The Writers' Fest

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Francis Broekhuijsen hosts the festival's concluding celebration: the Writers' Fest, a varied programme centred around Dutch literature.

Poet Maria Barnas begins the afternoon with an ode to poetry. Writer and critic Kees' t Hart introduces the programme with his views on the state of Dutch literature, a speech about the literary highlights of 2014. Writer Bart Moeyaert, artistic manager of special guests Flanders and the Netherlands at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair, presents his plans to promote our literature in the global context. Fado singer Cristina Branco sings songs composed specially for the occasion, based on poetry by Remco Campert and others.

The core of the programme is the presentation of the Jan Campert prizes, the City of The Hague's prestigious literary awards, with inspired lectures by admirers of the laureates. For his poetry collection Vlinderslag (Stroke of the Butterfly), Piet Gerbrandy will receive the Jan Campert Prize and a tribute by composer Calliope Tsoupaki. Jan van Mersbergen, who will receive the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize for his novel De laatste ontsnapping (The Last Escape), will be serenaded by singer-songwriter Lucky Fonz. Bas Heijne will receive the J. Greshoff Prize for Angst en schoonheid. Louis Couperus, de mystiek der zichtbare dingen (Fear and Beauty: Louis Couperus and the mysticism of tangible things). He will be addressed by Ivo van Hove, director of the Amsterdam Theatre, which will stage the work of Couperus in 2015. Writer Dimitri Verhulst will honour Luc Coorevits, the passionate founder of the Flemish literary organization Behoud de Begeerte, which won the G.H. 's-Gravensande Prize for exceptional literary achievement. The evening's crowning glory is the Constantijn Huygens Prize for a body of work. This will be awareded to Mensje van Keulen for her novels, stories, and poems. Fellow writer and contemporary Maarten 't Hart will sing her praises, as will De Règâhs.

Presented in collaboration with the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Jan Campert Foundation.

Information

Date and time Sunday 18 January 2015 from 14:00 to 16:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1

Line-up

Cristina Branco

(Portugal, 1972) was singing jazz and Portuguese music when she became captivated by fado singer Amália Rodrigues at age 18. Since then she has become a major performer and innovator of this Portuguese folk tradition. With her voice, she is able to make even the melancholic fado sound cheerful. In 1996 she debuted as a fado singer in the Netherlands, the same year her first CD, Cristina Branco, was released here. She increased her Dutch fan base with the CD O Descobridor (2002), on which she sings translated poems by Dutch poet Slauerhoff. Later, she recorded the song Herinnering aan later (Memories of Later) with the Dutch group Bløf, and sang a version of their song Dansen aan zee (Dancing by the Sea). Branco also interpreted texts by Portuguese poets such as Camões, Pessoa, David Mourão-Ferreira, and José Afonso, as well as works by Paul Éluard, Léo Ferré, and Alfonsina Storni (among others). For the 2015 festival edition, Cristina Branco and pianist João Paulo have set the celebrated Dutch writer Remco Campert's Ode aan mijn jas (Ode to My Coat) to music.
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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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Kees 't Hart

(The Netherlands, 1944) is a writer and poet. His novel De Keizer en de astroloog (The Emperor and the Astrologer, 2008) sees apprentice psychiatrist Simon employed as an astrologer at the court of Emperor William II in Doorn, ending up in absurd situations. In 2000 he wins the Multatuli Prize for his novel The Revue (1999). In Teatro Olimpico (2014) Dutch theatre professionals try to stage their show in Italy. Wederzijds (Mutual, 2017) is a satire about neighbourhood help and in the historical and humorous De ziekte van Weimar (The Disease of Weimar, 2019), a man from Franeker travels to Weimar to meet Goethe. VICTORIEN, ik hou van je (2021) is a collection of 'stories and outpourings'; 2023 will see the publication of his third collection of poems, Vogelkerkhof.
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Bart Moeyaert

(Belgium, 1964) writes poetry, scripts, short stories, and audiobooks in addition to YA and children's novels. He was studying Dutch, German, and history in Brussels when he debuted with Duet met valse noten (Duet with False Notes). It won the prize of the Flemish YA and children's jury. For Flair magazine he wrote about his great role model, Astrid Lindgren. He later worked for Flemish daily newspaper De Standaard and wrote TV sripts and plays. In 2000 he toured a theatrical show of stories about his childhood from his book Broere (Brothers), which had won him the Woutertje Pieterse Prize, among others. Together with the Dutch Wind Ensemble he created De Schepping (Creation), a personal interpretation of Haydn's Die Schöpfung. In 2003 he debuted as a poet and three years later became poet laureate of Antwerp. His adaptation of L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale) was published in 2013, the text by Ramuz upon which Stravinsky based his composition. Moeyaert is the artistic director of guest countries Flanders and the Netherlands for the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair.
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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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Bas Heijne

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

(The Hague, NL, 1946) is the pseudonym of Mensje Francina van der Steen. At the festival she will receive the 2014 Constatijn Huygens Prize for her entire body of work, which, according to the jury, is testament to an extraordinary technical mastery: "All her stories are composed with precision and subtlety; they appear to be ordinary and commonplace, but the typical Mensje van Keulen touch invariably adds surprising heft or an unexpected twist." Van Kelen debuted in 1972 with the acclaimed novel Bleekers zomer (Bleeker's Summer), about a man who leaves his job and family and goes to Amsterdam. At first he experiences the environment of touts and pimps as liberation, but eventually he returns home. In 1992 she wrote a book about her friend Maarten 't Hart and his penchant for cross-dressing, Geheime dame (Secret Lady). In 1997 her autobiographical novel Olifanten op het web (Elephants on the Web) was published, in which she tells of her childhood, her life, and authorship. On several occasions, Van Keulen ran as candidate for the Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals).
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Luc Coorevits - Behoud de Begeerte

is director of Behoud de Begeerte, the Flemish Arts Centre for Literature in Antwerp. For 30 years he has organized literary evenings, events and tours, and promoted Dutch-language literature abroad. He considers the Saint Amour tours through the Netherlands and Flanders the highlight of his career. He also organized the first big Behout de Begeerte happening at the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts in 1988 and in the late 1990s. He started out in Leuven at a time when literary performance barely existed, let alone literary festivals. He'd like to keep going for another 30 years: "When we started out, the field was empty. Now, to continue the metaphor, all the fields have been planted. We must conquer new land, not rest on our laurels. We still have 30 exciting years ahead." This year the book Behoud de Begeerte, een literaire geschiedenis 1984-2014 (Behoud de Begeerte: A literary history 1984-2014) was published, whose 352 pages document Coorevits' life's work. On behalf of Behoud de Begeerte he will accept the G.H. 's-Gravensande Prize for exceptional literary merit at the festival.
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Piet Gerbrandy

(The Hague, NL, 1958) is a poet, translator, essayist, classicist, and poetry critic. At the festival he will recieve the 2014 Jan Campert Prize for his book Vlinderslag (Stroke of the Butterfly) which the jury called "a grand synthesis of all of Gerbrandy's earlier experiments." In it, the author combines different genres such as lyrical poetry, prose poetry, and poetic essays. The language is mannered, gruff, short of articles, melancholy, but also humorous. Vlinderslag is an antiphony in which a thoughtful narrator muses about wind, rust, and a woman who runs into the sea; a lyrical poet sings about mulberries, stock market drops, and insomnia; and a sober commentator points out social trends. Gerbrandy studied classical languages and comparative Indo-European linguistics and now teaches Latin at the University of Amsterdam. He has written essays for De Groene Amsterdammer magazine since 1993. He later became the poetry critic at the Volkskrant newspaper. In 2009 he earned his PhD on the poetry of H. H. ter Balkt and Jacques Hamelink. Gerbrandy is the grandson of former prime minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy.
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Jan van Mersbergen

(Gorinchem, NL, 1971) debuted in 2001 with De grasbijter (The Grass Biter), a novel about a thirtysomething who leads a lonely life on his parents' farm until a girl turns up in his life. His seventh novel De laatste ontsnapping (The Last Escape) was published in 2014, about the meaning of family ties when you've never seen one another. In the intervening novels, Van Mersbergen covers a variety of topics, from friends who like tinkering with cars to a boxer on the lam who ends up in Pamplona during the annual running of the bulls. His work has been translated into German, English, Spanish, Catalan, French, Turkish, and other languages. Van Mersbergen studied Culture and Policy and Cultural Sociology in Amsterdam and has worked as a bricklayer, test-animal caretaker, postman, and in the theatre as a producer, production manager, stage designer, fundraiser, and administrator. Since 2010 he has been an editor with the literary magazine De Revisor. That same year, his website was named best literary weblog in the Netherlands by the monthly magazine HP/De Tijd. In 2016 he received the F. Bordewijk Prize for De laatste ontsnapping. His latest novel De Ruiter was published in 2017.
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Ivo van Hove

(Belgium, 1958) has been director of the Amsterdam Theatre since 2001. In the coming years, the internationally acclaimed director will stage three novels by Dutch author Louis Couperus (1863-1923). De stille kracht (The Quiet Power) premieres in September of 2015. Van oude mensen, de dingen die voorbijgaan (Of Old People and the Things that Pass) and De boeken der kleine zielen (The Books of Small Souls) will follow. Van Hove wrote: "For me, Couperus is the most global writer in Dutch literature... Like a true cosmopolitan he writes with an open mind about people who too often have too narrow a view of life and society. Especially now does the world need writers like Couperus." Van Hove began his career as a threatre director in 1981 with his own productions. In succession, he was artistic director of AKT, Akt-Vertikaal and De Tijd. From 1990 to 2000 he was director of Het Zuidelijk Toneel (Southern Theatre), and from 1998 through 2004 he headed the Holland Festival. Van Hove is also a regular guest director with the New York Theatre Workshop and directs operas at venues such as De Munt in Brussels.

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Maarten 't Hart

(Maassluis, NL, 1944) is a behavioral biologist and writer. In 1978 he had his breakthrough with Een vlucht regenwulpen (A Flight of Rain Curlews) about the narrow-minded Dutch Reform envionment in which he was raised, and on which he turned his back in his student days. He debuted in 1971 with Stenen voor een ransuil (Stones for a Horned Owl), written under the pen name Martin Hart. In the meantime he has published more than 40 books. His work is peppered with autobiographical elements from his youth, his experiences as a biologist, and his love of classical music. 't Hart regularly wields his poison pen in opposition things such as like the feminist movement, monotheism, and literary critics. In 1991 he created a stir by appearing at the Boekenbal (Book Ball, the opening event of the annual Dutch Book Week) in women's clothing. In 2004 and 2006 he filled out the candidate list for the Partij voor de Dieren (Animal Party). Besides novels, 't Hart also writes essays, including about classical music. His books have been translated into German, English, Polish, Serbian, and Swedish.
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Joris Wijsmuller

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

(Hoorn, NL, 1973) is a writer, poet, and visual artist. Both her writing and art explore how depictions of reality are shaped and distorted. In 2014 she won the Anna Bijns Prize for Jaja de oerknal (Yaya the Big Bang, 2013). The jury praised the "linguistic universe" of this third collection: "Barnas uses poetry as a way to throw a canvas of words over everything. Each poem is an attempt to capture something ethereal, to preserve, to document." Barnas studied at Amsterdam's Rietveld Academy and Rijks Academy. Her 2003 poetry debut Twee zonnen (Two Suns) won the C. Buddingh Prize in 2004. This was followed by the 2009 J.C. Bloem Prize for Er staat een stad op (A City Stands On It, 2007). Barnas also writes about art and literature for De Groene Amsterdammer and Vrij Nederland magazines, among others. Her NRC Handelsblad newspaper columns from 2007 to 2010 are anthologized in Fantastisch (Fantastic). She also published two novels, Engelen van ijs (Ice Angels, 2007) and De baadster (The Bather, 2000).


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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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Calliope Tsoupaki

(Greece, 1963) is a pianist and composer with a unique musical idiom. She draws on both Western contemporary music and the Greek Orthodox tradition, and uses a wide variety of texts for her vocal work, from Bible psalms and Greek folk songs to the poems of Pablo Neruda. Tsoupaki studied piano and music theory in Athens and composition with Yannis Ioanithis. She took summer courses with Iannis Xenakis, Olivier Messiaen, and Pierr Boulez, and from 1988 to 1992 studied composition with Louis Andriessen and electronic music with Gilius van Bergeijk at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. She has composed work for the Dutch Saxophone Quartet, De Volharding Orchestra, the Dutch Wind Ensemble, the Greek Metropolitan Choir, and the Asko Ensemble, among others. She has also fulfilled commissions for the Greek national broadcaster, the Dutch broadcaster VARA, and the Dutch Fund for Musical Creation. Her work is performed at renowned European and US festivals, including the Holland Festival. She lives and works in Amsterdam.
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Lucky Fonz III

(The Netherlands, 1981) a.k.a. Otto Wichers has become one of the Netherlands' best-known and most appreciated songwriters and live acts both at home and abroad. In 2005, he released his debut album and the following year he won the Grote Prijs van Nederland in the singer-songwriter category. Thanks to tours in America, Australia, South Africa, Canada and several European tours, he gained international fame. The singer-songwriter initially wrote English-language folk music but soon converted to Dutch repertoire. He scored his first hit with Ik heb een meisje in 2010. The 2013 English-language album All of Amsterdam also appeared in book form with all lyrics and 17 drawings based on those lyrics. Since 2014, he has been touring the Netherlands with musical one-man shows in which he also reveals himself as a cabaret artist. From February 2024, he will play his new show Moederland in theatres.
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De Règâhs

(The Hague Herons) are world-famous in The Hague and environs. Their uniqueness lies in a combination of flamenco, pop, rock, world music, and lyrics full of traditional Hague humour. As they call it: 100% pure flamingo. They'd rather not mention "Hague dialect"—just sensitive, hilarious lyrics and up-to-date tales. During theatrical performances, De Règâhs tell their own story in words and music. Reality and fiction blend seamlessly, and there are plenty of laughs for those who get it. The group has also been discovered nationally, with rave reviews in newspapers such as De Volkskrant and interviews and performances on popular TV talk shows and radio programmes. In 2014 De Règâhs released their sixth "long-play CD": Règâh Love. The title is clearly a play on one of the biggest Dutch pop hits ever: "Radar Love" by Golden Earring. This song, in re-Règâhed style, is also on the CD. Règâh Love reflects the group's appreciation of music and bands from the Hague area, including tracks by Anouk, Q65, De Kraaien, Livin' Blues, Tee Set, Harrie Jekkers, and much more.
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