columns was published in 2004, titled Algemeen Beschaafd Turks (Common Turkish Pronunciation). Following a car accident in 2007, she has had to use a wheelchair. Müjde writes, acts and presents as she is, with a personal perspective on political and societal themes, sometimes provocative and always with humour. In 2016 she returned to the theatre with Funda Draait Door, in which she tells about her life's journey.
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Mia You

(South Korea, 1980) is a poet, translator of Korean poetry and film scripts, and lecturer at the Department of English at Utrecht University. She grew up in the United States and lives in Utrecht. Motherhood, birth, heredity, and the racialization of everyday life form the common thread in her balanced lyrical work. She is the author of the (English-language) poetry collection I, Too, Dislike It (1913 Press, 2016) and has published in De Gids, Artforum, Boston Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. In 2024, her second poetry collection, Festival, was published in English by Belladonna Press and in Dutch by Uitgeverij Chaos. She works on the translation of Kim Hyesoon's poetry collection Synchronized Sea Anemone (2025).

Instagram: @quelpart
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Dean Bowen

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a poet, performer and events programmer. As evident in his multilingual poetry collection Bokman (2018), his work looks at the relationship of people's identity to society. A strong performance won him the first Van Dale SPOKEN Award. In 2019 and 2020 he was poet laureate of Rotterdam. Ik vond geen spoken in Achtmaal (I Found No Ghosts in Achtmaal, 2020) describes, via diary entries, poems, confessions, and rituals, the search for what remains of a person long after he has died. He has published poems on the online platforms SampleKanon and Hard//Hoofd and in magazines such as nY and Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen. He teaches performance literature and poetry at the Creative Writing programme at ArtEZ. Together with Flemish writer and musician Joost Hoekaf, he creates introspective hip hop in the Vudu Cru project. His next collection, Masc:r, will be published in January 2026.

Instagram: @dean_bowen
Instagram: @vudu.cru
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Çağlar Köseoğlu

(1985) debuted in 2015 with 34, a poetry collection with a critical point of view towards the history and the present of Turkey. His poems were published in Samplekanon, nY, Kluger Hans, Deus Ex Machina and Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen. He is editor at nY and Contrivers' Review and teaches at Erasmus University College in Rotterdam.
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Arie Storm

(The Hague, 1963) is a writer and literary critic. Not only does many an author fear his weekly reviews in Het Parool newspaper, his novels also raise high emotions. Storm enjoys balancing on the edge of fact and fiction: his latest novel, Een diadeem van dauw (A Diadem of Dew, 2017) features, for his third outing, the character August Voois, who also happens to be a writer and literary critic working on a novel that happens to share that title. In Storm's earlier novel, Luisteren hoe huizen ademen (Listening to Houses Breathe), Voois criticized the hosts of a radio program in which he has a segment; soon after, Storm had to quit his books segment on the Tros Nieuwsshow.
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Veva Leye

(Oostende, 1981) is one of the most innovative young Flemish poets of our time. In many languages, topographies and language registers she tirelessly seeks out the limits of our limitless world. Since 2011 she works at CINEMATEK (the Brussels' film museum) and edits texts about film, mainly for cinephile platform sabzian.be. Her work as well as big thinkers such as Slavoj Zizek - known for his humorous, Marxist cultural criticism - are clear inspirations of here poetry. She is currently a guest writer with the literary Magazine nY, where she is experimenting in four issues. In that capacity, she undertook a written "dialogue" with the late writer, poet and translator Jacq Vogelaar. He called it "writing back". Leye quotes him: "Writing back is necessary, also over time, in order to defend yourself."
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Peter van Dongen

(Amsterdam, 1966) is a graphic novelist and illustrator. In 1990 his Muizentheater (The Mice Theatre), appeared, about two brothers in a time of crisis and war. It won him the Stripschap-penning (a Dutch cartoonists' prize) for best album. In 1998 and 2004 he published Rampokan: Java and Rampokan: Celebes, a diptych set on the eve of the colonial war the Dutch fought in Indonesia. These books have meanwhile appeared in French, German and Indonesian translation. For Dutch daily NRC's Literary Supplement, Van Dongen drew fifty writers portraits. November 2017 he published Familieziek (Family Sickness), his graphic-novel adaptation of the novel Repatriated (2002) by Adriaan van Dis; it is a story about an Indonesian family, survivors of the Japanese camps, that tries to settle in the Netherlands during the fifties.
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Arjan Peters

(Amsterdam, NL, 1963) studied Dutch language and literature in Amsterdam. He writes reviews, interviews, columns and obituaries, and heads the books section of De Volkskrant newspaper. In 2011 he published Eindelijk Sneeuw (Snow at Last: twelve wintry stories about artists, writers, and books, from Willem Witsen's cityscapes to the tears of Mrs. Dickens). Exerpts from his reviews and interviews were published in the books Langzaam lopen is al verdacht (Walking Slowly is Suspicious, 1999), De ongeneeslijke lezer – een werkboek (The Incurable Reader: a workbook, 2002), Het woord is aan de schrijver (The Writer Has the Floor, 2005), and De Broodschrijver (The Hack, 2006), about Bart Chabot's biography of Herman Brood. In 2012 he published Kreten uit een urn (Cries from an Urn), a lecture on the role of the critic in our time. His text "Naar boven mit Brakman" ("Up With Brakman") accompanied the 2015 unveiling of the Brakman monument in Enschede.
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Irina Baldini

is a dancer and creator. She has performed at festivals, galleries and museums, including the Venice Biennale and Tate Britain, and choreographs for theatre and on location. She co-founded the 4bid Gallery, non profit place, project and platform for encounters between visual and performance arts, and created the performance events Highs & Lows at OT301, both in Amsterdam. As a dancer, Irina Baldini responds to chance and circumstance and works with temporary methods. During the 2023 Winternachten Festival, on the evening of Friday, 21 April, she moved to the words of poet Marwin Vos and respond to the question: what is the raw material of the poem?
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Samira Saleh

(The Hague, 1994) has found a way to translate her feelings into Spoken Word. Her serious texts as well as her humoristic poems give a deep message to the attentive listener. She was part of the winning Team Zuid during the Slam 't Stad poetry tournament in Antwerp and performed at various projects across Belgium, among which Female Takeover in a Man's World show hosted by Navitas, the 44th Women's Day, Stand & Deliver in Ghent en Urban Woorden in Leuven. As from 2017 she is Slambassador for Belgium at the international exchange project Next Generation Speaks, and winner of the BILL-Award in the category Speaking. Behind the scenes you may find her as co-organisor of Mama's Open Mic and 't Graafste HOF! Keep an eye out for this badass upcoming poet! The revolution will not be televised, she will be heard!
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Ivana Ivkovic

(Belgrade, 1974) is a political philosopher and cultural thinker. For Filosofie Magazine she interviews great thinkers who have exciting and incisive views into our era, such as the post-Marxist Chantal Mouffe and Slavoj Žižek, but also John Gray, who sweeps the floor with humanism. For the same magazine she also created an "Ideas for the 21st Century" file to collect concepts by important contemporary thinkers. She also writes think pieces for De Groene Amsterdammer. She regularly makes media appearances and, in 2009, organized the biggest public Dutch philosophical event: the Night of Philosophy in Felix Meritis. "Philosophy is no wishful thinking", she writes on her website, "but helps us to dwell on the things that really make us think." She focuses on themes such as citizenship, the transformation of public space and populism.
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Paul van der Gaag

(Netherlands, 1958) has produced and presented the VPRO radio programme OVT since 2002, a two-hour show about the historical roots of current events as well as newly released historical books, films, commemorations, and anything else related to history. The show features live interviews, reportage, columns and a weekly documentary during the last half hour. He was already linked to OVT since 1992 as a programmer and previously freelanced for other national Dutch broadcasters such as VARA and IKON.
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Ernst Reijseger

(Bussum, NL, 1954) was taught to play cello as of age eight by Anner Bijlsma, then the first cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. At the end of the 1960s he began improvising and developed his own playing style. From this time onward he performed throughout Europe with various ensembles, playing modern classical music as well as jazz improv. In the late 1980s he founded the Clusone Trio, which made five albums in ten years and gave concerts around the world. Currently Reijseger performs mostly with pianist Harmen Fraanje and the Senegalese vocalist Molla Sylla. He also composes scores for films and documentaries, including for director Werner Herzog. He teaches children and adults worldwide and has accompanied the likes of poets Ramsey Nasr and Ester Naomi Perquin, writer/poet Joke van Leeuwen, and artist Gerti Bierenbroodspot. The cellist has made more than 150 CDs and won the Boy Edgar Prize and an Edison, among others. In 2010 he won a Golden Calf (the Dutch Oscar) for best film score.
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Oleg Lysenko

(Ukraine, 1974) studied at the music academies in Poltava, Kiew and Enschede. In 1999 he released his first CD, Awakening featuring works by a.o. Vivaldi, Bach, Pachelbel and Piazolla. He specialized in Argentine tango on bayan and bandoneon at Codarts Rotterdam. As a soloist, he won the 2005 National Accordion Competition in The Netherlands with his rendition of Victor Vlasov's "Five Views of the Land of the Gulag Archipelago", also the title piece of his 2012 CD Gulag. He prefers genre-transcending projects in which visual art, literature and music enhance and flow into one another. He developed such projects with writer and visual artist Armando, sculptor and illustrator Koenraad Tinel, and with writers, journalists and filmmakers, including Stefan Hertmans, Cherry Duyns and Peter d'Hamecourt, among others. For his double-CD De sneeuwstorm (The Snowstorm, 2022), Lysenko arranged and played on bayan Georgi Sviridov's music to Alexander Pushkin's story of the same name, recited by Martinus Nijhoff Prize-winning Pushkin translator Hans Boland. With fundraising events and benefit performances, Oleg raises money to pay for an ambulance for the Ukrainian region of Poltava, where his family comes from.
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Michel Krielaars

(Netherlands, 1961) is a writer, journalist and, since 2012, Editor-in-Chief of the literature section of NRC newspaper. He studied history and Russian at the University of Amsterdam. Krielaars has written novels, a short-story collection, and various books about Russian history. Het brilletje van Tsjechov (Through Chekov's Glasses) was published in 2014, a report of his travels through Russia in the footsteps of the famous author. His book Reizen door Rusland (Travels through Russia) earned high praise and won the 2015 Bob den Uyl Prize. Alles voor het moederland (Everything for the Mother Country, 2017) tells about Stalin's reign of terror in the times of Isaak Babel and Vasili Grossman.
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Kay Sleking

(Zeist, 1968) is a tango guitarist and double base and bandoneon player. In 2005 he founded Guitarras Tango, with which he performs at home and abroad. Together with Julian Peralta and others he formed the Orquesta Tipica Tango Masivo in 2016, which mainly plays dance repertoire. Sleking studied classical guitar at the Amsterdam and Rotterdam conservatoriums, specializing in Argentine tango. He graduated with honours and immediately became a professor of guitar. He currently teaches at CODARTS in Rotteram. In 2006 he released a solo CD, Guitarra Y Tango, on which he plays traditional tango in new arrangements. Sleking is famous for his sublime technique and his interesting mix of polyphonic classical playing and improvisation.
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Cyrille Offermans

(Sittard, 1945) is an essayist and critic. His many essays about subjects such as art, literature, cultural history, philosophy and sociology oppose a facile and consumption-driven experience of art and reality. They often contain autobiographical elements. Following three teen novels, he debuted in 2011 as a novelist with Death of a Teacher. Just like his essays, the book sharply criticizes the educational system and the publishing community. Education suffers from laziness and a lack of dedication, while commercialism has trumped idealism and expertise in publishing circles. For Offermans, every form of art, whether intentional or unintentional, requires engagement. His work speaks out against the lack of esthetic commitment of artists and intellectuals, who, he believes, are always responsible to society.
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Carmien Michels

(Leuven, 1990) looks at language and story in all forms, both verbal and non-verbal. She studied language arts at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp where she completed a research project in 2016. That same year, she won the Dutch and European Poetry Slam Championship and took bronze at the world championship in Paris. Her debut novel We zijn water (We Are Water) interweaves stories of seven characters who are stubbornly finding their own way through life. Her next one, Vraag het aan de bliksem (Go Ask the Lightening, 2015), is a contemporary coming-of-age novel. Her first volume of poetry, We komen van ver (We Come from Afar) appeared in 2017. She is storyteller of M Museum Leuven, guest teacher at LUCA School of Arts and board member of PEN Flanders. From 2017 to 2019 she is one of the young authors in the European talent development programme CELA: Connecting Emerging Literary Artists.
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David Van Reybrouck

(Belgium, 1971) is an author, historian and archaeologist, known for his multifaceted contributions to literature and intellectual discourse. He is currently Philosopher Laureate of the Low Countries. Upon his appointment, he published De wereld en de aarde (The World and the Earth, 2025), in which he makes a groundbreaking proposal to radically broaden our thinking—and our politics. For the greatest security issue of our time is not the world with its mutual conflicts, but the earth, which is becoming increasingly disrupted. His oeuvre covers a range of genres, including historical non-fiction, poetry, and theater. Among his best-known works are Congo (2010), about the country's bewildering history, and Revolusi (2020), which places Indonesia's struggle for independence in a global perspective through eyewitness accounts. In addition to his literary work, Van Reybrouck is known as ‘one of Europe's leading intellectuals’ (Tagesspiegel), whose ideas relate to themes such as democracy, climate, and colonialism. He regularly publishes opinion pieces in international publications. 

Go to the website of David Van Reybrouck
Instagram: @david.vanreybrouck
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Ibrahim Eroğlu

(Yozgat, 1963) came to The Netherlands in 1980 in the context of family reunification. After working fourteen years in greenhouse agriculture, he followed a study in teaching Turkish language at the Nuts Academy in Rotterdam and worked as Turkish language teacher until 2004. Following his subsequent study Teaching at the Hogeschool Inholland, he works at primary school teacher in Schilderswijk neighbourhood in The Hague. Ibrahim Eroglu has been distinguished with several poetry awards, both in The Netherlands and abroad. To this day, he published four poetry collections and five joke collections.
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Cansu Eroğlu

(The Hague, 1992) is a The Hague-based vocalist with Turkish roots. Her interest in cultural diversity does not only reflect in her studies (Cultural Anthropology, Religious Sciences and World music) and her work, but also in the choice of songs she performs and the languages in which she sings.
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Uri Eugenio

(Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, 1982) is a dancer, dance teacher and choreographor. Television watchers will recognize him from his appearances on So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing Queen. Eugenio spent his youth in Sint Maarten, where he attended his first dance classes. He studied at the Fontys School of the Arts in Tilburg and went on to dance with renowned companies, including the Scapino Ballet and currently LeineRoebana. In 2014 he was nominated for De Zwaan (The Swan), the prize for the most impressive dance performance. Eugenio has performed worldwide, including in New York and Shanghai. He also gives jazz and modern dance lessons, in which he teaches students to interpret feelings through movement. "To me, what is special about dance, is feeling something new every time", he said during a workshop. Eugenio not only expresses himself though dance - he also designs crocheted hats and scarves.
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Alejandra Theus

(Belgium, 1981) plays the starring role in the Flemish TV series Zie mij graag (See Me Gladly). The Flemish-Colombian actress plays Anna, who is trying to rebuild her life after divorce. It's the first big TV role for Theus, who had mainly starred on stage previously. Already during her studies at the Theatre Academy Maastricht she earned good roles in plays by ambitious directors such as Eric de Vroedt (mightysociety 5) and Thibaut Delpeut (Britannicus). She won the 2008 Kemn-A-Ward for her role in the graduation play Het Koude Kind (The Cold Child, directed by Domien Van Der Meiren). In 2010 she received the Zilveren Krekel award for her starring role in Woeste hoogten, Rusteloze Zielen (Wild Heights, Restless Souls) by Theater Artemis, directed by Floor Huygen. She was nominated in 2014 for the Theo D'Or for her role in Wreed en Teder (Cruel and Tender), directed by Michiel de Regt. In late 2017 Theus starred in the much-lauded adaptation of Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road, directed by Erik Whien.
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Herman Van Goethem

(Mortsel, Belgium, 1958) is a historian, jurist, professor and general director of the Holocaust Museum Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen. His work focuses on Flemish history, the history of photography, and the persecution of Jews during WWII. Van Goethem translates this material into approachable non-fiction, such as The Monarchy and 'the end of Belgium' and Leopold III - The King, the Country, the War, which was nominated for the Gouden Uil. Since October 2016 he has been rector of the University of Antwerp, where he wants to welcome more students from underprivileged backgrounds. "There are too few talented youths from disadvantaged communities within intellectual streams of education", he said during an interview with ScienceGuide. Van Goethem is currently working on a book derived from his scientific research since 2005 - Antwerp, 1942: Four seasons. Using police archives, judicial files and diaries as primary sources, he describes how the police behaviour gradually slipped into extreme violence and how society gradually accepted it.
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Stefka

is the stage name of singer-songwriter Stephanie Ruijsenaars. Stefka studied classical voice and piano in Maastricht and theatre arts and Spanish in Amsterdam and Madrid. She first sang in Spanish. Inspired by the work of poets such as Pablo Neruda and Lorca, she wrote her own songs, which resulted in the 2005 album Del Recuerdo del Amor and the 2008 single-CD "Del Llanto". Later she switched to Dutch, in particular setting to music texts by Joke van Leeuwen, a writer whom she had researched during her studies. These songs are found on the album ...terwijl ik wachtte (While I Waited). She sings about being new to a city, about waiting, and about people she didn't get to know. She created the musical performance Eerst was er Thuis (First there Was Home) together with Syrian-Palestinian oud player Amer Shanati. Stefka frequently works with musicians from all corners of the world and appears regularly in theatre and on radio.
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Kees Biekart

is a political scientist at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam) in The Hague and interested in transformative change and social movements, Together with his international students, he looks for alternative ways to support political democracy at a grassroots level. He constantly seeks out new forms of research, including "storytelling", which has become an increasingly important research method.
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Jennifer Clement

(USA, 1960) is President of PEN International. She has authored five novels, including Prayers for the Stolen. It was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and appeared internationally on many book-of-the-year lists. In 2018, Gun Love was published, a topical novel about homelessness, the America love for weapons and the despair of people living on the edge of society. She has published various volumes of poetry, including The Next Stranger. Clement also wrote cult classic Widow Basquiat about painter and street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and life in New York City in the early '80s. She is a member of the prestigious Mexican 'Sistema Nacional de Creadores' and received an NEA Fellowship, an award of the American National Endowment for the Arts.
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Milagros Socorro

(Venezuela, 1960), winner of the Oxfam Novib PEN Award 2018, is a journalist, writer and university professor holding degrees in Social Communication and Latin American literature. As a journalist, Socorro worked for national and regional media outlets, including the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal, Colombian magazine Revista Gato Pardo, Claro! Magazine, El Nacional, Climax magazine, and has served as the general editor of Código Venezuela a news portal. Over the course of her career, she has received a number of awards including the Miguel Otero prize for Best Journalist for the daily El Nacional in 2004. She has been described as ‘a guide to her readers in matters of defence of democracy, freedom of expression and information, fight against corruption and authoritarianism.’ Additionally, Socorro has written a variety of novels, short stories and testimonials, among them, El Abrazo de tamarindo (fiction, 2008); Vacas en las Nubes (youth literature, 2008) and Actos de Salvajismo (short stories, 1999).
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Boi Akih

The band Boi Akih represents a musical movement in which diverse styles from such places as India, Africa, Europe and the Moluccan Islands blend with jazz. Singer Monica Akihari and composer guitarist Niels Brouwer characterise the essence of Boi Akih with an ensemble of song and composition. In search of their musical boundaries, they challenge and at the same time complement one another. Akihari sings not only in English but also in her native language: the language of the Moluccan island Haruku. On their latest CD Yalelol, the group uses a duet-form, and in addition to jazz, their are also Indonesian, Indian, European, West African and Arab influences. On the third album Uwa i (2004), Boi Akih was inspried by music from Bangalore, India. The first self-titled CD of Boi Akih appeared in 1997 and the second one, Above the Clouds, Among the Roots, in 2000. De Volkskrant wrote: "Boi Akih is a world-class band. Daring, adventurous and lyrical are the keywords."
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Farah Karimi

(Iran, 1960) is a member of the Senate of the Dutch Parliament (Eerste Kamer) since June 2019 for GroenLinks. From 2008 to 2018 she chaired the Executive Board of Oxfam Novib. Karimi is highly experienced in the field of international cooperation and human rights, and she is a strategic delevopment coach for leadership and organisational change. She came to Europe as a political refugee in 1983. She studied in the Netherlands and was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for GroenLinks (Green Left) from 1998 till 2006. In 2007 she helped to establish the Afghan parliament as a consultant with the UN branch UNDP. As an administrator, she was involved with the advisory board of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, among other projects. She chairs the Board of Stichting Writers Unlimited since 2018. Karimi has written thee books: Slagveld Afghanistan (Battlefield Afghanistan, 2006), with co-author Chris Keulemans Het geheim van het vuur (The Secret of Fire, 2007) and In naam van de vrijheid: hoe de wereld na 9/11 steeds onvrijer is geworden (In the name of freedom: how our world has become increasingly unfree after 9/11, 2021).
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Aad Meinderts

(1957) is director of the Literatuurmuseum in The Hague and chair of the Jan Campert Foundation. He studied Dutch language in Leiden and, as of 1982, worked for the organisation that looks after the national Dutch literary heritage (formerly the Letterkundig Museum). He organised exhibitions about writers such as Remco Campert, Miep Diekmann, and Cees Nooteboom. From 2002 to 2005 he was director of the Haags Historisch Museum/Museum de Gevangenpoort, and afterwards of Stichting Lezen. In 2009 he returned to the Literatuurmuseum as director. Meinderts has publications to his name on writers Anna Blaman, Emmy van Lokhorst and Sonja Witstein. He also wrote Een literaire roadtrip: in 30 dagen langs 100 schrijversgraven (2010), ‘Uit geil en bloed bestaat dit rotte leven!’: Max Kijzer (1893-1944) (2021) en In gekroonde stoeten (2022).
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Joris Wijsmuller

(Rosmalen, NL, 1965) has been the SWDC councillor for urban development, housing, sustainability, and culture for the city of The Hague since 2014. From 1998 to 2014 he was a councillor and floor leader of the Hague City Party. Wijsmuller studied at the Polytechnic Institute for Photography in The Hague and worked at the World Wide Video Centre (the former Kijkhuis), among other jobs.
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Jole De Baerdemaeker

(Belgium) received her Bachelor degree from the Maastricht Consesrvatory. After that, she took masterclasses in interpreting Bach, Haydn and Mozart. Currently she is finishing her Masters with Lenie van den Heuvel, Dorothee Mields, Peter Kooij and Pascal Bertin at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag. De Baerdermaeker has a strong interest in Early Music and Baroque interpretations and has played solo concerts in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. In 2013 she set up the "Etereo" organization in Belgium, which organizes concerts and small festivals as well as school performances to bring classical music to young people. Besides Early Music, De Baerdemaeker is interested in contemporary compositions; in spring 2016, she was a soloist in the Dutch premiere of Harald Weiss' Requiem.
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Elisabeth Sturtewagen

(Belgium) took cello lessons at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven as of age 15. She earned her Bachelor degree at the Royal Conservatory Antwerp and her Master at the Royal Conservatory Brussels. She has taken master classes in the Netherlands, Poland, France, Spain, Belgium and Belarus. In the summer of 2012 she met the world-famous cello teacher Vladimir Perlin, with whom she is still studying. Since 2014, she has been a cellist with the chamber orchestra Young Belgian Strings, directed by Dirk Van de Moortel, and is also a member of the Etereo Ensemble. She is co-founder and cellist with the cello quartet BRUXELLO, with which she performs at home and abroad. She also regularly performs with the visual Artist Koenraad Tinel. Sturtewagen plays an instrument built in Brussels  in 1911 by Hilaire Darche.
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DJ Socrates

(UK, 1980), like the philosopher, remains curious about new things. Always pushing boundaries and incorporating fresh music. He approaches each set as a unique road trip with a wide range of styles and countries passing by. His kaleidoscopic sound includes global reggae, trippy cumbia, UK bass, slow rave & African acid. With 20 years of experience under his belt, Socrates has matured like a good wine to celebrate life with. During Writers Unlimited Festival, he will provide a swinging Silent Disco in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui during Friday and Saturday Night Unlimited from 23:15 hours onwards.
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Paula Golunska

is a young poet who won the first Young Campert Prize during the 2017 Winternachten festival. In the fall of 2016, she participated in Spot on Young Poets, the educational project of Writers Unlimited, poet Diann van Faassen and Meermanno Museum | House of the Book. This project constitutes poetry workshops at Hague high schools, where students are given lessons in poetry and recitation. Paula presented her poem during Winternachten 2017. One of the three finalists, she won the Young Campert Prize for best student poet during the Schrijversfeest (Writers' Feast). She was a pupil at Edith Stein College in The Hague, and now studies at Wageningen University & Research.
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Gerda Dendooven

(Kortrijk, Belgium, 1962) won the 2017 Woutertje Pieterse Prize for her picture book Stella. In it, a drowning person is fished out of the sea and taken in by a foster family. She has been teaching graphic design at the Hoger St.-Lucas Institute in Ghent since 1992. Dendooven is famous for and has won many awards for her children's book illustrations. She received the Gouden Penseel (Golden Brush) in 2000 for her work in De verliefde prins (The Prince in Love) by Ron Langenus. She also writes plays and children's books and illustrates adult books and newspaper columns.
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Fenno Werkman

(The Hague, 1956) is solely responsible for saving a treasure trove of images: filmmakers, musicians and TV producers from around the world knock on his doors to see their own histories. Starting out as a pop-music photographer with a preference for The Beatles, he soon discovered that broadcasters and other media companies treated historic material quite sloppily. Soon his collection was literally overflowing his house. It now encompasses a dizzying 1.5 million films and at least 300,000 videotapes. As an image researcher, Werkman delivers a lot of unique imagery, including for Dutch TV programs such as Nacht van de Popmuziek (Night of Pop Music) and Top 2000 with Matthijs van Nieuwskerk and Leo Blokhuis.
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Ton van de Langkruis

(Netherlands, 1957) was, for 25 years, director and programmer of Writers Unlimited which he founded in 1995. After studying English Language at Leiden University and Theatre Sciences at Utrecht University, he worked in theatres as a dramaturge, director, critic and tour organiser. In 1992 he organised the Samuel Beckett Festival in The Hague, a collaboration of the city's arts organizations. In 1995 he organised the Indië/Indonesië Festival (Dutch East Indies/Indonesia Festival), which brought together the arts of Indonesia and the Netherlands to celebrate the Republic of Indonesia's 50th anniversary. This event, ending with the Indische Winternacht (East-Indies Winternight), was the start of the Winternachten international literary festival The Hague. Under his guidance, Writers Unlimited and Winternachten festival grew out to become a both nationally and internationally reputed platform where writers, poets, scientists and journalists from all over the world met their audiences for conversations, recitations and performances about culturally diverse, social, literary, scientific and other topical themes.
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Frank Westerman

(Emmen, NL, 1964) studied tropical agricultural engineering and was a correspondent for the Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad newspapers in Belgrade and Moskow. He wrote about his time there in 1994's De Brug over de Tara (The Bridge over the River Tara). Together with journalist Bart Rijs he wrote 1997's  Srebrenica, Het zwartste scenario (Srebrenica, the Blackest Scenario). Ingenieurs van de ziel (Engineers of the Soul) was published in 2002, an inquiry into the foundations of the Soviet system and the role of writers. De Graanrepubliek (The Grain Republic), about the struggle between rich gentlemen farmers and communist workers in Groningen, was published earlier. Westerman's novel El Negro en ik (El Negro and Me), inspired by a preserved South African in a Spanish museum, was published in 2004 and won the Gouden Uil prize. His revised and augmented 2015 edition of De Slag om Srebrenica (The Battle for Srebrenica) won the Prinsjes Book Prize for best political book. Een woord een woord (One Word One Word) appeared in 2016, in which he tests the strength of free speech under the pressure of terrorist threats. As a child, he experienced the Molukkan train hijacking at close quarters; as a correspondent, he witnessed Chechen terror in Russia. Drawing on these gripping experiences, he describes a series of hostage dramas. In Zeven dieren bijten terug (Seven Animals Bite Back), Frank Westerman encounters seven magnificent creatures in the wake of Willem Barentsz. Along the way, the reader becomes captivated by the wondrous tale of seven polar animals and what they have to tell us at our latitude.
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Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal

(Bunschoten, NL, 1976) studied literature and American Studies in Groningen and was US correspondent for NOS (Dutch national public television) from 2007 through the presidential election of 2012. Since the summer of 2016 he has been the anchor of the national television news magazine Nieuwsuur. In the fall of 2016, his documentary travel series Droomland Amerika (Dreamland America) was broadcast on national public television. Besides his work with NOS, he writes for various media about the United States.
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Jos Palm

(Zeddam, NL, 1956) is a Dutch journalist, historian and radio presenter. He was founder and editor-in-chief of the Historical Newsletter and he worked for the University of Leiden newspaper Mare. Palm also writes for Trouw newspaper and the Groene Amsterdammer magazine. He has written books such as De vergeten geschiedenis van Nederland (The Forgotten History of The Netherlands); Oerend hard (Super Fast), about the musician Ben Jolink; and Moederkerk, de ondergang van rooms Nederland (Mother Church: The Decline of the Roman-Catholic Netherlands). After a Catholic upbringing he turned away from the religion. He was very active for years with the then-revolutionary SP socialist party. Among other things, he works for OVT, the history program of the VPRO public radio station.
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Chris Keulemans

(Tunisia, 1960) is a writer, essayist, traveller and popular panel moderator. He has published fiction and non-fiction; was the director of the debating platform and venue De Balie; and was founder of the literary bookshop Perdu and the cultural centre De Tolhuistuin (all in Amsterdam). He performed with Enkidu Khaled in their jointly created documentary play Bagdad. Due to his curiosity about how artists recreate their cities after a crisis, he travelled to Sarajevo, Beirut, Tirana, Algiers, New York, Kiev, Jakarta and Qamishlo. At the invitation of PAX, he wrote Srebrenica & PAX 1995-2020, an overview of 25 years of support to the Association of Women of Srebrenica by the IKV and PAX in response to the genocide in Bosnia. In 2021 he published Gastvrijheid (Hospitality), in which he explores the art of hospitality through a mix of travel stories, observations, memories and imagery.
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Pauline Krikke

(Sneek, 1961) became the mayor of The Hague on 17 March 2017. Representing the Dutch political party VVD, she became a member of the municipal council in Amsterdam in 1994. In 1996 she became deputy mayor for Economic Affairs, Airport and Seaport. After the municipal council elections of 1998, she was re-elected as deputy mayor and changed her portfolios to Economic Affairs and Employment, Construction, Housing and the Economy. In September 2001 Pauline Krikke became mayor of Arnhem. After 2 full six-year terms, she decided not to continue as mayor for a third term. In July 2013 she resigned her post in Arnhem. In addition to her role as mayor, she was also a member of the board of the international Red Cross /Red Crescent Movement from 2005 to 2013. From October 2014 she was general director of the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, her main love remained public service. In 2015 she therefore became a member of the Senate. She resigned that membership when she was inaugurated as mayor of The Hague.
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Peter Buwalda

(Brussels, 1971) made his debut as novelist in 2010 with Bonita Avenue which became a best seller. Buwalda describes the demise of a family against the backdrop of the fireworks disaster in Enschede in 2000. The novel was awarded with five prizes and was translated into eighteen languages. Since then, Buwalda works on his second novel that will be published Fall 2018. Additionally he writes columns for Dutch national newspaper de Volkskrant. In 2017 he published a collection of these columns titled De kleine voeten van Lowell George (The Small Feet of Lowell George).
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Karwan Fatah-Black

(1981) is an assistant professor at the Institute for History at Leiden University. He received the 2016 Heineken Young Scientists Award for History for his study of formal and informal Dutch transatlantic trade during the Golden Age, especially the slave trade. Slavery, smuggling and illegal trade are important themes in his work. Fatah-Black is regarded as an expert on the history of slavery and engages in public discussions on this subject. For example, he gives public lectures, makes media appearances, and is a quiz master at the Kwaku Festival in Amsterdam’s Bijlmer district and the Keti Koti (Broken Chains) Festival, an annual celebration of the abolition of slavery in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles.
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Nelleke Noordervliet

(Netherlands, 1945) writes novels, stories, essays, lectures and columns with a strong historical bent. She debuted with 1987's Tine of de dalen waar het leven woont (Tine, or the Valleys Where Life Lives), a fictitious biography of 19th-century Dutch writer Multatuli's first wife. Her book De naam van de vader (The Name of the Father) won the 1994 Multatuli Prize. In 2002 she wrote Pelican Bay, about slavery in the Caribbean and the Netherlands. Her essay collection Schatplicht (Tribute) appeared in 2013, and her 2016 novel Aan het eind van de dag (At the End of the Day) is simultaneously a portrait of a career woman and a snapshot of the second half of the 20th century. De val van Thomas G. (The fall of Thomas G.) tells about the publisher of a controversial book. Noordervliet's body of work was awarded the 2018 Constantijn Huygens Prize.
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Madelon de Keizer

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Wim Berkelaar

(1960) is historian and since 2005 is attached to the Historical Documentation Centre of the Dutch Protestantism at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Berkelaar is a known expert on existantialism and nihilism, He lectures in The Netherlands and abroad and reviews historical publications in national Dutch broadcaster VPRO's radio programme OVT.
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Baban Kirkuki

Kirkuk, 1974) is an Iraqi-Dutch poet and writer. In 1999 he fled Iraqi Kurdistan because he refused to write propaganda poems for Saddam Hussein's regime. He now lives in Utrecht. He debuted in the Netherlands in 2006 with Op weg naar Ararat (En Route to Ararat), 29 poems about Kurdistan, war and fear, but also about mountains, winter and the desert. His second poetry volume, Lontananza (2009), focuses on his yearning for his native land and for a place in his new homeland. His two identities also feature prominently in his two following collections, Territorium (2011) and Licht onbekend (2013).
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Kamal Hors

is a singer, composer, oud-player (Arabic lute) and co-founder of the musical ensemble Weshm, which has toured Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Morocco. Through the years he composed music for theatre and dance performances, produced CDs, and organized workshops and lectures about Moroccan and Arabic music. He also composed  musical scores.  Currently, Hors is working on the project Flamenco & Tamazight and Safar Andalous with the Nafas Quartet in Switzerland.
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Judith Uijterlinde

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a writer, literary journalist, publisher and, since 2023, director of Writers Unlimited. Her autobiographical debut The Baby Void – My Quest for Motherhood (2001) was an international success and has been published in more than 20 countries. De vrouw die zegt dat ze mijn moeder is (The Woman Who Claims She's My Mother, 2010) recounts adoption in a family history set against the backdrop of World War II. Uyterlinde worked as editor and publisher for several literary publishers, including De Bezige Bij and J.M. Meulenhoff. Between 2007 and 2015, she was also associated with Writers Unlimited, first as a producer and later as the festival's event coordinator. Since 2017 she has been publisher/director at World Editions, specializing in English-language translated literature from around the world. For the Amsterdam Public Library, she runs the Literary Salon, and for Women Inc., the literature series Read My Lips. She coordinated the literary part of the Guest of Honour program presenting Dutch and Flemish literature at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair.
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Hans Aarsman

(Amsterdam, NL, 1951) is a writer of novels, essays, plays and columns. As a photogrpher he is known for De Aarsman Collection (The Aarsman Collection), his weekly column in the Volkskrant newspaper in which he analyzes news photos. His photographic work has been shown in solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk Museum, the Dutch Photo Museum and the Bijloke Museum in Ghent. His successful theatre monologues were performed by Dirk Roofthooft, Josse De Pauw and Tom Jansen. His activities, which he calls his fieldwork, are the subject of the one-man shows he performs in theatres, such as Dokter Aarsman as of March 2019.
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Hans Achterhuis

(1942) according to the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland belongs to the ‘the twelve greatest thinkers of the Netherlands’. The emeritus philosophy professor has always combined scientific work with social debate. In his voluminous oeuvre Achterhuis highlights themes like economic scarcity, development aid, the environment and technology. He likes to call his work current affairs analysis as he links philosophy to an extensive research into dossiers, reports and newspaper articles. In 2003 Achterhuis won the Pierre Bayle prize for cultural criticism and in 2009 the Socrates Challenge Cup for Met alle geweld (With all possible violence) in which he looks into the role of violence in our society. One of his most celebrated works is De markt van welzijn en geluk (The market of welfare and happiness; 1979) in which he posits that welfare aid does not necessary lead to progress as it creates dependence. His last book, Utopie van de vrije markt (Utopia of the free market), appeared in 2010. With the credit crisis as immediate cause, Achterhuis shows that there is indeed an ideology behind free market thought.
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Liberté! The Revolutionary meaning of Freedom

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:00 tot 20:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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The Congolese novelist and essayist Alain Mabanckou opened Friday Night Unlimited with a lecture about the values of the French Revolution and their meaning in our time.

Afterwards, writer and essayist Stephan Sanders had conversations with Alain Mabanckou, with historian and political philosopher Luuk van Middelaar and writer Louise O. Fresco about the contemporary meaning of freedom as a driving force of European democracy.

What is the meaning of the French Revolution's motto in today's Europe? For the revolutionaries, freedom stood for much more than individual aims. it stood for the collective longing for self-determination and for the democratic consideration and manifestation of change and progress. Is anything left of the revolutionary meaning of freedom in contemporary Europe?

Alternating with the conversations there was live drawing by visual artist en book illustrator Gerda Dendooven (Belgium) and music by classical accordionist Oleg Lysenko (Netherlands), cello player Jole De Baerdemaeker and soprano Elisabeth Sturtewagen (both Belgium). Meer details bekijken

The Netherlands on the Sofa: Peter Buwalda

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:00 tot 20:40 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
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A country goes to see the doctor! The Netherlands feels fantastic. In 2017, it held sixth place on the list of the happiest countries in the world. Not too bad when you consider, for example, the quality of Dutch health care and education. Or the freedoms enjoyed by its population. On an individual level, the future looks rosy, to say the least.

At the same time, the Netherlands seems to have lost its way. The expectations of society as a whole seem much more sombre. There is growing unrest about the collective identity. The Netherlands is frightened of losing ist norms and values.

What's going on? Writer and columnist Peter Buwalda, in the role of the Netherlands, interpreted these paradoxical feelings on psychiatrist Damiaan Denys' sofa. Meer details bekijken

Speech!

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:00 tot 20:50 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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The speech is a powerful instrument. Through its form and content it is by definition also very filmic. Christopher Nolan knows this as he uses one of the most famous speeches - Winston Churchill's We shall fight them on the beaches speech - in his film Dunkirk.

The speeches that are remembered and revered are often those that mark historical turning points. Such as Robert Kennedy who, right after Martin Luther King got murdered on April 4, 1968, finds the power to state that it is best to accept the moment hoping that we grow wiser in time. These historic speeches keep returning in movies. But how about the present day speeches? Are historic speeches something from the past? 

Gerlinda Heywegen and cultural and political philosopher Tom Dommisse discussed the function and beauty of the speech, based (of course) on some well-chosen exceprts from film and television. Meer details bekijken

Book of my life: Gustaaf Peek

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:01 tot 20:45 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
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Writers talks about their favourite book - the book that inspires or moves them; the book that formed their aristic, moral or intellectual compass; the book that they would recommend to anyone. Meer details bekijken

Friday Night Wintercafé: Spot on Young Poets

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:10 tot 21:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
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Francis Broekhuijsen presents students of The Hague high schools reading their own poetry, the result of workshops led by members of the Hague Poets' Guild. Poet and VSB Poëzieprijs 2018-nominee Joost Baars, young poetry slam-talent Sanam Sheriff from India and last year's participating student poet Paula Golunska - Young Campert Prize 12017 winner - keep them company and read from their works as well.

During each Spot on Young Poets event (Friday and Saturday), one finalist for the Young Campert Prize 2018 was chosen. Both finalists read their poems during Sunday's Writers' Festival event, ahead of the award ceremony of the Jan Campert Foundation prizes. The public chose one of them as the winner of this prize for best Hague student poet. Come down and witness the literary future! Meer details bekijken

Égalité! The Legacy of the Soviets

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:55 tot 21:45 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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Equality reconsidered: in the 20th century, the Soviet Union added a strange flavour to the second ideal of the French Revolution. Equality reduced to the repression and monotony of state socialism and the dullness of old Ladas.

Writers Unlimited investigates the value of equality as a European ideal in the framework of the intellectual legacy of Karl Marx*. What can we learn from the socialist era in Central and Eastern Europe? Can Marx remain a fount of inspiration after the Soviet debacle?

In his revolutionary pamphlet Resist! (Querido, 2017), novelist Gustaaf Peek proposes that, after thirty years of capitalist domination, it is high time to aim for equality and to reconsider and reevaluate a communist-style redistribution of wealth.

He discussed this subject with the Georgian-German writer Nino Haratischwili and the Romanian poet and essayist Magda Carneci. Professor and essayist Paul Scheffer moderated the conversation. Classical accordionist Oleg Lysenko and his trio provided music.

*More Marx? During Saturday Night Unlimited, Winternachten festival screened the Dutch premiere of The Young Karl Marx by Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, whose earlier successful documentary I Am Not Your Negro focused on writer James Baldwin. His feature film is an intense reimagination of the birth of communism and the meeting of Marx and Engels. Meer details bekijken

Books Unlimited: Mohsin Hamid

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:55 tot 21:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
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A unique opportunity to meet international literary star Moshin Hamid and hear about his book Exit West. NRC newspaper literary critic Margo Dijkgraaf interviews Hamid (Pakistan) about his motivation to write, the source of his characters, and the worldwide success of his books.

Hamid became known with his bestseller The Reluctant Fundamentalist that was later turned into a film, about a Pakistani man who decides to give up his life in the US after a failed love affair and the events of 9/11. In his newest novel Exit West, shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize, a couple in love amid war and migration finds an escape route to the West via secret doors. Meer details bekijken

Book of my life: David Van Reybrouck

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:55 tot 21:15 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
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Writers talks about their favourite book - the book that inspires or moves them; the book that formed their aristic, moral or intellectual compass; the book that they would recommend to anyone. Meer details bekijken

Friday Night Wintercafé

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 21:00 tot 23:45 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
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The foyer of the Theater aan het Spui is the beating heart of the festival. At the Friday Night Wintercafé, you will meet each other and the writers. Host and festival guide Francis Broekhuijsen guides your way through the program. Together with his guests he creates an inviting, homey atmosphere.

Listen to up-and-coming local poetic talent at the Wintercafé during the Spot on Young Poets program in collaboration with the Haags Dichtersgilde (The Hague Poets' Guild). The young poets are accompanied by professional poet Joost Baars, nominated for the VSB Poëzieprijs 2018 and young poetry slam-talent Sanam Sheriff from India. The winner of the Young Campert Prize will also be chosen.

Of course you can just relax and chat in the Wintercafé over a drink and a bite (a rich choice of biological-vegetarian delicacies made by ‘s-Peer Catering is on offer). Music is provided by DJ Socrates.

Throughout the evening, Van Stockum Bookshop offers a rich choice of books and poetry collections from the authors participating in the Winternachten festival: look out for and buy their latest books as well as older works, if available in Dutch and English language versions.

Book-signing sessions at Van Stockum Bookshop in the foyer:
21:00-21:30: Louise O. Fresco, Luuk van Middelaar, Alain Mabanckou
22:00-22:30: Magda Cârneci, Mohsin Hamid, Nino Haratischwili

The Friday Night Wintercafé is the place to plan out your evening, either with Francis Broekhuijsen as your guide, or all by yourself.

At the end of the evening, DJ Socrates lowers your thoughts to the level of your dancing shoes as he kicks off the night in true festival tradition and gets you ready for another festival day. Meer details bekijken

Power to The People: Film as Weapon

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 21:15 tot 21:55 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Combative cinema is known from the work of directors such as Ken Loach, Spike Lee and Michael Moore. These are directors who express anger about the world's injustice in their films. One chooses fictional film as his weapon, the other documentary film.

Different as they may be, their films stand up for us ordinary people. This program is a filmic anthology, compiled and presented by Gerlinda Heywegen, with succinct fragments which, dependent on their creator, are funny, very angry or utterly artful. Film as weapon, film about "us" and for "us". Including excerpts from Do the Right Thing, Bowling for Columbine and I, Daniel Blake. Meer details bekijken

Book of my life: Joost Baars

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 21:20 tot 21:40 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
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Writers talks about their favourite book - the book that inspires or moves them; the book that formed their aristic, moral or intellectual compass; the book that they would recommend to anyone. Meer details bekijken

Book of my life: Ghayath Almadhoun

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 21:45 tot 22:05 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
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Writers talks about their favourite book - the book that inspires or moves them; the book that formed their aristic, moral or intellectual compass; the book that they would recommend to anyone. Meer details bekijken

Fraternité! The Forgotten Value of Brotherhood

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 22:00 tot 23:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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The longing for a strong collective feeling has once again become a source of social movements around the world. That "we"-feeling feeds passionate new emancipation and indentity groups. It also causes social fragmentation and conflict.

Brotherhood, the third pillar of democracy from the French Revolution, has long been viewed as a less inflammatory societal value compared with Freedom and Equality. But the comeback of a strong collective feeling is connected to high levels of polarization and conflict in society.

Bas Heijne, winner of the P.C. Hooft Prize for his essays and a prominent NRC newspaper columnist, investigated why the power of a longing for Brotherhood is underestimated, with the help of Flemish cultural historian and writer David Van Reybrouck, Turkish poet and philosopher Efe Murad, German novelist Fatma Aydemir and Polish novelist and journalist Grazyna Plebanek. Together they looked for the contemporary words to express a sense of collective bonding.

The conversations were accompanied by performances of poetry slam-talent Sanam Sheriff (India), by live drawn illustrations by Gerda Dendooven (Belgium) and by music performed by classical accordionist Oleg Lysenko (Netherlands) and soprano Elisabeth Sturtewagen (Belgium). Meer details bekijken

Writing poetry in Dunglish and other languages

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 22:00 tot 22:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
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How can literature challenge language? Besides Mandarin and Spanish, English is the most-spoken language in the world. It is a language of power, of mass culture, of imperialism and domination, but also a language expressing solidarity, activism and understanding, in which the underpinnings of power can be attacked: a language of the majority full of minority languages.

What is the role of English in the poetry being written in the Netherlands and Belgium? Writers Unlimited put this question to seven young poets writing in English, in Dutch, in Dutch as well as English, who write multilingual poetry, who live in the Netherlands and Belgium, who were born 'here' or not.

What is the status of English in their poetry? Each has written a new poem especially for the festival: Veva Leye, Dean Bowen, Samira Saleh, Mia You en Caglar Koseoglu; also Joost Baars and Charlotte Van den Broeck, both nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize 2018, take part and react with their work. The VSB Poetry Prize 2018 will be awarded shortly after the Festival, on Thursday, 25 January, at the Diligentia Theatre in The Hague. Meer details bekijken

Book of my life: Alain Mabanckou

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 22:10 tot 22:30 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
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Writers talks about their favourite book - the book that inspires or moves them; the book that formed their aristic, moral or intellectual compass; the book that they would recommend to anyone. Meer details bekijken

Introduction to Manifesto by Ivana Ivkovic

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 22:10 tot 22:30 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Political philosopher and cultural thinker Ivana Ivkovic introduced the funny, entertaining and energetic film Manifesto, with Cate Blanchett.

The 2017 film by the German Artist, filmmaker and photographer Julian Rosefeldt, derived from his multi-screen film installation of the same name, is a tour de force in which leading ideas about art and society are presented in handy portions.

Cate Blanchett appears thirteen times in Manifesto, virtuostically bringing to life fragments of 20th-century art manifestos, from Claes Oldenburg to Dogma. The film is largely shot in architectural monuments around Berlin. Meer details bekijken

Film: Manifesto

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 22:35 tot 00:10 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Cate Blanchett times thirteen, who virtuostically brings to life fragments of famous 20th-century art manifestos - from Claes Oldenburg to Dogma - in Manifesto. Mostly filmed in architectural monuments around Berlin.

The film, by the German artist, filmmaker and photographer Julian Rosefeldt and based on his multi-screen film installation of the same name, is a tour de force in which leading ideas about art and society are arranged in convenient segments.

One of the most exciting films in recent years is a manifesto of manifestos. Karl Marx, Lars von Trier, Kazimir Malevich, Jim Jarmusch: there is just a selection from the lineup of "manifestoers" in this funny, inflammatory, sombre and cheerful film.

Rosefeldt has Blanchett sublimely play thirteen very diverse roles. She shines as a crane operator, a bored rock singer, a newsreader, a hobo and a housewife, to name a few. In these roles she quotes from all kinds of manifestos, intercut with fabulous shots from in and around Berlin. You'll encounter a whole pile of -isms.

This film is in English with Dutch subtitles.


★★★★ De Filmkrant
"Cate Blanchett times thirteen. This is Manifesto's secret weapon. The best actress of our era times thirteen. Manifesto is an ambitious, provocative and, in the great tradition of manifesto writers, explosive project by the German artist Julian Rosefeldt."

★★★★ De Volkskrant
"Manifesto is an homage as much to the unstoppable forces of change in art as to Blanchett's genius."

★★★★ VPRO/Cinema.nl
"As alive, inspiring, pompous, affected, topical, poetic, angry, energized, theatrical, contradictory, humorous and elusive as art itself."

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Book of my life: Mohsin Hamid

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 22:35 tot 22:55 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
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Writers talks about their favourite book - the book that inspires or moves them; the book that formed their aristic, moral or intellectual compass; the book that they would recommend to anyone. Meer details bekijken

Ode to Joy

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 23:05 tot 23:45 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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Schiller's idealistic poem about Europe and humanity, adapted to the here and now! Writers Unlimited asked seven writers and poets each to write their own Ode to Joy. This evening they presented their newly written works.

Participants at this Odes 2.0 were Nino Haratischwili, Magda Cârneci, Sanam Sheriff, Efe Murad, Grazyna Plebanek, Gustaaf Peek. Ghayath Almadhoun and Charlotte Van den Broeck. They recited their work in their mother tongues, with simultaneous projections of Dutch and/or English translations. Classical accordionist Oleg Lysenko, Cellist Elisabeth Sturtewagen and soprano Jole De Baerdemaeker provided musical accompaniment.

Originally written in 1785, Schiller's Ode to Joy lives on because Ludwig van Beethoven added one of its stanzas to the finale (for choir and soloists) of his Ninth Symphony. In 1985, the European Union Chose this particular segment - albeit in wordless form - as the official hymn of the EU. In the poem, Schiller transmits the ideal of a world in which all people live in brotherhood. Meer details bekijken

Dancing into the Friday Night

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Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 23:45 tot 01:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
Moving between the popular and the adventurous, DJ Socrates finds links between the music of different countries, giving top priority to roots and inspiration. Energizing Afro beat and tropical funk, reggae, sultry cumbia grooves and a dash of electro-swing make sure that we can dance through the night after an evening of words. Meer details bekijken

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