My Voice, My Body - Opening Program on Freedom of Expression

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In My Voice, My Body writer Lisa Weeda gave the opening speech and internationally acclaimed author Leïla Slimani expressed her views on the meaning of freedom of expression. Palestinian-Ukrainian peace ambassador and storyteller Zoya Miari, representing the writers' organisation PEN International, also contributed. Jan van Zanen, Mayor of The Hague, opened the festival edition with a speech.

Poet and musician Robin Block performed accomponied by bassist and composer Bruno Ferro Xavier da Silva. Poet Lin An Phoa recited from her work.

The 31st edition of the festival revolved around the body in literature. With the motto Let's get physical, we delved into the way writers and poets give the body a place in their work. In a multitude of talks and performances the body was a source of desire, vulnerability, identity and resistance, among other things.

We chose this theme because the autonomy of our bodies and freedom of expression are under increasing pressure. In this edition of the festival, we invited authors who have recently written about these topics in their books. We discussed gender, violence, health, well-being, freedom and sexuality. We also celebrated the body with stories, poems, visual arts, dance and music.

In the foyer the short film Monument for Murdered Writers and Journalists 2025 was screened, a project by Theatre of Wrong Decisions, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and PEN International.

My Voice, My Body was hosted by Simone Zeefuik and compiled for Writers Unlimited by Ilonka Reintjens.


Festival tip 1: after My Voice, My Body at Theater aan het Spui, you could join the short spoken word-walk to attend festival event Mensen Zeggen Dingen x Writers Unlimited Festival at GR8 (starting at 21:30): the festive afterparty with poetry, poetry slam, prose and punchlines. In addition to Dutch artists – poets Mia You and Maxime Garcia Diaz, and minimalist electro-punk duo Mye_Taai – festival authors Kim Hyesoon (South-Korea), Pamela Sneed (USA) and Tyson Hill (Curaçao) also made their voices heard. Host and presenter: Dean Bowen.
Tickets were available from the Paard website!

Festival tip 2: Leïla Slimani also performed at the festival during the grand festival evening Friday Night Unlimited: you enjoyed the full festival experience and chose your own route through performances, readings, conversations, music and films with many authors and artists from home and abroad on four stages at Theater aan het Spui and the adjacent Filmhuis Den Haag.

NB: Authors Virginie Despentes and Pankaj Mishra were scheduled to take part in this programme, but have had to cancel her attendance.

From 22 to 25 January 2026, Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague was to be found in theatres, libraries and schools throughout the city: from Theater aan het Spui, Filmhuis Den Haag, GR8 to Theater Dakota, Curaçaohuis, the Laakkwartier, Nieuw Waldeck, Schilderswijk and Ypenburg libraries, the Institute of Social Studies and De Haagse Hogeschool. With over 100 writers, poets, spoken-word artists and musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. With readings, prose, poetry, storytelling, spoken word, author interviews, topical talks, films and music.

Information

Date and time Thursday 22 January 2026 from 19:30 to 21:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Price 10,- (up to 30 years)
7,50 (Ooievaarspas)
12,50 (DenHaagPas)
15,- (regular).

Line-up

Leïla Slimani

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

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

(1995) writes poetry and performs as a spoken word artist. In her work, she explores how language, poetry, and the stage can be welcoming spaces, with room for underrepresented perspectives. She investigates questions surrounding cultural identity, feminism, choice menus, systemic criticism, muscle memory, and self-care culture. Her poetry is an invitation to connection, softening, and change. Her texts have appeared in De Revisor and the anthology Stip op de Horizon, among others. She can be seen as both a performer and host at many cultural venues and festivals.

Go to the website of Lin An Phoa
Instagram: @linanph
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Jan van Zanen

(1961) is Mayor of The Hague since 1 July 2020. He spent his youth in Edam-Volendam in the Netherlands and completed his Law studies at the Free University of Amsterdam and Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York, USA. He then went to work as board and executive secretary for a national business association, among other positions, until 1998. Van Zanen started as a city counciler in Utrecht in 1990, then became alderman for finance, economic affairs, public space and monuments in 1998. From 2003 to 2008, he served as national chairman of the VVD Dutch political party. From July 2005 to December 2013, Van Zanen was Mayor of Amstelveen and as of January 1, 2014, Mayor of Utrecht. From June 2015 to June 2023, he was chairman of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG).
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Robin Block

(The Netherlands, 1980) is a poet and musician. His performances combine language, music and the bodily. Following his roots and family history, much of his work is related to the colonial past of the Netherlands and Indonesia, as well as the topics of belonging and displacement. His last poetry collection Handbook for the Displaced was awarded the Herman de Coninck prize and the J.C. Bloem poetry prize, and was translated into English and Indonesian. Several of his poems were screened in Manual for the Displaced, a poetry film project together with cinematographer Jeremy Flohr. Block also writes columns, teaches poetry and works as an editor for Dutch poetry magazine Awater.

Go to the website of Robin Block
Instagram: @robinblock
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Zoya Miari

(Lebanon, 1999) is a Palestinian-Ukrainian Peace Ambassador and Storyteller. Her life journey has given her a unique perspective, having experienced two wars and becoming a refugee twice. Through these experiences, she discovered the transformative power of storytelling and the ability of individuals to shape their own narratives and the world around them. To share this vision, Zoya founded Waves to Home, a global movement aimed at changing the world through personal & collective stories. She is currently writing her fi rst book, sharing her story as a message of hope and inner freedom. Zoya aspires to become a Positive Psychologist to help others create meaningful lives despite the traumas they have been through and guiding them towards healing.

Instagram: @zoyamiari
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Lisa Weeda

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

Go to the website of Lisa Weeda here
Instagram: @lisa_weeda
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Simone Zeefuik

is an Afro-Dutch writer, cultural programmer and organiser whose work revolves around everyday life, joy and social justice. She focuses on imagination as access, on (de)spectacularising Blackness and on (digital) archives. Zeefuik is a programmer at the Bijlmer Parktheater in Amsterdam and a lecturer at Zawdie Sandvliet's Afro-Dutch Studies. From 2021 to 2023, she was programme director of the temporary master's programme Blacker Blackness at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, which she initiated. Her work focuses on imagination as a method to decolonise, decode and liberate representations of Black people and Blackness in art and design.

Go to the website of Simone Zeefuik
Instagram: @lazeefuik
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Bruno Ferro Xavier da Silva

(Portugal, 1977) is a musician and illustrator. He took piano lessons, studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy and eventually preferred the bass guitar. He uses it in combination with a bow, samples and electronic effects. Bruno has performed solo and with many bands and artists at home and abroad. He has collaborated with artists such as Elliott Sharp, Pierre Bastien, Jack Parow, DJ Grazzhoppa's Big Band, Akira Sakata, Kato Hideki, Niti Ranjan Biswas and Oene Van Geel. In 2011, he won the Jur Neasens Music Prize audience award with his band Ventriloquism. He played at the Lowlands festival, was the opening act for Tricky and Bush in Rotterdam and toured the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Japan.
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20 May 2026

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