José Eduardo Agualusa offers a new, non-Western perspective on colonial rule and its impact on the present day. They discuss the role that Western domination and resistance to it play in their work and in our current times. The discussion was moderated by Andrew Makkinga. Agualusa read fragments of his work.

In his latest novel, Master of Drums, José Eduardo Agualusa rewrites the colonial history of his country. Angola, which originally consisted of several kingdoms, experienced prolonged colonial rule by the Portuguese. In his novel, Agualusa rewrites the history of the kingdom of Bailundo, in the central highlands where the author himself comes from. That kingdom offered prolonged resistance to the Portuguese but was eventually annexed by Portugal in 1902. In Agualusa's version of history, however, the resistance prevails and Bailundo remains independent, thanks to the use of magical drums and ancestral knowledge of nature. The novel's original title is Mestre dos batuques (2024).

New Perspectives: Rewriting Colonial History was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival by Ilonka Reintjens. Meer details bekijken

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: Mahat Arab.

Adriaan van Dis chose Karakter, the famous 1938 novel by F. Bordewijk set in Rotterdam in the years after the First World War, as his favourite book. The main character is Jacob, the illegitimate son of bailiff Dreverhaven and his maid Jacoba Katadreuffe. Jacob grows up in poverty but develops into a successful lawyer. His father constantly works against him. The book has been adapted to film several times; Mike van Diem's 1997 version won an Oscar and a Gouden Kalf.
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Students from John Dewey College and Edith Stein College in The Hague bring The Voice of the City to life with their stories. They drew inspiration from writing workshops at school and a walk through The Hague, guided by Diann van Faassen. While they present their stories on the foyer stage, live artist Matthijs Sluiter illustrated a word of sentence from their stories on a projection screen, creating a unique interaction between words and images. Because, as one student put it: ‘The city is all of us. It's not about where you come from, it's about where we are now.’ Meer details bekijken

Writers Jante Wortel and Corinne Heyrman both made their debuts with novels based on personal experiences, in which the main characters have eating disorders. They began a correspondence about the writing process and the associated choices and considerations, but also about the role of eating disorders in society; their correspondence resulted in a joint non-fiction book published in January 2026: Het ongemak van een lichaam (The Discomfort of a Body).

In it, Wortel and Heyrman interweave their insights into (autobiographical) writing on this subject with a broader analysis of society's approach to and debate about eating disorders.

Writer, programme maker and cultural journalist Teddy Tops interviewed Jante Wortel (Unfortunately, Corinne Heyrman was unable to participate) about their book, the ways in which eating disorders are (or can be) portrayed in art and culture, and the extent to which there is (sufficient) public debate on the subject. To what extent is honesty permitted and what taboos still surround the subject? Why is it so often accompanied by prejudice and clichés, sensationalism and shame?

Corinne Heyrman is a writer, theatre and podcast maker, and one of two City Writers of Eindhoven. In her debut novel Het begin en zijn oneindigheid (The Beginning and Its Infinity, 2022), Marcel ends up with a depression in the psychiatric hospital where his granddaughter also stayed years earlier in the eating disorders ward.

Jante Wortel is a writer of short stories, essays, and novels. Her first novel, Weerlicht (2022), is a powerful debut about the suffocating dynamics of a family and the question of how to help someone who is compulsively destroying themselves with an eating disorder. Her second novel, Ik, de ander (Me, the Other, 2025), slowly but surely draws you into the quicksand of a toxic relationship.

Teddy Tops is a writer, programme maker and cultural journalist. She is the artistic director of Mensen Zeggen Dingen, the spoken word platform for the Netherlands, Belgium and Curaçao. She creates programmes and MCs at Oerol, Lowlands and Theaterfestival Boulevard, among others, and founded the queer art collective Trek Iets Leuks Uit and the queer art club night Jezabel. Her debut novel Egelskop was published in 2025.

The Discomfort of a Body: Living with an Eating Disorder (Het ongemak van een lichaam: leven met een eetstoornis) was compiled for the Writers Unlimited Festival by Jet Steinz. Meer details bekijken

Writers tells 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: Lin An Phoa.

Pelumi Adejumo chose Dictee, a 1982 book by Korean American author Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Considered to be Cha's magnum opus, the book, a genre-bending poetry collection, focuses on several women: the Korean revolutionary Yu Gwan Soon, Joan of Arc, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Demeter and Persephone, Cha's mother Hyun Soon Huo, and Cha herself. All these women are linked by their struggles and the way that nations have affected and twisted their lives. Meer details bekijken

The South Korean poet Kim Hyesoon is one of the most influential contemporary poets in the world. She read from her poetry, including newly translated work from her latest collection Synchronized Sea Anemone. This book from 2025, that can be considered a departure from her famous 'Death trilogy', contains a note to her readers, in which she writes: ‘I used to write poems filled with pain. Then, as if doused with cold water, I thought I must write differently. These are those poems.’

Kim Hyesoon was interviewed about this search for a different kind of writing and about her work and life by Mia You, who has translated work by Kim Hyesoon to English. As a tribute, poets Don Mee Choi and Simone Atangana Bekono read from their own work. Don Mee Choi has translated Kim Hyesoon's work for many years; Simone Antangana Bekono's collection Marshmallow was deeply influenced by her writing and thinking.

Kim Hyesoon published her first poems in 1979 and was one of the first women to have her work included in the literary magazine Munhak kwa jisŏng (Literature and Intellect), which led the resistance against the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. Since the 1990s, her work has gained increasing recognition and she has received numerous awards. In her experimental work, she explores the complex existence of women who are grandmothers, mothers and daughters in the context of Korea's highly patriarchal society.

Many of Kim Hyesoon's poems have been translated from Korean into English by the Korean-American poet Don Mee Choi, including Kim's books Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers (2008); All the Garbage of the World, Unite! (2011); Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream (2014), I'm OK, I'm Pig! (2014), Autobiography of Death (2018), Phantom Pain Wings (2019). Her collections If the Earth Dies, Whom Will the Moon Circle? (2022) and Synchronized Sea Anemone (2025) have not yet been translated.

Don Mee Choi is a poet and translator. She was born in Seoul, educated in the United States, and now lives in Berlin. Choi's works of documentary poetry draw on family history as well as archival material to interrogate "the overlapping histories of Korea and the U.S." In addition to her own poetry, she is a prolific translator to English of modern Korean women poets, including several books by Kim Hyesoon. Choi is the author of The Morning News Is Exciting (2010), Petite Manifesto (2014), Hardly War (2016), DMZ Colony (2020), which won the National Book Award, and Mirror Nation (2024). In it, a Mercedes wheel rim rolling down the street evokes memories of her father on the Glienicke Bridge between Berlin and Potsdam. This memory, in turn, becomes a catalyst for delving into the violent, colonial and neo-colonial history of South Korea.

Simone Atangana Bekono is a writer of prose and poetry. Her collection of poems and letters titled Hoe de eerste vonken zichtbaar waren (How the first sparks became visible, 2018)was awarded the Poëziedebuutprijs Aan Zee. Her debut novel Confrontaties (Confrontations) was highly praised and won the Hebban Debut Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize, and the Best Book for Young Adults Award. In 2022, Simone wrote the novella Zo hoog de zon stond for the Brabants Boek Present. In 2024, her second poetry collection Marshmallow was awarded with the Jan Campert-prijs.

Mia You is a poet, translator of Korean poetry, and lecturer at the Department of English at Utrecht University. She grew up in the United States and lives in Utrecht. Motherhood, birth, heredity, and the racialization of everyday life form the common thread in her balanced lyrical work. She is the author of the (English-language) poetry collection I, Too, Dislike It (1913 Press, 2016) and has published in De Gids, Artforum, Boston Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. In 2024, her second poetry collection, Festival, was published in English by Belladonna Press and in Dutch by Uitgeverij Chaos. She currently works on the translation of Kim Hyesoon's collection Synchronized Sea Anemone (2025).

'When my body is the entire world' - the poetry of Kim Hyesoon was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival by Maarten van der Graaff. Meer details bekijken

Meet up in the heart of the festival with a drink and a bite to eat. Host and DJ Francis Broekhuijsen created the right atmosphere with his virtual Writers Unlimited Radio Show, and guided you through the extensive festival programme. You were welcome to request your favourite song to be played.

De Vries Van Stockum's bookshop was open all evening and richly stocked with books or cd's by festival authors and artists; you could also meet them there and have their work signed:

These authors signed their books at the boookshop:
21:15-21:45 José Eduardo Agualusa
21:20-21:50 Jante Wortel
22:15-22:35 Kim Hyesoon, Mia You, Don Mee Choi, Simone Atangana Bekono
22:35-22:50 Maxime García Diaz, Sheena Patel
23:20-23:45 Pelumi Adejumo, Staci Bu Shea, Pamela Sneed, Alejandra Ortiz

Together with the Silent Eclectic Disco Show by The Hague's DJ Frank van Es, we danced into the late night from 23:15. Didn't want to dance but have a nice chat? Then there was plenty of room for that. No obligations, do as you like...that was the credo of the Writers Unlimited Festival heart! Meer details bekijken

How do we construct truth in an age where everything is digitally shaped: identity, desire, power, intimacy? If the internet is our mirror room, which reflection do we still believe? We explore how identity is built, distorted and devoured online. What happens to intimacy when algorithms are listening in? What remains of a city, a body, a relationship, when everything becomes a feed? A sharp, vulnerable and sometimes ironic dive into the friction between our real lives and the version we show.

In this conversation with Daniëlle Zawadi, writer Sheena Patel (UK) and poet Maxime Garcia Diaz (NL) examined how digital spaces guide our gaze: how we curate ourselves, how we project others, how desire clings to images that are never entirely ours. The programme zoomed in on the tension between what we share and what we conceal, between the control we think we have and the logic of systems that guide us. What does closeness mean in a world that is always online but rarely truly present?

Real Or Not Real - The Reality of Virtual Lives was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2026 by Mojdeh Feili. Meer details bekijken

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: Lin An Phoa.

Hanna Bervoets chose A LIttle Life by Hanya Yanagahira. Her 2015 novel became an international bestseller. Four college friends are finding their way in New York: the charming actor Willem, the eccentric artist JB, the talented architect Malcolm, and Jude St. Francis. Jude is withdrawn, intelligent and enigmatic, and his friends know better than to ask questions about his past. They try to ease his pain, but as the decades pass, the question arises as to whether Jude can ever be freed from the demons of his past. Meer details bekijken

What happens when poetry falls into the hands of an actor and a musician? When words are not only read, but also embodied, moulded and reborn?

In How do you carry a poem? we interwove performance, music and language. This created a new embodiment of a poem. Wasim Arslan, music artist, and Robbie Wallin, actor, theatre maker and stand-up comedian, interpreted the same poem from Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by poet Warsan Shire, and performed it.

They also discussed their choices and experiences with moderator Sophia Blyden. Together, they sought the answer to the question of how to wear a poem. It promised to be a surprising, intimate and powerful experience.

Wasim Arslan is a singer and songwriter. His soulful voice is known for reaching people’s hearts. Having faced the atrocities of war, Wasim has experienced both the light and the dark side of life. His poetry and melodies speak of these two forces. Wasim’s music is diverse, ranging from ballads to dance music, acoustic, electronic, traditional and folk music.

Robbie Wallin is a versatile artist and theatre maker. His theatre solo Bakfiets was a show about issues such as racism, gentrification, police violence and politics. Together with Luan Buleshkaj and Guilliano Herdigein, he performed the show Godenzonen, a mix of music, cabaret, comedy and spoken word. Robbie directed a group of young actors in Donnie, a raw retelling by Poldertheater and the Dutch National Opera of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Daniëlle Zawadi is a writer of prose, spoken word, theatre pieces and columns. She performs on theatre stages, publishes in literary magazines, and made her one-woman show Alstublieft, Zawadi (Please, Zawadi), followed by Ondervonden (2023). Her stories are often about what it means to be a a second-generation bicultural GenZ-er, her Congolese roots, and friendship. In 2025, she published Ik kan eigenlijk niet op deze manier werken (I Can't Really Work This Way), a collection of recitation texts dedicated to the FreePalestine, FreeSudan, and FreeCongo movements.

Sophia Blyden is a writer, poet, curator at Oerol and Mensen Zeggen Dingen, and editor of literary magazine Tirade. Her prose and poetry explore themes such as loneliness, power relationships, and her Caribbean roots. In her debut collection Dobberen (2024), the development from girl to woman is central to various storylines.

How do you carry a poem? was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival by Ilonka Reintjens and Daniëlle Zawadi. Meer details bekijken

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: Mahat Arab.

Zoya Miari chose Edith Eva Eger's The Choice: Embrace the Possible as her favourite book. Eger was sixteen when she was deported to Auschwitz in 1944. She was forced to dance for Mengele. Her fearlessness helped her and her sister survive. In The Choice, she shares her war memories and remarkable stories of those she has helped as a psychologist to free themselves from their own thoughts, and how everyone can ultimately choose freedom.
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This Writers Unlimited program Old and New Stereotypes: Rewriting Aristotle’s Ageism brought together several authors who have been invited to rewrite a section of Aristotle’s rhetorics on age.

What stereotypes about age did they like to create or debunk? Given their own writing and positionality – inspired by disability experiences, sexual fantasies, coming of age narratives, queer and trans ancestral work –, what did they find exciting about the young, the old or the prime and why?

Was the categorization of life phases according to a linear timeline useful at all, or was it merely a bad habit to break? Following Aristotle’s confident and crass tone: what ageist stereotypes did they like to reproduce or erase and what experiences and ideas did they celebrate?

To start Old and New Stereotypes: Rewriting Aristotle’s Ageism, Simon(e) van Saarloos, author of the book Against Ageism - A Queer Manifesto, introduced the theme of ageism and explains the prompts of Aristotle and the importance and fun of rewriting an old text from 350 BCE. The invited contributors read or performed a newly written text.

In 350 BCE, Aristotle wrote on the characteristics of the young, the old, and those in the prime of their life. His writing is confident and full of stereotypes, defining with certainty what the young, the old, the prime offer and lack because of their age and life phase.

Stylistically, Aristotle wrote short statements, such as about the old: “And they are cowardly and fearful ahead of time about everything; for their disposition is the opposite of the young. They are chilled, but the young are hot, so old age has prepared the way for cowardice; for fear is a kind of chilling.”

Using age to categorize people and their behavior is a long-standing tradition. Age stereotypes get waged depending on one’s political and cultural context and the positionality of the speaker. At age 49, Aristotle declared that 49 is when someone (a man) reaches their mind’s prime. The years 30 to 35 are understood as a person’s physical prime.

On being young, old and beyond was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival by Simon(e) van Saarloos. Meer details bekijken

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: Lin An Phoa.

Shantie Singh chose Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake as her favourite book. This debut novel tells the moving story of two generations of Indians trying to find their place in a new world. Lahiri (1967) was born in London to Bengali parents and grew up in the United States. The novel was successfully adapted for film by Mira Nair in 2006. Meer details bekijken

The Soulslammer unleashed his best beats on your headphones and got you into a deliciously swinging groove. Dance along at the Silent Disco! Meer details bekijken