Writers Fest

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A festive program moderated by Hassnae Bouazza and built around the presentation of the Jan Campert Prizes, the literary awards of the City of The Hague. We celebrate Dutch literature with a variety of performances by writers, poets and musicians. 

Belgian author and poet Carmien Michels opened Writers Fest 2018 by reciting one of her poems. Then Arie Storm, novelist and critic, offered his take on 'The State of Dutch Literature'.

Before Joris Wijsmuller, alderman for civic development, living, sustainability and culture with the City of The Hague, handed out the prizes to the winners, the audience determined which of the three nominated high schoolers will win the Young Campert Prize for a young poet from The Hague. The students presented their own poems, written during poetry worshops at school.

Marije Langelaar (1978) received the Jan Campert Prize for her poetry collection Vonkt! (Sparks!) Her laudation was performed by dancer and choreographer Uri Eugenio, known for his appearances with Scapino and LeineRoebana and in So You Think You Can Dance.

Jeroen Olyslaegers (1967) received the F. Bordewijk Prize for his novel WIL. He was honoured by historian, jurist, lecturer and rector of the University of Antwerp Herman Van Goethem and noted actress Alejandra Theus, who performed an excerpt from WIL.

The Nienke van Hichtum Prize 2017 was awarded to Annet Schaap (1965) for Lampje (Little Lamp); she was serenated by tango guitarist and contrabassist Kay Sleking.

The afternoon culminated with the awarding of the Constantijn Huygens Prize to Hans Tentije for his entire poetic works. Tentije was musically honoured by cellist Ernst Reijseger and essayist Cyrille Offermans made a celebratory speech.

This event is a collaboration between Winternachten festival, the Jan Campert Foundation / Literatuurmuseum. Program in Dutch.

Information

Date and time Sunday 21 January 2018 from 14:00 to 16:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1

Line-up

Hans Tentije

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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