Friday Night Unlimited

Getting inspired by interviews about books, discussions on the festival theme and the big questions of our time, readings of newly written essays or poetry, film screenings and music! During Friday Night Unlimited you chose from twenty programs on six stages at Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. Each programme lasted between 30 and 60 minutes and was Dutch or English spoken. The programme-schedule for the evening can be downloaded as pdf here.

More stages, more films
In close collaboration with Filmhuis Den Haag, the Winternachten festival scaled up its Friday and Saturday evenings by using not four but six stages and by screening more films. Filmhuis’ Zaal 1 and 2 presented films with an introduction or Q&A, while authors tell about the ‘Book of their Life’ in the Filmhuis café. Zaal 1 and 2 featured performances or discussions by writers and poets; in the theatre foyer, secondary school students presented their poems during the ‘Spot on Young Poets’ programme; and the pop-up book stand of De Vries van Stockum offered a carefully chosen selection of books and poetry as well as signing sessions.

Tickets for the Winternachten Friday and Saturday
Your Friday or Saturday Night Unlimited ticket gave access to all festival programmes in Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. In the Filmhuis, the café was open to everyone, also those without tickets. Separate tickets for the Winternachten programmes in the Filmhuis’ Zaal 1 and 2 were available via the Filmhuis website or box office (if you do not buy a Friday or Saturday Night Unlimited ticket).

Information

Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 from 20:00 to 01:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui & Filmhuis Den Haag

Tijdschema 18 January

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Time Location
20:00 - 21:05 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Living forever: eternal desire
20:00 - 20:40 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 On the Couch: Dimitri Verhulst as Dorian Gray
20:00 - 21:00 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Immortality by Choice
20:00 - 21:00 Filmhuis - zaal 2 How to read a movie? - 'I'm here' by Spike Jonze
20:10 - 21:05 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Spot On Young Poets
20:10 - 20:40 Filmhuis café Book of My Life: David Van Reybrouck
20:45 - 21:45 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Books Unlimited: Leni Zumas & Jennifer Clement
20:45 - 21:15 Filmhuis café Book of My Life: Aafke Romeijn
21:05 - 23:40 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Friday Night Wintercafé
21:10 - 22:00 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Man-Machine: And Technology Created the New Human
21:15 - 22:15 Filmhuis - zaal 2 How to read a movie? with Lidewijde Paris: 'To Light' by Nora Särak
21:20 - 21:50 Filmhuis café Book of My Life: Arshia Sattar
21:30 - 22:15 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Till Death Do Us Part
21:50 - 22:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Artificial ignorance: Digital Failure
21:55 - 22:01 Filmhuis café Book of My Life: Leni Zumas
22:05 - 22:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Eternal Texts
22:30 - 23:00 Filmhuis café Book of My Life: Joke Hermsen
22:30 - 23:55 Filmhuis - zaal 2 Film: 'Frankenstein' (1931), introduced by Martijntje Smits
22:30 - 23:45 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Forever Clips Clips Clips
22:55 - 23:40 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Who Wants to Live Forever?
23:05 - 23:35 Filmhuis café Book of My life: Damiaan Denys
23:40 - 01:00 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Dancing the Night Away

Line-up

Radna Fabias

(Curaçao, 1983) won all major poetry awards in The Netherlands and Belgium for her 2018 poetry debut Habitus. This startling, existentialist collection deals with Curaçao, feeling at home, and her role as a (black) woman, immigrant and outsider. She studied Writing for Performance at the Utrecht School of the Arts. Fabias' work is characterized by variety, both in terms of content and style. De Groene Amsterdammer magazine commented in 2018: "Fabias dares to utilize every nook and cranny of poetry as an art form; some poems are short and lyrical, others narrative and long, sometimes they are clear and accessible and then hermetic and experimental." Habitus has been published in France, Italy, Germany, Argentina and the USA. Fabias also translated poetry collections by British poet Warsan Shire and Nobel Prize winner Louise Glück into Dutch.
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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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Mark O'Connell

(Ireland, 1979) is a literary expert and journalist who lives and works in Dublin. He writes for publications like the New Yorker, The Independent en New York Times Magazine. His 2018 debut To Be a Machine was nominated for the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize, the most important British non-fiction award. In the book, O'Connell researches trans-humanism, a Silicon Valley subculture that devotes itself to radical life extension by melding man and technology. In 2018, O'Connell told the NRC: "They have a mechanistic view on what it means to be human. They literally see humans as machines. [...] My inquiry was into the question of what it means for a human to become a machine, but ultimately I learned more about what it means to be human."
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Arshia Sattar

(India, 1960) teaches and writes about classical Indian literature and has a deep knowledge of the myths and traditional stories of India. She has a PhD in South Asian languages and literature from the University of Chicago. Sattar translated many text from Sanskrit, including Valmiki's 1996 Ramayana. More recent publications include Lost Loves: Exploring Rama's Anguish (2011) and Uttara: The Book of Answers (2016). She also writes for children: her Ramayana for Children (2017) has been published worldwide. In 2008 she co-founded Sangam House, the first and only completely financially independent writer's residency programme in India. Every year, Sangam House moves to a new location; in 2019 it is in Bangalore.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Auke Hulst

(Hoogezand-Sappemeer, NL, 1975) modelled his successful third novel, Kinderen van het Ruige Land (Children of the Rough Country, 2012) on his youth; it won several prizes. Slaap zacht, Johnny Idaho (Sleep Sweetly, Johnny Idaho, 2015) and En ik herinner me Titus Broederland (And I Remember Titus Brotherland, 2016) both won the novel prize of the Harland Awards. Aside from writing, Hulst is a literary critic, travel journalist and essayist. In 2017 he initiated Als dit zo doorgaat (If this Goes on), a story collection in which 24 Dutch writers react to the right shift in the political climate. He is also a musician. His books Wolfskleren (Wolf's Clothing, 2009) and Motel Songs (2017) both had accompanying albums and he is the frontman of the Dutch-language band De Meisjes (The Girls).
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Ayelet Gundar-Goshen

(Israel, 1982) studied psychology at the University of Tel Aviv and then film at Jerusalem's Sam Spiegel Film School. She has written various screenplays and short stories. Her first novel, One Night, Markovitch (2012) won various (international) prizes. Her second book, Waking Lions (2014) has been translated into many languages and turned into a TV series in the US. The surgeon Etan Green accidentally kills a refugee with his car and drives on. The widow, however, manages to find and blackmail him into providing hundreds of illegals with medical help. Although it reads like a thriller, the novel is mainly about moral questions: should Green have told the truth? Does he help the refugees out of guilt and self-preservation or is he a hero? The reader is continually prodded to ask him- or herself the question: what would I have done?
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Mathilde Santing

started singing at the age of 11. During her career, Mathilde wins three Edisons, one Gouden Harp and hits the charts with songs like Wonderful life and Beautiful people. Afterwards, she impresses with Dutch language songs. Her latest albums are Both Sides Now, the songs of Joni Mitchell (live) (2016) en Troublemaker (2018) that includes - for the first time - songs she wrote herself. Mathilde can be seen and heard regularly on stage, in the North Sea Jazz Club and making guest appearances for, among others, Sven Ratzke and Thijs Borsten.
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Hanna Bervoets

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a writer of novels, screenplays, plays, short stories and essays on media and popular (online) culture. Bervoets made her debut in 2009 with Of hoe waarom (Or How Why), followed two years later by Lieve Céline (Dear Céline), which was awarded the Opzij Literature Prize. A year later, the bestseller Alles wat er was (Everything That Was) was published, followed by Efter (2014), Ivanov (2016), Fuzzie (2017) and Welkom in het Rijk der zieken (Welcome to the Kingdom of the Sick) (2019). In 2017, Bervoets won the BNG Bank Literature Prize for Ivanov, and in the same year she also won the Frans Kellendonk Prize for her entire oeuvre. In 2021, her first collection of short stories, Een modern verlangen (A Modern Desire), was published and awarded the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize. In 2025, her tenth novel, Geld verdienen (Earning Money), was published. When Ellie and Freya each need money for their own reasons, they decide to take control of the stock market. After all, don't they deserve to be rich too?

Go to the website of Hanna Bervoets
Instagram: @hannabervoets
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Aafke Romeijn

(Netherlands, 1986) is a successful musician, author and journalist. She debuted as a novelist with Concept M (2018). This well-received sci-fi novel takes place in the Netherlands in 2020. A young woman makes sense in a surprising way of her condition of colourlessness, a chronic disease that has grown to epidemic proportions in Europe. She radicalizes and ends up in an organization that carries out attacks. Romeijn has performed as a pop-music artist at festivals such as Lowlands and Noorderslag. With her beats, razor-sharp lyrics and analog synthesizers, she's the uncrowned queen of Dutch-language electropop. Her album M, the soundtrack to her novel and her first self-produced record, was released in 2019, followed in 2020 by her debut poetry collection Leegstand (Vacancy). In 2021 she released the album Godzilla and published 7B, another sci-fi novel set in the year 2040 in Groningen, where military personnel train in a huge complex for a war over natural resources.
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Abdelkader Benali

(Morocco, 1975) is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright and curator. His 1996 debut, Bruiloft aan zee (Wedding By the Sea), was an immediate success. His second novel, De langverwachte (The Long-awaited) won him the prestigious 2003 Libris Literature Award. Benali's subjects vary, but sports and the migrant who never really feels at home are recurring themes. He has written novels about his great passion of running, about his travels, and about migrants' cultural identity (Bad Boy). His work has been published internationally. Recent books include the novel Paradijsvogel boven Hoge Woerd (Bird of Paradise over Hoge Woerd, 2022) and Het andere verhaal (The Other Story, 2022), an essay about his research into 75 years of modern Moroccan art.
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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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Leni Zumas

(USA, 1972) is the author of the story collection Farewell Navigator: Stories (2008) and the novel The Listeners (2012). Red Clocks, a book in the spirit of Margaret Atwood about four women living in an imaginary America where abortion is illegal, single mothers may not adopt, and there are further political regulations hostile to women. She has commented that the "frightening details of the misogynist world in which her story takes place are inspired by actual legislative proposals of men who at this moment have power in the government" (The Washington Post). Many are asking themselves when her fictional vision of the US will become reality. Besides writing, Zumas teaches writing at Oregon State University in Portland.
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Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

(Uganda) grew up in Uganda and studied creative writing at the University of Lancaster in the UK; she received her doctorate in the same subject. In 2013 she received the Kwani Manuscript Project for her thesis project, The Kintu Saga. This prize is given to still-unpublished manscripts by African writers. Her manuscript was published as a novel, titled Kintu, in 2014. She has won various other prizes including the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for "Let's Tell This Story Properly" and the 2018 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. A mixture of Ugandan oral storytelling traditions, folktakes, myths, biblical elements and history is characteristic of her work. She lives and works in Manchester, where she teaches creative writing at the university.
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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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Ian Buruma

(The Hague, NL, 1951) is a sinologist, japanologist, journalist and writer. Asian culture, democracy, religion, politics, Islamic fundamentalism, and the aftermath of World War II are returning subjects in his vast body of work. His essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, NRC and The New York Review of Books. Buruma grew up in The Hague, the child of a British mother and a Dutch father. His book Their Promised Land: My grandparents in times of love and war tells the story of his London-born, German-Jewish grandparents. He has been a professor of democracy, human rights and journalism in New York since 2003. He received the Erasmus Prize in 2008.
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Vamba Sherif

(Liberia, 1973) is a novelist, essayist, journalist and film critic. His debut novel Land of the Fathers (1999) is partly based on his grandmother's stories and deals with the clash between slaves returning from the US and other Liberians. The novel The Black Napoleon (2015) portrays Samori Touré, who founded the Wasulu-empire in western Africa in the 19th century. His journalism, including film reviews, appears in publications such as The New York Times, Trouw and One World. Together with  Ebissé Rouw he compiled Zwart (Black, 2018), a collection of stories by Afro-European authors from the Low Countries. Ongekende liefde (Unprecedented Love), in which he tells his life story to his ten-year-old daughter Bendu, was published in 2021. Sherif's historical novel The Emperor’s Son (2023) follows Zaiwulo, a young prodigy who trains under sage Talata of the Haidarah family in Musadu. Entangled in the intrigues of Emperor Samori, the 'Black Napoleon,' Zaiwulo matures into a formidable soldier.
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Derek Otte

(Netherlands, 1988) is known for his poetic skills, verses, stories, metaphors and spoken word. He writes "wrap-ups" on demand, writing live at events to bring them to a close in rhyme. Otte has published two collections of poetry: Regelgeving (Regulations, 2015) and TOFLOF (2017). He teaches spoken word at the Rotterdam art school (which he himself left prematurely), was the 2017-18 poet laureate of Rotterdam, and founded the Rorschach publishing house for young and controversial talent. His work is characterized by a combination of accessibility and layering. Major themes are love that doesn't quite work out and the ins and outs of the big city. Incisiveness, openness and humor alternate at high tempo.
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Lounar

is a spoken-word artist, musician, singer-songwriter and poet who grew up between her mother's grand piano and her father's contrabass. She prefers to express herself musically and goes jamming and freestyling through life. She is characterized by her rhythmic, jazzy guitar playing combined with beatbox and a soulful voice. She uses her loop station to create atmospheric compositions that take you to an unknown world and her improvisation capacity is surprising. Sources of inspiration are Bobby Mcferrin and Erykah Badu. She has performed at events such as the Liberation Festival, Worden Worden Zinnen and Noorderzon. She has played solo at Simplon and Grand Theatre in Groningen, Paard van Troje in The Hague and at the Tolhuistuin and De Parade in Amsterdam.
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Dareen Tatour

(Israel, 1982) is a poet from Palestinian origine who in 2015 was put under house arrest that would last three years for posting a video on Facebook and YouTube of herself reading a poem titled Resist my people, resist them as the soundtrack to images of Palestinians in violent confrontations with Israeli troops. During her house arrest she was barred from publishing her poetry and from accessing the internet. In 2018 Tatour was sentenced to five months of prison for 'online incitement of terrorism' by the Nazareth district court. She was released from prison in October 2018.
Her first poetry collection, The last invasion, was published in 2010. A second poetry collection and a novel are ready but are on a laptop confiscated by Israeli authorities, says webmagazine Brooklyn Rail (March 2018).
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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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Joke Hermsen

(Middenmeer, NL, 1961) is a writer and philosopher specialized in female authors and philosophers. Hermsen debuted as a novelist with Het dameoffer (The Lady's Sacrifice, 1998), about a daughter who discovers her mother's love affair. She followed up with the historical novel Tweeduister (Twilight) about T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf. Her successful volume of 2009 essays Stil de tijd - Pleidooi voor een langzame toekomst (Stop Time: Plea for a slow future) was reprinted 20 times. This was followed by, among others, the novel Blindgangers (Duds, 2014), the essay Melancholie van de onrust (Melancholy of Unrest, 2017), the novel Rivieren keren nooit terug (Rivers Never Turn Back, 2018) and the essay Het tij keren met Rosa Luxemburg en Hannah Arendt (Turning the Tide with Rosa Luxemburg and Hannah Arendt, 2019).
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Lidewijde Paris

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a writer and journalist. She studied Dutch Language and Literature at Utrecht University. She then started working as a journalist for the Dutch daily NRC. She later worked as a publisher at publishing houses such as Querido, Ailantus and Nieuw Amsterdam. In 2016, Paris founded De Lees!ambassade (The Reading Embassy) to promote literary reading. Since 2017, she has also worked as a radio presenter and since 2018 as a book reviewer with Dutch broadcasters. At the Filmhuis Den Haag, she regularly presents Hoe lees ik een film? (How Do I Read a Film?). She published Hoe lees ik? (How Do I Read?, an accessible book explaining literary tricks), Hoe lees ik korte verhalen? (How Do I Read Short Stories?) and Een gedicht is ook maar een ding (A Poem is Just a Thing).
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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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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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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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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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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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HemelBesem

(South Africa) os the stage name/nom de plume of rapper, writer, poet, actor and activist Simon Witbooi. He grew up impoverished in Capetown, where rap and hiphop became his outlet for the social inequality he saw all around. Although he began in English, Afrikaans quickly took over as his chosen langauge. HemelBesem (Heaven's Broom) calls himself an edutainer or educator because he wants to build bridges between communities and address African social issues. In his 2017 book God praat Afrikaans (God Speaks Afrikaans), he passionately defends the Afrikaans language. He is an ambassador for the Afrikaans Language and Culture Society (ATKV) and visits schools on a yearly basis in collaboration with the University of Stellenbosch for the Woorde Open Wêrelde (WOW) project. He is a descendant of Hendrik Witbooi, one of the greatest 19th-century resistance heroes during the genocide by the German colonizers in Southwestern Africa, now Namibia.


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Raj Mohan

(Suriname, 1962) published his first volume of poetry, Bapauti/Erfenis (Bapauti/Heritage) in 2008, an elaboration of the songs on his album Kantráki/Contract Labourer. The collection Tihá/Troost (Tihá/Comfort) followed in 2011 with lyrics from his pop album Daayra. The singer, poet and composer -- with parental roots in India, born in Suriname, and living in The Netherlands -- deals with societal themes and with subjects that are taboo within Hindustani and Indian circles. Mohan writes in Sarnámi, the mother tongue of the Hindustani in Suriname and the Netherlands. He is founder and artistic director of musical groups like the Raj Mohan Ensemble, Vistar and Shai'rana, with which he tours at home and abroad. He plays and sings compositions based on his own lyrics and on poems by contemporary Urdu poets in the (lightly) classical tradition of Northern India.
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Simon(e) van Saarloos

is a writer, artistic collaborator and curator. They are the author of Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto (2023); Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting (2021) and Playing Monogamy (2019) as well as several books in Dutch: Herdenken herdacht (2019); Enz. Het Wildersproces (2018); the novel De vrouw die (2016); the collection of columns Ik deug / deug niet ( 2015) and Het monogame drama (2015). . Van Saarloos works as an independent curator of public programming and artistic collaborations. A current PhD candidate in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, they are interested in Black feminist engagements with quantum physics and focused on the rhetorical (im)possibility of existence without defense. Van Saarloos is currently writing a new book for AK Press, titled Trans Despair: Staying Unrelated and Insecure.

Go the website of Simon(e) van Saarloos
Instagram: @svansaarloos
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Fiep van Bodegom

(India, 1984) is a writer, critic and translator. She is editor of Extra Extra Magazine and teaches in the Creative Writing department at Artez University of the Arts. She writes regularly on literature (including for De Groene Amsterdammer, NRC and De Nederlandse Boekengids) and has published translations, essays and fiction.
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Marja Pruis

(The Netherlands, 1959) has been writing about the expectations men and women have of each other and of life since her debut novel Bloem (Flower). Her novel Atoomgeheimen (Nuclear Secrets is about intimacy and the loss of ideals. She has been called the chronicler of contemporary womanhood; she explores her themes further in her novels De vertrouweling (The Confidant) and Zachte riten (Soft Rites). Pruis works at De Groene Amsterdammer weekly as a literary editor and columnist, writing essays on topics as diverse as humour, shyness and greed. She received the Jan Hanlo Prize for her collection of essays Kus me, straf me, and the J. Greshoff Prize for essayism with Genoeg nu over mij. For her columns, collected in Oplossingen (Solutions), she received the J. Heldring Prize. In Boos Meisje. Over vrouwen en frictie (Angry Girl. About Women and Friction), she writes about the split in which girls and women find themselves, including portraits of writers she admires such as Renate Rubinstein and Vivian Gornick. Her recently published confrontational novel Huiswerk (Homework) is about white privilege and the tension between employer and employee.
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Roberta Petzoldt

(Netherlands, 1984), graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, is a transdisciplinary artist. She works from her studio in Ruigoord as a poet, performer, actress and visual artist. She has played two leading roles in Eddy Terstall's feature films. For which she received the 'Best Actress Award' at the Woodstock film festival of 2015. She made her debut as a poet with the Vruchtwatervuurlinie. This collection has been awarded the Cees Buddingh Prize 2019. The Jury wrote: "A poet who looks at the world through a hole in a newspaper, who connects the world of soldier's games in her youth with an American student who, during a ride to the Taco Bell, tells how he will pay for his education by killing Afghans. We watch a peeping, lurking poet, who, according to her, is created by staring, and who not only sharpens her own gaze, but also ours."
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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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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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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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Gioconda Belli

(Managua, 1948) is a Nicaraguan poet, writer and political activist. She was involved in the Nicaraguan Revolution from a very young age and occupied important positions in the Sandinista Party and in the revolutionary government. She left the Sandinista Party in 1993. She debuted in 1970 with publications in magazines, wrote politically and erotically oriented poems and received her first literary award in 1972 with many prizes to follow. Her debut novel La Mujer Habitada (The Inhabited Woman), published in 1988, was her international breakthrough. Belli now is a bestselling author whose works have been translated in twenty languages. She now is an influential critic of the government of her former fellow party member Ortega.
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Jan van Aken

(Herwen en Aerdt, NL, 1961) is a writer of historical novels. He debuted with Het oog van de Basilisk (The Eye of the Basilisk, 2000), followed by De valse dageraad (The False Dawn, 2001), De dwaas van Palmyra (The Fool of Palmyra, 2003), Het fluwelen labyrint (The Velvet Labyrinth, 2005) and Koning voor een dag (King for a Day, 2008). His 2013 novel De afvallige (The Apostate) wom the Gouden Vullings. Van Aken is often called the Umberto Eco of the Low Countries. In his novel De ommegang (The Procession), which won the 2018 F. Bordewijk Prize, the memory artist, healer and architect Isidorus van Rillington has a encounter in 1450 that completely changes his life. Tzum wrote the following about it: "What literature can do: shape a past reality in such a way that it comes alive for those who have the ability to believe in it." The author also writes for Optima and Nieuw Wereldtijdschrift and teaches at the Schrijversvakschool (Writers' School).
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Maartje Smits

(Soest, NL, 1986) is a poet in imagery and language, which are subjects she also studied at the Gerrit Rietvelt Academy, graduating in 2009. In 2011 she completed her Master in design at the Sandberg Institute. She calls herself "a writing detective, because that's what I (once) want(ed) to become. Each subject demands its own form, that's why I must be flexible. One day I am a filming poet, then a subjective journalist, beekeeper, and tomorrow probably something else." Her first volume of poetry, Als je een meisje bent (When You Are a Girl) was published in 2015. In 2017 her second volume appeared, Hoe ik een bos begon in mijn badkamer (How I Started a Forest in my Bathroom). It won her the Dutch Foundation for Literature debutante scholarship. Smits teaches at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and at ArtEZ. On the side, she is a hobbyist beekeeper in Amsterdam-Noord.


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Asha Karami

is a poet who published the collection Godface (2019), in which the world and identity are definitively unstable and various voices speak through one other: 'ik lig op de bank / terwijl ik mee moet doen met de revolutie’, and: ‘dit was de laatste keer dat ik op mijn werkmail inlogde / ik ben niet meer het monster dat ik was.’ ("I'm lying on the couch / while I have to join the revolution," and: "this was the last time I logged into my work email / I'm no longer the monster I was."). Her poems, essays and short stories have also appeared in such publications as nY, Het Liegend Konijn, Tirade, Poëziekrant, Terras, Revisor, De Groene, DW B, Cimedart, Extra Extra, De Gids and online at SampleKanon, MisterMotley, DIG, Minutes of the Invisible, Optimist, and Ooteotee. She makes poetry films with artist Johan van Dijke. Her writing residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy led to curating programmes for Perdu. Besides writing, she works as a pediatrician.
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Madeleine Thien

(Canada, 1974) has written books including the 2001 short-story collection Simple Recipes and the 2006 novel Certainty. Her most recent novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016), won various international prizes and was on the Man Booker Prize shortlist. It focuses on Li-Ling who, as a result of the suicide of her father, an emigrant who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution, comes into possession of the mysterious Book of Records. Alice Munro said the following: "Thien's prose astonishes the reader with its clarity, the apparent ease with which it is written, and its emotional purity." The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature refers to Thien's work as a reflection of transcultural Canadian literature, which investigates art and politics in the Asian diaspora.
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Saskia de Jong

(1973) is a "hyper-aware poet" (Piet Gerbrandy, Volkskrant). Her 2004 debut zoekt vaas (looks for vase) was nominated for the C. Buddingh Prize. According to the jury, she writes "enigmatic poems from which words and sometimes even entire phrases seem to have disappeared. [...] A stubborn language that one doesn't often hear and that does not leave one in peace." Her second collection, resistent (resistant, 2006) was followed by De Deugende Cirkel, gedichten en knipsels voor kinderen (The Virtuous Circle: poems and cut-outs for children, 2010). She also creates video installations in collaboration with visual artist Ine Lamers. In 2019, her poetry collection Het jaagpad op en af (Up and down the towpath) will be published.
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Michael Tedja

(1971) is a writer, poet, painter and curator. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Sandberg Institute and has written several novels and poetry collections, such as A.U.T.O.B.I.O.G.R.A.F.I.E. (2003), De aquaholist (The Aquaholist, 2005), Hosselen (Hustling, 2009) en Regen (Rain, 2015). Briljante man (Brilliant Man) was published in 2018. This novel is a "text collage" that jumps through time and space in a mix of prose, poetry and reflections about art, literature, politics, philosophy and cultural differences between the Netherlands and Suriname.
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Neusa Gomes

(Rotterdam, NL 1978) debuted as a spoken-word artist in 2015. She won the 2017 poetry category of the El Hizjra Literature Prize with the poem "Oorlog 'n Held" ("War 'n Hero") and the 2017 TEDX open mic Podium during the Being Connected event. She has appeared at events including SWOON, PaginaGroots, Spoken World and Lowlands. Gomes writes and speaks about religion, love, her background, nature, faith and humanism. She is also a songwriter and lecturer in word art. In the latter capacity she leads spoken-word workshops in secondary schools.
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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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Martijntje Smits

is a philosopher of technology, an engineer, and a scholar in innovation sciences. She works as a researcher and lecturer at various universities and institutes. As a philosopher of technology, she focuses on tech and the future, and her work questions the way technological visions of the future are taken for granted. Smits has written several books about technology and robotics, among them Monsterbezwering, de culturele domesticatie van nieuwe technologie (2002; Taming monsters: the cultural domestication of technology). Recently, she edited and co-authored the essay collection Robot Love, which coincided with the exhibition of the same name in Eindhoven, and later this year will see the release of her book Frankensteins blinde vlek (working title; Frankenstein’s blind spot).
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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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Flora Valeska Woudstra

(1991) is a poet, essayist and visual artist. She studied at the Willem De Kooning Academy and received her Master from ArtEZ Academy for Visual Arts in Arnhem. Woudstra is an editor and coordinator at Perdu. Her visual and literary work has been published in Samplekanon, nY, Poetry International and The Bendigo Art Gallery. She writes from a feminist perspective and poses questions about the relationship between sexism anad language.
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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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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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Asis Aynan

(Haarlem, NL, 1980) studied philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Aynan, the son of Moroccan immigrants, is an active advocate of Berber culture. His debut Veldslag en Andere Herinneringen (Battle and Other Memories) was published in 2007, about his youth or, as he calls it, his "Catholic-Islamic-Berber background". Aynan is the creator of the Berber Library, a series of classics from Berber countries translated into Dutch. He further wrote Ik, Driss  (I, Driss, together with Hassan Bahara), the short-story collection Gebed zonder eind (Endless Prayer, 2014) and Linoleumkoorts (Linoleum Fever, 2019). Aynan works as a teacher at Hogeschool van Amsterdam; his articles have appeared in the NRC, Het Parool, Folia and Trouw.
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Sumai Yahya

is a young poet from The Hague who won the Young Campert Prize during the 2018 Winternachten festival. In the fall of 2017, he participated in Spot on Young Poets, the educational project of Writers Unlimited, the Hague Writers Guild 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. Sumai presented his poem during Winternachten 2018. One of the three finalists, he won the Young Campert Prize for best student poet during the Writers' Feast. He was at the time a pupil of the Edith Stein College in The Hague.
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Çiler Ilhan

(Turkey, 1972) writes novels, essays, reviews and translations for various newspapers and magazines. She studied international relations and political science in Istanbul and hotel management in Switzerland. In 2006 she debuted with the short-story collection Ruya Tacirleri Odasi (Chamber of Dream Merchants). Surgun (Exile, 2010) won the EU Literature Prize and was published in 24 countries. Its short stories - some of which are only a page or two in length -  form a novel in which ordinary Turkish citizens speak about feeling alienated from their homeland, their families, and the community to which they belonged. In 2021 she published Nisan Evi (Engagement), a novella about lives lost under the weight of power factors in eastern Turkey.
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Adam Zagajewski

(Poland, 1945-2021) is seen as one of the world's best authors and as pre-eminent representative of the post-war writers generation. He studied psychology and philosophy in Krakow and was a member of the Polish Nouvelle Vague/Generation of '68. After signing a protest letter against the Polish government (Letter of 59), his work was banned in Poland. Zagajewski mostly writes poetry and essays. Recurring themes include the night, dreams, history and time, eternity and infinty, silence and death; he is known as a true "metaphysical poet". Much of his work has been translated into English. He has taught at institutions such as the University of Houston, and since 2007 has been a guest professor at the University of Chicago. His 2016 volume of poetry is titled Airport in Amsterdam.

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Maartje Meijer

(1985) studied voice and piano major at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam to focus on arranging during her master studies, under the guidance of renowned arranger and conductor Jörg Achim Keller (NDR, WDR big band). Now she leads the young talent jazz department at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, writes commissioned music, conducts choirs and releases albums or EPs with her own songs. Since 2022, Maartje has been the musical director of the JONG JOC Bootcamp, the talent development project for young people of the big band Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.
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Michiel Servaes

has been general director of Oxfam Novib since 2018. In this position and as chairman of the board, he is wholly responsible for the organization's policies. The management team also includes the director of operations, Pauline Mulder, and Ton Meijers, who is responsible for programs and campaigns. Servaes earned a Master in political science and international relations at the University of Leiden. He has extensive diplomatic experience, represented the Labour Party in Parliament for almost five years, and has worked in various policy positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His most recent position was deputy director of the social development department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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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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Frandjescka Balootje

performed in The Hague's Theater Dakota for the first time as story teller in 2016. Subsequently she has become a familiar face there and now is a host, spoken word artist and programme curator, most of all of educational activities.  Frandjescka manifests herself creatively as writer, host (a.o. Ook van jou Festival, GUAP Night, Escamp festival), photographer and actress.
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Oma Greet

holds a permanent spot in the programme of Theatre Dakota with her own lightly journalistic and homey talk show Oma Greet Leet Night. She invites guests from The Hague who've been in the news and asks that what nobody else would dare to ask. On Saturday, 19 January, Oma Greet presents the evening programme of the Winternachten Story Festival at the Dakota.
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Annemarie Estor

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

(Kenya) is a political scientist who graduated cum laude in Politics and Development, did post-doctoral work in Management of Health and Psychosocial Services in developing countries, and has a diploma in Labour Studies and Management. He was a researcher with the European Centre for Development Policy Management and with the African Migration and Development Policy Centre in Nairobi, as well as with the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. Until 2016, Ong'ayo atatched to the University of Utrecht, and now he is a researcher at the Faculty of Arts and Culture at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences. He is especially focused on political developments, migrantion and politics within the African diaspora. Ong'ayo is also a member of the commission for development cooperation of the Advisory Council on International Affairs of the Dutch government.
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Jan Pronk

(Scheveningen, NL, 1940) is a socially and societally engaged economist and former minister and MP for the Dutch Labour Party. In a large number of leading positions with international and UN organizations he has shown a strong commitment to peace and to fighting poverty in the world. Pronk was  the Minister for Development Cooperation in the cabinets of the Den Uyl, Lubbers III, Kok I and Kok II goverments. At the UN he held position such as the Vice Secretary General of UNCTAD, head of the UN peace mission in Sudan, and chairman of the UN conference on climate change. He is a professor emeritus in the theory and practice of international development of the International Institute of Social Studies. He is also a board member of Writers Unlimited.
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Jaber Fayad

(Syrië, 1989) takes part in Asko|Schönbergs K[h]AOS, an initiative of Asko|Schönberg that supports the musical and theatrical development of young musicians and artists. Jaber Fayad plays, among others, in interdisciplinary stage plays such as Salam by Noord-Nederlands Toneel, Club Guy & Roni en Asko|Schönberg. Before fleeing his country, he lived in Damascus where he studied Turkish, Arabic and Azerbaidjani music at the conservatory. He plays oud and also builds this instrument. Since 2015, Fayad lives in The Netherlands, where he quickly rebuilt his music activities. He performs, for example, regularly with his band Sirocco.
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Anima Jhagroe-Ruissen

is a Kathak dancer and teacher with a mission: to deepen, develop and present the North-Indian classical Kathak dance form in the Netherlands. She realized this in the process of working together with artists from the Netherlands and beyond. She teaches dance in The Hague at her Indian dance academy Niembooda and organizes workshops and Kathak immersion classes  with international artists. The performances she develops are aimed at spreading Indian philosophy and the meaning and relevance of Indian symbolism in daily life.
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Shagun

is a young HIndi pop band that mainly plays Bollywood songs, but in a Western manner. Shagun -- a word originally meaning "auspicious" -- believes that a positive attitude brings good luck in life. The aim of the group is to convey this philosophy via music. Shagun returns to the core of the music and transfoms it into a real listening experience.
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Wieteke van Dort

(Indonesia, 1943) is an actress, writer, visual artist and singer. She became nationally famous due to her performances in Dutch television programmes. Her Dutch-Indonesian character Aunt Lien from De Late Late Lien Show is especially well known; the show featured sketches, songs, traditional dances and stories about nostalgia for the Dutch Indies. Her best-known song is "Arm Den Haag" ("Poor The Hague") from 1975. Her first volume of poetry, Handen (Hands), appeared in 1958; at the time, she was celebrated as the "youngest poet of the Netherlands" in the media. She wrote and illustrated various children's books including De toverbal (The Magic Ball, 2002) en Kleine wolk (Little Cloud, 2005). In 2003, she published Kind in Surabaja: Indische herinneringen (Child in Surabaja: Indonesian Memories) and in 2014, Java revisited in 133 Haikus.
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Jhilani Wijsman

(1987) translates sincere emotions into laid-back songs with a Nether-pop sound in which Soul plays a big role. The singer-songwriter knows how to reach his audience with his singing and his guitar. Inspired by musicians such as John Legend, Bill Withers and Beres Hammond, the Hague resident has performed on various stages and local festivals and won the "Best in the Neighbourhood" competition. With his single Mijn stad Den Haag (My City The Hague), this musician is ready to conquer not only the rest of his city but the whole of the country.
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Elfie Tromp

(Netherlands, 1985) is a writer, presenter and performer. Following on her debut novel Goeroe (Guru, 2013), Underdog (2016) was nominated for the BNG Literature Prize and the Dioraphte Literature Prize. Her poetry debut Victorieverdriet (Victory Sadness) was published in 2017. Her most recent novel Pieta (2021) is a compelling mosaic-style story about a city under pressure. Tromp has written for various Dutch magazines and newspapers. She can also be found on stage, appearing in her own productions, including Monster Love Play and the musical-theatre horror show Niet vandaag Satan (maar wel vanavond) (Not Today, Satan, but Tonight Is Okay). On Instagram, she presents the weekly Dichter in Drag (Poet in Drag) show, where poetry and glitter, poets and drag queens meet for a half hour of reading and make-up.
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Jennifer Muntslag

(1983) also known as JNM the Naked MC, is a versatile presenter, actress, MC and performer who has built a strong reputation within the cultural and creative sector. Professionally, she is known for her dynamic and energetic stage presence, bringing events to life with her unique style of presenting and interacting with the audience. As ‘The Naked MC’, Jennifer is known for her “unfiltered” and honest style. ‘Naked’ refers to her urge to speak and act without masks or façades.
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Mr. Winter

is a DJ and barber who combines different styles of music in surprising ways. His interest in people and art can be heard in his music selection and DJing style. Mr. Winter's career sprung from his passion for music while a student at Rotterdam's SAE Institute in 2006. He performs nationally and internationally and, depending on the concept, lets his expertise in the field of music be heard. As a beat-lover pur sang, he has wide-ranging musical tastes and conveys these to his audience in a controlled manner after making critical selections. His connection with the audience produces surprising performances and collaborations.
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Quin Kempees

(1984) mainly writes verse that she often illustrates herself. You can read along with her on her blog. Her verses are snapshots of moments that she considers worth capturing. She creates work for both adults and children. As an improvisational author and performer, she captures what's in the air, in the here and now, using as few rhyming worlds as possible. As a result of her work in youth protection, Kempees wrote Wortelen en groeien Kindplan (Rooting and Growing Child Plan) for parents and children of divorce.
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Roza Lozica

(1990) is a singer and songwriter who became known through her participation in The Voice of Holland in 2016. While still studying at Codarts School of the Arts in Rotterdam, she works as a backup singer for artists like Glennis Grace and René Froger and, after a successful audition, she joined Alain Clark's band. With Clark as producer and composer she released her first EP in 2013, for which she (co-)wrote several songs. Her new song "Till the Rain Falls" has been on Spotify since September 2018.
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Roos Dickmann

(1996) is an actress and poet. She has appeared in various films and series. She started acting as a child at the Amsterdam Youth Theatre School and is now studying at the Amsterdam Theatre School and Small Arts Academy. She has published poetry in Het Parool newspaper and her first volume of poetry Ik ook van mij will be published by Prometheus Publishers in 2019.
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Akwasi

(1988) is a rapper, writer, poet, producer, television host and more. He started rapping at fourteen and founded the group Zwart Licht (Black Light). This group released albums including Leeroy Draait Door (Leeroy Goes Crazy, 2012) and Bliksem (Lightening, 2018). As owner of the Dutch record label Neerlands Dope, he offers young musical talents the opportunity to move from the regional to the national stage. He leads workshops in writing, drama, rap and stage presentation in schools, and acts in Dutch theatre and television series. Akwasi is also a writer, scriptwriter, poet and spoken-word artist. He created ReChill, an innovative programme for children about meditation, for SchoolTV. In his short-story debut Laten we het er maar niet over hebben (Let's Not Talk About It, 2018), he proves himself a masterful storyteller.
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Elzahra Elkawafi

is a talented young poet as well as a strong performer of her own work. In the fall of 2017, she participated in Spot on Young Poets, the educational project of Writers Unlimited, the Hague Writers Guild 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. Elkawafi presented her poem during the 2018 Winternachten festival and was one of three finalists for the Young Campert Prize.
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Dimitri Verhulst

(Belgium, 1972) has written an extensive body of novels, stories, novellas, poetry and plays. His work has been published in more than 20 languages. He is known for his sharp, humorous, and unvarnished writing style. His big breakthrough came in 2006 with The Misfortunates, an autobiographical sketch of a Flemish suburb that spawned a screen adaptation. Godverdomse dagen op een godverdomse bol (Goddamned Days on a Goddamned Ball, 2008) depicts the history of mankind in 200 pages and won the Libris Literature Prize. De pruimenpluk (The Plum Harvest, 2019) is Verhulst's homage to failing humanity. Onze verslaggever in de leegte (Our Reporter in the Void, 2020) is a painfully honest book in the tradition of Jeroen Brouwers and Charles Bukowski, showing us a writer as he does not want to be seen. Recently published novels are Hebben en zijn (2022), about a rehab clinic to kick the habit of life, and Bechamel Mucho (2024), about Alex, an entertainer at a club hotel in Mallorca.

Instagram: @dimitrivh
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Douwe Draaisma

(1953) is a special professor in the history of psychology at the University of Groningen. His graduate thesis De metaforenmachine (The Metaphor Machine) explores the metaphorical nature of the language we use to think and speak about memory. His monograph Ontregelde geesten (Disordered Spirits) deals with famous historic neurologists and psychiatrists like Parkinson, Korsakov, Alzheimer, Gilles de la Tourette and Asperger. To date, Draaisma has published four books about autobiographical memory, including the multiple prize-winning titles Waarom het leven sneller gaat als je ouder wordt (Why Life Goes Faster As You Grow Older, 2001) and Als mijn geheugen mij niet bedriegt (If Memory Serves Me Right, 2016).
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Sharon Goeman

is an inspired and extraordinary storyteller and -creator. After a career as a fraud prevention and fraud detection analyst, she chose a new direction. Through her Within Reach Academy, she shares her knowledge, experience and stories with people ove 45 with migrant backgrounds. She is also a volunteer and trainer with PEP The Hague, and writes for the Hague Life Book Foundation. Goeman is a spider in the Escamp web, helping where she can and jumping in wherever necessary.
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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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Balout Khazraei

grew up in an artistic family in Iran and learned early on to express herself in musical and artistic language. In Iran she studied classical Persian music, and in the Netherlands at the Art Academy and later Pabo. Her working method emphasizes creating space for creative and artistic communication between people and cultures. With much enthusiasm, she teaches Dutch to refugees at the Hamrah Institute in Rotterdam. In recent years she has organized various cultural and culinary festivals. As a curator she has worked on exhibitions by refugees. Her most recent exhibition about and with refugees, their art and way of thinking at SeedZ-Rotterdam was opened in 2016 by Mayor Ahmen Aboutaleb.
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Turks koor Escamp

brings music and song from Anatolia. The Turkish choir from Escamp, Den Haag, performs to musical accompaniment. The members of the choir, from various parts of Turkey, interpret Turkish folk repertoire.
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Djani

(2002) founded the rap group FDG in 2015 with two friends and writes most of the songs, beats and a portion of the texts. He also works solo. His favourite styles are trap, dancehall, afro and old-school hiphop. Djani is the stage name of Ajani Ántoni Teunis, who has a Surinamese father and a Portuguese mother. He has been singing since he could speak. He drummed on anything in his immediate environment and taught himself to play the piano. After living in Portugal for three years, he returned to the Netherlands in 2013 and has lived in The Hague since then. Djani hopes to be accepted into the musician/producer programme at Albed College in Rhoon for the next academic year.
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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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Duygu Alkan

(1990) is a singer and oud player specialized in Turkish Classical, Ottoman and Anatolian music. She completed her Bachelor in Turkish Music and Voice at the conservatory in Izmir and is now completing her Masters at Codarts Rotterdam. Since 2019, she has performed with with various musicians in countries including Turkey, Iraq, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Cyprus.
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Wytske Versteeg

(1983) published the novels Grime, Quarantaine, Boy, De Wezenlozen and the non-fiction study Dit is geen dakloze (This is Not a Homeless Person). She graduated cum laude in 2005 as political scientist and is currently connected to the Urban Futures Studio, University of Utrecht. NRC wrote about Quarantaine: “With her third novel Wytske Versteeg proves she is one of the best authors of her generation regarding composition, subtlety, expressiveness and certainly style." Boy won the BNG Literatuurprijs; De Wezenlozen (2012) won the VrouwDebuutprijs and was longlisted for the AKO Literatuurprijs. Versteeg published in, among others newspaper NRC Handelsblad and magazines Vrij Nederland, De Correspondent and Opzij. Her works were translated in six languages.
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Jenny Arean

(Lisse, NL, 1942) enjoys wide renown and popularity as a cabaret artist and singer, and as a theatre, film and television actress. She was inspired to go on stage as a 14-year-old after seeing a Wim Sonneveld show. She started out with Wim Kan's ABC Cabaret and acted in TV musicals and many theatre musicals, such as Foxtrot. The duet she created with Frans Halsema, Vluchten kan niet meer (There's No Escape), has remained in the Top 2000 since 1977. She performs in musical cabaret and theatre shows with performers such as Robert Long, Dimitri Frenk Frank, Ischa Meijer, Raoul Heertje, Willeke Alberti and Marijn Brouwers. As of 2006, she reached an audience of over a million with the TV series 't Schaep. In 2018, she once again took on a film role in Gewoon vrienden (Friends Only).
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Tijl Nuyts

(1993) researches mysticism and modern identities at the University of Antwerp. He published poetry, short stories and essays in magazines Het Liegend Konijn, Tirade, Deus Ex Machina, DW B, Streven, Awater en Mvslim.com. His debut collection Anagrammen van een blote keizer (Anagrams of a nude emperor) was nominated in 2017 for the C. Buddingh' Award. He is a poetry editor of literary magazine Kluger Hans.
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Mark Kalsbeek

is a programme curator, writer and poet. He worked at the Amsterdam theatre Carré and is a programmer and programme curator at The Hague's Theater Dakota. Mark is the regular guest poet during Oma Greet's talk shows in Theater Dakota and Studio De Bakkerij. His poems and short stories were published on Krakatau, in literary magazine Schoon Schip, in his own poetry collection Vlek and in the collection Bestemming.
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Maxime Garcia Diaz

(The Netherlands, 1993) writes poetry and prose in Dutch and English. She studied at the University of Amsterdam and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her debut collection Het is warm in de hivemind (It's warm in the hivemind) was published in 2021 and was awarded the C. Buddingh' Prize for best poetry debut in 2022. In November 2025, her second poetry collection was published in both Dutch and English by De Bezige Bij: Het netwerk moet gebouwd worden and The network must be built.

Go to website Maxim Garcia Diaz
Instagram @maximgarciadiaz
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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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Robert van Asten

(Voorburg, 1978) is Alderman for Mobility, Culture and Strategy of the City of The Hague since June 2018. Libraries, monuments and cultural heritage are also part of his policy areas. Furthermore he is Alderman of Segbroek, one of the eight The Hague districts. Before taking office as Alderman, Van Asten was a member of The Hague's City Council for D66 since 2014. He studied tax law at Leiden University and worked for, among others, Deloitte and Vistra.
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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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Fouad Laroui

(Morocco, 1958) in 2013 won  the Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle for his collection of short stories The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers. Since his debut in 1996 humor has been his weapon against intolerance, both in his novels and in his other work. In his fiction, such as the collection of short stories Poldermarokkanen (2010), the novels Une année chez les Français (2011) and La femme la plus riche de Yorkshire (2011), Laroui describes time and again the collision between North African culture and Western culture. Laroui grew up in Casablanca and studied econometry, mathematics, physics and architecture in Paris. He lectures French literature and Arab culture at the University of Amsterdam.
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Mohammad Rabie

(Egypt, 1978) won the first prize in the Emerging Writers category of the Sawiris Cultural Award for his debut novel Kawkab Anbar (Amber Planet, 2010). In 2012 he published the novel Year of the Dragon. His latest nove Otared (2015) is situated in near-future Cairo. The titular character - a police officer and sniper - embarks on a new career when he joins the underground resistance after his country is invaded by foreign mercenaries. The New York Times wrote: 'More than just a portrait of a bleak future, this novel is of course a trenchant critique of modern Egypt.'
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Kawa Nemir

(1974) is a Kurdish poet, short story-writer, translator and editor. As editor-in-chief of the Kurdish  literary-cultural magazines Jiyana Rewşen en Rewşen-Name during the years 1997-2003, and afterwards as founder of publishing house Bajar, Nemir has made a lasting impression on important Kurdish literary works. He also translated many books and poems from English to Kurdish and from Kurdish into Turkish. In 2019, he publishes his Kurdish translation of Ulysses by James Joyce. Through the Dutch Foundation of Literature, Nemir is since June 2018 the temporary inhabitant of the Amsterdam Vluchtstad appartment in Anne Frank's former home. Nemir studies English language and literature at the Hacettepe University in Ankara and at the University of Istanbul.
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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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Conny Braam

(Arnhem, 1948) was co-founder and Chair of the Anti Apartheid Movement Netherlands. Her debut as writer is Operatie Vula (1992), followed by the novel Zwavel (1996). In 2000 she published the first part of a novel trilogy about the family Abraham based in IJmuiden: De woede van Abraham, in 2002 followed by De onweerstaanbare bastaard. The last part, Het schandaal, was published in 2004. Subsequent novels are De handelsreiziger van de Nederlandsche Cocaïne Fabriek (2012) and Sjako (2014) and the literary thriller Het beest van Kruger. With Ik ben Hendrik Witbooi, Conny Braam starts a second series of novels about the experiences of Africa with colonialism during the 20th century. Hendrik Witbooi was a freedom fighter who fought against the German colonization of South-West Africa, later Namibia.
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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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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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Lamin Kuyateh

(Gambia, 1964) was raised on culture: as of his fifth birthday, he studied to become a kora player. He is a true "jalli" (griot), meaning someone who passes on history though song and music. The Fiscoband, which he founded in 1993, was one of the first groups to combine kora with Western instruments. Kutayeh has lived in the Netherlands since 1996, and has performed at many festivals and venues with his Jalliya Ensemble, such as at the Concertgebouw, Tivoli Vredenburg, Melkweg, Philips Cenrum and the Schiecentrale. Later, he also founded the successful ensembles Jalliyabaa and KoraFusion, in which he frequently collaborates with musicians from all kinds of disciplines. Since 2000 he has given kora lessons at the Amsterdam Conservatory.
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Ellen de Bruin

is a writer and a science editor at NRC Handelsbald and nrc.next. She was awarded the Anton Wachter Prize, a bi-yearly award for the best literary debut, for her Onder het ijs (2018). In this novel, about a young climate researcher on a ship in the Artic region, De Bruin combines for the first time her knowledge of the scientific world and her lighthearted, humoristic style of writing with her playful fantasy. Earlier, Ellen de Bruin published three non fiction books:  Vergaderen? Niet doen! (Meeting? Don't do it! 2014), Onsterfelijkheid voor beginners (Immortality for beginners, 2009) en Dutch women don't get depressed (2007).
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Living forever: eternal desire

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:00 tot 21:05 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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Adam Zagajewski, eminent poet and essayist from Poland, opened Friday Night Unlimited by reading from his work. Subsequently Ramayana expert Arshia Sattar (India) and Dutch writer and philosopher Joke Hermsen spoke about the desire to live longer. Sattar translated and rewrote the ancient story cycle about the mythical struggle of Prince Rama to win back his beloved Sita from the hands of the demonic King Ravana. In her book Stilling Time, Hermsen argues for a slow future in which waiting, restfulness and bordom have their place; in her essay Melancholie van de onrust (Melancholy of Unrest), she elaborates on the blessings of melancholy, among others as source of creativity. With classical Persian music and poetry performed by Balout Khazraei. Fouad Laroui, writer and professor French language and Arabic cultures at the University of Amsterdam, hosted the conversation. Meer details bekijken

On the Couch: Dimitri Verhulst as Dorian Gray

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:00 tot 20:40 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
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A fictional character visited the shrink! Psychiatrist Damiaan Denys invited Dimitri Verhulst onto his couch. As the protagonist of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Verhulst reflected on desires, motives and life questions. What if I had eternal life? As a character, do I not already enjoy eternal life? And what is actually the meaning of life? Can one shape life, is everything possible if you will it? Meer details bekijken

Immortality by Choice

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:00 tot 21:00 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Philosopher Tom Dommisse shared his thoughts about immortality and illustrates them with excerpts from films like E.T., Blade Runner, Wall-E, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Citizen Kane. People want long lives. Science and technology help to achieve this. Sci-fi films reflect this desire and the technical possibilities, and sometimes the fantasy lies close to the reality. Think of Pixar's Wall-E, with its almost human-like robot and the people drifting around, glued to their touch-screens. Or of Orson Welles' 1941 Citizen Kane, according to many the best film ever made, in which the  media magnate's lust for power coincides with a wish for eternal life. Meer details bekijken

How to read a movie? - 'I'm here' by Spike Jonze

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:00 tot 21:00 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 2
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I'm Here (2010) is a short, romantic sci-fi film by Spike Jonze commissioned by Absolut Vodka in which two robots fall in love in a future society where humans and robots live alongside one another. Jonze - who won Oscars for both his films Being John Malkovich and Her - is an American film, commercial and video clip director, producer and actor.
What exactly is the difference between a film and a novel? How can watching films well help you to read novels? What can a film do that a book can't? Lidewijde Paris gave you some tips beforehand on what to watch for. After the screening she discussed the film and its relation towards Winternachten festival's theme Who Wants to Live Forever? Meer details bekijken

Spot On Young Poets

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:10 tot 21:05 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
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The literary future performed for you! Francis Broekhuijsen presented the students of High-school students from Dalton Den Haag, Edith Stein College and Chr. College De Populier reciting their own poetry, the result of the Spot on Young Poets workshops and poetry lessons given at the schools by members of the Hague Poets Guild. Appearing with them were poet Radna Fabias, winner of the 2018 C. Buddingh Prize, and rapper, spoken-word artist and writer HemelBesem from South Africa. Sumai Yahya, a participant from last year and winner of the 2018 Young Campert Prize, also performed. DJ Socrates took care of the sounds and beats.
One or two finalists for the 2019 Young Campert Prize were chosen during the Spot on Young Poets programmes on Friday and Saturday. The finalists recited their poems once more on Sunday during the Schrijversfeest (Writers Fest). One of them was chosen by the public and receivde the award of being the best Hague student poet. Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life: David Van Reybrouck

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:10 tot 20:40 uur
Location Filmhuis café
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Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Hassnae Bouazza. Meer details bekijken

Books Unlimited: Leni Zumas & Jennifer Clement

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:45 tot 21:45 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
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Get to know literary stars and their recent books. Philosopher Simone van Saarloos talked to US writer Leni Zumas about her futuristic bestseller Red Clocks and to US-Mexican writer Jennifer Clement about her latest novel Gun Love. Expect to hear about their motivation to write, the creation of their characters and the worldwide success of their books.
In Red Clocks, Zumas sketches an intense portrait of four women. Their virtuostically told stories take place in an oppressive and all-too-imaginable future United States in which abortion, IVF and adoption is illegal for single women. The Guardian wrote about Gune Love: "Jennifer Clement's novel about a trailer park teen on a surreal journey across a gun-crazed land is superbly told." Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life: Aafke Romeijn

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 20:45 tot 21:15 uur
Location Filmhuis café
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Writers tell us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Hassnae Bouazza. Meer details bekijken

Friday Night Wintercafé

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 21:05 tot 23:40 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
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Here, at the beating heart of the Winternachten festival, you encountered one another and the writers. Your festival guide and presenter Francis Broekhuijsen showed the way through the programme. Together with his guests he created an agreeably cozy atmosphere. At the Wintercafé you can discover young Hague poetry talents during the Spot on Young Poets programme or just chat with a drink. The De Vries Van Stockum Bookshop was open all evening in the foyer, offering a special selection of titles by all festival authors. These included new as well as older books, and, when available, both Dutch and English editions.

Meet & Greet - time schedule
Meet the writers for a conversation or booksigning!
20.50-21.20 Damiaan Denys and Dimitri Verhulst
21.15-21.45 Joke Hermsen and Adam Zagajewski
21.55-22.25 Jennifer Clement
22.10-22.25 Hanna Bervoets and Mark O'Connell

At the end of the evening, DJ Socrates helped you clear your head and, according to longstanding Winternachten tradition, you could start the night by dancing and get ready for another festival day. Meer details bekijken

Man-Machine: And Technology Created the New Human

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 21:10 tot 22:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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Hanna Bervoets and, from Ireland, Mark O'Connell discussed our "trans-human" future, in part spurred by O'Connell's bestselling To Be a Machine and Bervoets' novel Ivanov. O'Connell gave his book the riveting subtitle Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death. He explores the roots, ethics and future of trans-humanism. This movement wishes to expand the natural borders of human existence with the help of technology; according to others, it is an objectionable philosophy. Bervoets combines tension and ethics in Ivanov, in which the main character gets tangled up in the dubious research of a young scientist. Fiep van Bodegom lead the conversation, with sidekick engineer and innovation philosopher Martijntje Smits.
Bervoets and O'Connell also appeared in Filmhuis Zaal 1 from 22:30-23:40 in "Forever clips clips clips", a series of excerpts, short films and games addressing the festival theme Who Wants to Live Forever? Meer details bekijken

How to read a movie? with Lidewijde Paris: 'To Light' by Nora Särak

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 21:15 tot 22:15 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 2
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The short documentary To Light by Nora Särak (Estonia/Latvia, 2015) shows the close ties between an mother and son in Pechora, now a Russian city but once part of Estonia. What exactly is the difference between a film and a novel? How can watching films well help you to read novels? What can a film do that a book can't? Lidewijde Paris gave you some tips beforehand on what to watch for. After the screening she discussed the film and its relation towards Winternachten festival's theme Who Wants to Live Forever?
(With thanks to Go Short) Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life: Arshia Sattar

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 21:20 tot 21:50 uur
Location Filmhuis café
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Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Hassnae Bouazza. Meer details bekijken

Till Death Do Us Part

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 21:30 tot 22:15 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Gerlinda Heywegen presented a film lecture with beautiful and penetrating as well as humorous excerpts. Inspired by the festival theme "Who Wants to Live Forever?" she took you on a filmic road trip around life, death and the desire for eternal life. The journey began in Hollywood with victims who must die so that the hero can live on. The woods in The Mourning Forest by Naomi Kawase are a place of grief and reflection. In the Russian film Mother and Son by Alexander Sokurov, a son accompanies his mother on her last journey. And what do we see? There is also laughter about eternal life or death in the film. Meer details bekijken

Artificial ignorance: Digital Failure

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 21:50 tot 22:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
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In order to protect ourselves, Radbout professor Martha Larson pleads for artificial ignorance: some data must be deliberately overlooked in IT. Eight authors made Larson's idea the starting point of their performance. They looked at technology in a different, creative way. What does technology reveal about its inventor? Also, the smart thermostat, the pacemaker and Google Maps may help us, but do they also define us? And what is the value of a digital error or failure? Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life: Leni Zumas

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 21:55 tot 22:01 uur
Location Filmhuis café
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Writers tell us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Hassnae Bouazza. Meer details bekijken

Eternal Texts

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 22:05 tot 22:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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Writers Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, and poet and translator Kawa Nemir choose literature, songs, speeches and sacred books with eternal value. They presented fragments and discussed their choices with Abdelkader Benali.
In 2018, Nansubuga Makumbi published her debut novel Kintu, a Ugandan epic in which an 18th-century curse continues to haunt decendants into the present time. Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, internationally succesful with her debut novel One Night, Markovitch, builds up tension in Waking Lions, in which a surgeon is blackmailed to give medical aid to a group of illegal immigrants. Kawa Nemir translated many poems from English to Kurdish and from Kurdish to Turkish; in 2019 his translation into Kurdish of Ulysses by James Joyce will be published Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life: Joke Hermsen

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 22:30 tot 23:00 uur
Location Filmhuis café
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Writers tell us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Hassnae Bouazza. Meer details bekijken

Film: 'Frankenstein' (1931), introduced by Martijntje Smits

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 22:30 tot 23:55 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 2
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Boris Karloff plays the best known film monster of all time in an iconic film adaptation of a story that over time seems to only gain relevance. Two hundred years ago, Mary Shelley wrote her epistolary novel about fundamentel questions regarding human existence. As film Frankenstein changes the story on many points. On screen, the scientist uses electricity to bring his creature to life. In the end also this film classic focuses on the central question 'why are we here and what can we do?'  The film, in English without subtitles, is introduced by philosopher, engineer and innovation thinker Martijntje Smits. Meer details bekijken

Forever Clips Clips Clips

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 22:30 tot 23:45 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Writers Hanna Bervoets and Mark O'Connell and film curator Gerlinda Heywegen presented and commented on video clips, short films and excerpts from games and feature films related to the festival theme 'Who wants to live forever?' You'll see visions of the future, healing elixirs, struggles between life and death, and commercials about staying young and beautiful. Prior to 'Forever clips, clips, clips', Bervoets and O'Connell conversed in the programme 'Man-machine: And Technology created the New Human', in Hall 1 of Theater aan Het Spui, from 21.10 to 22.00h. Meer details bekijken

Who Wants to Live Forever?

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 22:55 tot 23:40 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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How did they express our (near) future in words or sound? In this literary and musical performance, seven festival authors each presented a new text or poem commissioned by  Winternachten, with musical contributions by Syrian-born ud player Jaber Fayad. You saw and heard Ayelet Gundar-Goshen from Israel, HemelBesem from South Africa, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi from Uganda, Arshia Sattar from India, Leni Zumas from the United States and, from The Netherlands, Auke Hulst and Aafke Romeijn. Their inspiration was the festival theme Who Wants to Live Forever? The authors performed in their mother tongue or writing language with simultaneous projection of the English and/or Dutch translations. Meer details bekijken

Book of My life: Damiaan Denys

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 23:05 tot 23:35 uur
Location Filmhuis café
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Writers told us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Hassnae Bouazza. Meer details bekijken

Dancing the Night Away

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2019 23:40 tot 01:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
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Moving between the popular and the adventurous, DJ Socrates found 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 made sure that we could dance the night away after an evening of words. Meer details bekijken

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