Opening Night: Free the Word!

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On opening night, the spotlight is on freedom of speech.The Sino-British writer Jung Chang knows what it means to be unable to speak freely in one's country. Years after she left Communist China, her world-famous book Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China was banned there. Tonight she delivers the Free the Word! keynote speech. With the following presentation of the prestigious Oxfam Novib PEN Awards, the festival honours contemporary authors who seek and propagate truth at the risk of their freedom and lives. The award-winners are the Turkish writer and journalist Can Dundar (who is now in prison in Turkey and will be represented by his wife Dilek Dundar), the Eritrean poet and songwriter Amanuel Asrat, who will be represented by Habtom Yohannes, and the Egyptian poet Omar Hazek. He would have been present in The Hague to receive the award, but was stopped on his way to The Netherlands at Cairo airport by the authorities. His fellow-countryman writer Alaa Al Aswany will represent him. After the ceremony, Lex Bohlmeijer will lead a discussion on how good intentions can founder when we raise issues of injustice, such as censorship. How can we really help threatened writers? And what is the point of good intentions when they have the opposite effect? Musical interventions by musician-in-residence Dick van der Harst switch up this English-language event.

Information

Date and time Thursday 14 January 2016 from 20:00 to 22:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1

Line-up

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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Toine Heijmans

(Nijmegen, NL, 1969) is a historian, writer, and a reporter and columnist with De Volkskrant newspaper. As a reporter he specialized in minority issues and asylum seekers. Heijmans debuted as a novelist in 2011 with Op Zee (At Sea), about a father who sails from Denmark to the Netherlands with his daughter. The book was adapted for television and the French translation took 2013's Prix Médicis étranger, previously won by the likes of Milan Kundera, Orhan Pamuk and Philip Roth. Pristina was published in 2014, which pits the rigidity of a complacent repatriation officer against the individual suffering of an engaging, Dutchified, Kosovo-Serbian asylum seeker. This past 30 September he received the French Order of Arts and Letters. Heijmans has also written non-fiction, such as 2007's La vie Vinex (Suburban Life), in which he describes life in the Dutch suburb of IJburg. It was preceded  by 2005's De asielmachine (The Asylum Machine) and 2003's Allochtonië (Immigrant Central). He has also written scripts for the TV series De Fractie (The Sitting Members).

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Lex Bohlmeijer

(Oost-Souburg, NL, 1959) studied Dutch and Literary Theory in Leiden. He spent several years as a professional dancer. Later he developed into a versatile radio-maker at the NCRV broadcaster, including the successful "Casa Luna" programme. He now hosts two programmes on Radio 4: "Passaggio" (weekdays at 7 p.m.) and the talk show "Diskotabel." He also works in theatre as a dramaturge and writer. He is increasingly active as a presenter of concerts, conferences and debates. Every Saturday, he publishes an interview with an inspiring special guest in De Correspondent online daily.
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Jung Chang

(China, 1952) became world-famous with Wild Swans, which sold more than ten million copies. It tells the history of China from the perspective of her own, her mother's, and her grandmother's lives. Chang became an international celebrity but her book was banned in China. As a child of senior party cadres she enjoyed many priviledges, but her family lost everything when her parents came into conflict with Mao. They were rehabilitated after his death, and Chang became the first Chinese person to earn a PhD in England. After writing Wild Swans, she spent more than a decade working with her husband, Irish historian Jon Halliday, on a bulky biography of Mao Zedong. In 2013 she published The Empress Dowager Cixi: the concubine who launched modern China. It portrays the often-criticized Cixi, who ruled China from 1861-1908, as a smart proto-feminist who guided China into the modern world but was curtailed by the conservative imperial bureaucracy.
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Renate Dorrestein

(Amsterdam, NL, 1954) wanted to "shake up the world" as a journalist for magazines like Panorama, Opzij, Viva and De Tijd. Her successful debut novel Buidenstaanders (Outsiders) was published in 1983. Her international breakthrough came with 1998's Een hart van steen (A Heart of Stone), which was translated in 15 countries. Dorrestein was called the first Dutch "female gothic" writer because of typical gothic themes like suppressed memories, family secrets, and ghostly apparitions. In her world, evil usually lurks close to home. The balance of power within families is one of her favourite subjects. Her life and work have been strongly influenced by her sister's 1979 suicide, and by the chronic fatigue syndrome from which she suffered for a decade. A report of her correspondence with the Chinese dissident Liu Di, Penvriendin in China (Penpal in China), was published in 2015. Dorrestein was one of the founders of the Anna Bijns Foundation, a biannual prize honouring "the female literary voice.". She died in 2018.
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Guy Danel

(Belgium) is a violist and cellist. He began his studies with the famous violist Pierre Penassou. Then he performed with various string ensembles, especially in the classical arena. As a member of his own group, Quatuor Danel, he played on pianist Kris Defoort's Conversations/Conservations album. He teaches chamber music at the Brussels Conservatory.
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Dick van der Harst

(1959) is a composer, arranger and musician whose work blends many influences, including jazz, classical and folk music from all corners of the world. He was composer-in-residence of LOD Music Theatre in Ghent from 1989 to 2013. Among other projects, he created musical theatre productions with actor and director Koen De Sutter and Alain Platel of Les Ballets C de la B. His own folk fanfare Banda Azufaifo and the heartwarming House of Hidden Tunes I & II combine various musical styles, from Mozart to Camarón de la Isla. In 2001 he won the Louis Paul Boon prize for “his social engagement and his bond with mankind, evident in his whole oeuvre.” Three years later he was awarded the Grand Theatre Festival Prize. Van der Harst was the civic composer of Ghent in 2007 and 2008. He has made various CDs, including ones featuring Christmas and New Year songs from different cultures. At the festival, he will play and create music as musician-in-residence, both making and choosing music for various programmes.
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Reinier Voet

(Amsterdam, NL, 1962) studied jazz guitar at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He admires Django Reinhardt but is also inspired by contemporary guitarists like Jim Hall, Jimmy Raney, Pat Martino, and Boulou Ferre, as well as Eastern European (gypsy) music. Voet has played in a number of his own ensembles (Cravat Quartet with Hady Mouallem and Deux-Creme-Deux with guitarist Henk de Geus) and performed with guitarists Jimmy Rosenberg and Fapy Lafertin, klezmer clarinettist Marcel Salomon, and artist/violinist Armando. Together with Dick van der Harst, he worked with the musical theatre troupe Het Muziek LOD. His biggest current project is Reinier Voet and Pigalle44, a collaboration with guitarist Jan Brouwer.
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Farah Karimi

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

shall be accepting the Oxfam Novib/PEN Award on behalf of the Eritrean poet and songwriter Amanuel Asrat. Habton Yohannes is a Dutch journalist, writer and lecturer of Eritrean origin. In addition to working in radio and television, he writes for Dutch and foreign newspapers. He is also an activist for peace and human rights. He keeps on putting the violation of human rights in Eritrea on the agenda of the Dutch parliament, the European parliament, the African Union and the United Nations. He frequently gives lectures about the situation. During the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea (1998 – 2000) he called, via the IKON radio, for Eritreans and Ethiopians to join in protest against the war. He interrupted his work to write a ‘letter of piece’ addressed to the late prime minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi and the president of Eritrea, Mr. Isaias Afwerki. The letter was signed by archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nigerian president Olesegun Obsanjo, former minister of defense of the United States, Robert MacNamara and more than 30 other international personalities and laureates.
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Manon Uphoff

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a Dutch writer, screenwriter and visual artist. She made her debut in 1995 with the collection of short stories Begeerte (Desire), which was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize and the ECI Prize. The title story was awarded the Rabobank Spring Prize for Literature. Her first novel Gemis (1997) was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize. Her most recent book, Vallen is als vliegen (Falling is Like Flying, 2019), was shortlisted for both the 2019 Bookspot Literature Prize and the 2020 Libris Literature Prize. The novel was named the best Dutch-language novel of 2019 by NRC Handelsblad and Humo. Uphoff was editor of the literary magazine De Revisor and board member and president of PEN Netherlands. As a screenwriter, she wrote the feature film screenplay Een Groot Geweld (Topkapi Films).
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Dilek Dundar

represents her husband, the Turkish writer, journalist and filmmaker Can Dundar. He is one of Turkey’s most famous media personalities, and is currently in remand due to espionage charges. Dundar, who is editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, was arrested last November together with his editor-in-chief colleague in Ankara. Dundar has written for several newspapers, produced many television programs and published over twenty books. Right before his arrest, his newspaper had just received an award from Reporters Without Borders for publicly defending and supporting press freedom.
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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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Alaa al Aswani

(Cairo, 1957) is a writer, dentist, and one of the founders of the opposition movement Kefaya that helped launch the Egyptian Revolution. He had his international breakthrough with The Yacoubian Building, a novel about the lives of the inhabitants of an apartment block in Cairo. Although it paints a disconcerting picture of Egyptian society, it remained a bestseller in that country for years. It was also made into a film and a TV series. Al Aswani's writing style is quick and witty, with short chapters full of action, atmosphere and drama. His 2004 novella Friendly Fire, about a young man highly critical of corruption in Egypt, was banned. His newspaper columns about political developments in Egypt have been collected in On the state of Egypt. The Dutch translation of his latest novel will be presented at the 2015 Winternachten festival: De automobielclub (The Automobile Club of Egypt), about Cairo in the late 1940s, when Egypt was a British protectorate.
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