Saturday Night Unlimited

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Get inspired by writer interviews, discussions on topical subjects and the festival theme Human Voices, stories, poems, spoken word, films and music! During Saturday Night Unlimited you chose from some 20 events on five stages at Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. In the foyer you were welcome for drinks, talks, performances and at the in-house book store. Each event lasts between 20 and 60 minutes and is in English or Dutch.

Tickets for Saturday Night Unlimited
A Saturday Night Unlimited ticket gave you access on Saturday evening, 20 January 2024 to all Writers Unlimited festival programming in Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag.

Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 from 20:00 to 00:30 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui & Filmhuis Den Haag
Price Early bird price until 26 December €25
Regular €30
All up to 30 years / Ooievaarspas €15
DenHaagPas €27,50

Tijdschema 20 January

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Time Location
20:00 - 20:55 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 The Voice - In search of the character's soul
20:00 - 20:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Garbage In, Garbage Out: Poetry event
20:00 - 20:20 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of My Life by Aminatta Forna
20:15 - 21:15 Theater aan het Spui - foyer The Voice of the City - Very Short Stories
20:30 - 20:50 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of My Life with Emilienne Malfatto
21:00 - 21:20 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of My Life with Ellen Deckwitz
21:00 - 22:50 Filmhuis - zaal 2 Film: The Kyiv Files (Pre-premiere)
21:05 - 21:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Everything You Never Asked About Adoption
21:10 - 22:05 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Chat GPT - The New Bestseller Author
21:15 - 23:55 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Writers Unlimited Festivalcafé
21:30 - 21:50 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of My Life with Marja Pruis
22:00 - 22:20 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of My Life with Astrid Lampe
22:10 - 23:10 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Picture This -- Words Versus Images -- with Sacha Bronwasser and Emilienne Malfatto
22:15 - 23:15 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Old Ties, New Connections: A trip via the Indonesian past to the present
22:30 - 22:50 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of My Life with Tash Aw
23:00 - 23:20 Filmhuis - Studio A Book of My Life with Celeste Ng
23:00 - 23:35 Filmhuis - zaal 2 Artificial Intelligence - Short-Film Compilation

Line-up

Annelies Verbeke

(Belgium, 1976) writes novels, film scripts and plays. Her debut novel Slaap! (Sleep!) was published in 2003, followed by three novels (Reus, Vissen redden, Dertig dagen); four collections of short stories; a collection of journalism pieces, Wakker (Awake, together with photographer Charlie De Keersmaecker); and the graphic novella Tirol Inferno, written in iambic pentameter and rhyme and co-created with illustrator Klaas Verplancke. Her work has been translated into 26 languages and won various prizes, such as the F. Bordewijk Prize, the Opzij Literature Prize, the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize, and the NRC Handelsblad Readers Prize. She has also written several plays and film scripts, and worked with various theatre companies, especially Rotterdam-based Wunderbaum. In 2023, she published short stories in Koude soep (Cold Soup) and JIJ (You), an anthology of you-stories. January 2024 will see the premiere of Wunderbaum speel live (online gaat het mis), a theatre production by Wunderbaum with a stage text by Annelies Verbeke.
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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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Daniëlle Zawadi

(1999) is a writer of prose, spoken word, theatre pieces and columns. She performs throughout the Netherlands, publishes in literary magazines, and made her theatrical debut with the one-woman show Alstublieft, Zawadi (Please, Zawadi), followed by Ondervonden (Filed Under, 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. She is also a curator of literary programmes. In her home town The Hague, she founded Het Zwarte Schaap (The Black Sheep), a platform for word art and spoken literature that participated in the 2025 Writers Unlimited Festival with presentations and spoken-word performances.

Go to the website of Daniëlle Zawadi
Instagram: @daniellezawadi
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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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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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Ilonka Reintjens

is a producer and project coordinator for literary events. Before this, she worked as publisher and editor at various publishing houses. She currently is business and artistic leader of the literary festival Meet Me at the Lighthouse on the Dutch island Schiermonnikoog, and for Writers Unlimited as a program coordinator and curator for the Writers Unlimited international literary festival The Hague and the monthly Writers Series.
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Jet Steinz

(The Netherlands, 1990) is a writer and programme maker for the Writers Unlimited Festival The Hague. Together with her father, Pieter Steinz, she published Steinz. Gids voor de wereldliteratuur (Steinz: Guide to world literature, 2005). In this reference book, the writers give an overview of narrative fiction including 416 writers, 104 masterpieces, 52 bookwebs, 52 literary maps, 26 themes, 26 quizzes and 26 one-book wonders. In 2016 her novel De tranen van Saar (The Tears of Saar) were published as part of the Young Adult-book series Sterren van morgen (Stars of Tomorrow). In 2019, she published P.S. Van liefdespost tot hatemail (P.S. From Love Letters to Hatemail), a collection of 150 remarkable, funny or moving letters in Dutch she found in archives. Together with her essayistic descriptions, the facsimiles tell the history of letters while also revealing a portrayal of The Netherlands through the ages.
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Astrid Lampe

(The Netherlands, 1955) is a poet. She started out as an actress but wanted to write, which resulted in the theatrical dialogue Strikken. She debuted in 1997 with the poetry volume Rib. In the meantime, she has published thirteen collections, including Zusterstad 2.0 (Sister City 2.0, 2018) en Tulpenwodka (Tulip Vodka, 2021). She flouts existing poetic conventions in her work, omitting punctuation, leaving words unfinished and switching between idioms. When it comes to her unorthodox approach, Lampe relates most closely to visual artists. She received the Ida Gerhardt Poetry Prize for her anthology Spuit je ralkleur (2005). Lampe regularly performs and supervises students of the Image and Language Department of the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. She wins the P.C. Hooft Prize for poetry in 2024; the jury states she is 'one of the most idiosyncratic and generous poets of our time.'
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Kees van Kooten

(The Netherlands, 1941) is a satirist and writer. Already in his school days he formed a cabaret duo with Wim de Bie, who died in 2023. They gained great fame, influence and popularity as satirists in The Netherlands, first on the radio and, as of 1965, on TV. From the mid-1960s onward, Van Kooten published works such as Treitertrends, short satirical pieces in the Haagse Post, and bestselling short-story collections. The successful collections Modermismen and Meer modermismen followed in the 1980s. In 1998, Van Kooten stopped appearing on television. His children's book Het Schaampaard (The Shameless Horse) was published in 1999. The anthologies Karrevrachten pennevruchten (2017) and Sterk verdund (2018) are describe as "witty and pointed, with an insane pleasure in language, touching and awkward in doses, but above all, irresistibly funny."
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Ellen ten Damme

(The Netherlands, 1967) sings, plays music, writes, acts, dances, composes, and has a preference for unconventional artists like Marlene Dietrich, Nina Hagen and Kate Bush. She is a nationally recognized singer (from rock and roll to opera) and actress, and also very successful in Germany. She has appeared in various Dutch films and series and recorded several English-language rock albums. Her Dutch-language album Durf jij? (Do You Dare?) is a collaboration with the writer Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. She has had international success with soundtracks for TV shows such as Tatort, Caspar the Friendly Ghost and Power Rangers. She has written columns for the Volkskrant daily newspaper and created large musical-theatre shows such as Paris-Berlin, Casablanca and Barock.
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Simone Atangana Bekono

(The Netherlands, 1991) is a writer of prose and poetry. She has written columns and essays for various newspapers and magazines and is an editor at the literary magazine De Revisor. In 2016, she graduated from the Creative Writing program at ArtEZ with a collection of poems and letters titled Hoe de eerste vonken zichtbaar waren (How the first sparks became visible). In 2018, the collection 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 Book Present. In 2024, her second poetry collection Marshmallow was awarded with the Jan Campert-prijs.
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Anjet Daanje

(The Netherlands, 1965) writes novels, stories, poems and scripts. In 2023 she won the Constantijn Huygens Prize for her body of work. Previously in 2022 and 2023, she had won several Dutch literary prizes for her novel Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris (The Song of the Stork and Dromedary). At age 21, while studying maths at the University of Utrecht, she wrote her first novel Pianomuziek in de regen (Piano Music in the Rain), followed by five further novels. In 2000, her novel De herinnerde soldaat (The Remembered Soldier) won great acclaim, and The Song of the Stork and Dromedary has since become a bestseller. The book has an ingenious narrative structure inspired by the life of Emily Brontë and her novel Wuthering Heights: the story of Daantje's protagonist Eliza begins in 1847 and ends in our era.
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Connie Palmen

(The Netherlands, 1955) is always exploring the boundaries between fact and fiction. She shot to fame with her first novel De wetten (The Laws, 1991). Her two subsequent novels, De vriendschap (Friendship, 1995) and I.M. (1998), also became bestsellers. She went on to publish Geheel de uwe (Sincerely Yours, 2004), Lucifer (2007) and Logboek van een onbarmhartig jaar (Logbook of a Merciless Year, 2011). Palmen has written several collections of essays, such as Een kleine filosofie van de moord (A Brief Philosophy of Murder, 2004), Het geluk van de eenzaamheid (The Joy of Loneliness, 2009) and Het drama van de afhankelijkheid (The Drama of Dependence, 2017). Many of her novels are based on events in her own life; her essays are exceptionally narrative. In 2023, she published Voornamelijk vrouwen (Mainly Women), personal essays about eleven women and one man who shape their lives in idiosyncratic ways. Palmen engages with them, challenges them, and discovers differences and similarities with her own life. Her multi-award-winning work is also internationally successful and has been translated into twenty languages.
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Alma Mathijsen

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a writer. In 2006 she debuted with Binnen spelen (Playing Inside), in which her namesake character Alma has sexual encounters with famous people such as former Dutch prime minister Balkenende and Bert from Sesame Street. Alles is Carmen (Everything is Carmen) followed in 2011, about a girl who has no purpose in life until she falls in love. In 2014 her biographically-tinged novel De grote goede dingen (Big Good Things) was published, about the daughter of an anarchist musician who travels to Israel to find out who her late father was. Her novel Vergeet de meisjes (Forget the Girls) was published in 2017; in her autobiographical Bewaar de zomer (Keep the Summer, 2020, longlisted for the Libris Literature Prize) she candidly writes about loss, growing up, language and love. Her new novel will be published in spring 2024.
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Mirjam van Hengel

(The Netherlands, 1967) is a writer and programme maker for ILFU, among others. In 2014, her book Hoe mooi alles. Leo en Tineke Vroman, een liefde in oorlogstijd (How beautiful everything is. Leo and Tineke Vroman, a love in wartime) was published, followed in 2018 by her biography of Remco Campert, Een knipperend ogenblik (A fleeting moment), which was awarded the Henriëtte de Beaufort Prize. Dola, about writer and dancer Dola de Jong, was published in 2022. Van Hengel was an editor at Uitgeverij Van Oorschot and Uitgeverij Querido for many years. She has edited numerous collected works and poetry anthologies and writes for De Volkskrant, among others. Her most personal book, Ganzentijd (Goose Time), about her father and herself as his daughter, was recently published.

Go to the website of Mirjam van Hengel
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Ennatu Domingo

(Ethiopia, 1996) debuted in 2022 with her biographical story Burnt Eucalyptus Wood: On Origins, Language and Identity. At age 7 she came to Barcelona as an adoptee but never forgot her early years in Ethiopia. Her book is full of loving memories yet also shows the socio-economic realities. She impressively depicts the search for connection that many adopted and migrant children know so well. After university studies in political science, international conflict and security, she completed internships at the International Crisis Group (ICG) in Nairobi and at the European Parliament in the field of relations between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. She currently works as a Policy Officer for the think tank European Center for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Maastricht.
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Lidewijde Paris

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a writer and journalist. She studied Dutch Language and Literature at Utrecht University. She then started working as a journalist for the Dutch daily NRC. She later worked as a publisher at publishing houses such as Querido, Ailantus and Nieuw Amsterdam. In 2016, Paris founded De Lees!ambassade (The Reading Embassy) to promote literary reading. Since 2017, she has also worked as a radio presenter and since 2018 as a book reviewer with Dutch broadcasters. At the Filmhuis Den Haag, she regularly presents Hoe lees ik een film? (How Do I Read a Film?). She published Hoe lees ik? (How Do I Read?, an accessible book explaining literary tricks), Hoe lees ik korte verhalen? (How Do I Read Short Stories?) and Een gedicht is ook maar een ding (A Poem is Just a Thing).
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Corrie van Binsbergen

(The Netherlands, 1957) is a composer and guitarist who has headlined several bands since the mid-1980s. She plays in various configurations at major music and jazz festivals both in and outside of the Netherlands. In 1999 she won the Boy Edgar Prize. Literature, stories and poetry are imporant sources of inspiration for her work. In 2003 she began working with writer Remco Campert for her Schrijvers in Concert (Writers in Concert) and another program, Brokkenbal, during Dutch Book Week, followed by many more; the authors read from their works and Van Binsbergen composes and plays a musical scenario in accompaniment as a "film for the ears". Since 2021, composing is her core business; she writes music for institutions like the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, ASKO/Schönberg and the Metropole Orchestra.
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Diann van Faassen

(The Netherlands) is a poet. writing teacher, city guide and programme maker from The Hague. She gives poetry and performance workshops at schools and cultural organisations. Diann's work has been included in various anthologies and often has a link to the city of The Hague. In the time that remains, she takes you as a city guide on a poetic tour of The Hague, providing the most beautiful spots with surprising stories. For the Writers Unlimited, she guides pupils from schools in The Hague at the educational initiative De Stem van de Stad (The Voice of the City). Diann walks with pupils through The Hague and tells stories. She inspires them to write a Very Short Story about their vision of and connection with the city. Diann then introduces the pupils at their performance in the festival.

Instagram @diannvanfaassen
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Oumaima Hajri

is an interdisciplinary Moroccan-Dutch professional who uses her expertise at the intersection of technology, ethics and society. She currently holds the role of Senior International Advisor at the Dutch Personal Data Authority, where she works on AI, algorithms and European legislation. She is also engaged in decolonisation and demystification of AI at the University of Cambridge, aiming to stop the negative impact of digitalisation on society, especially vulnerable minorities. She holds a BSc in International Relations, an MSc in Data Science & Society and is a board member at Public Spaces. She is also the initiator of the Alliance Against Military AI and co-founder of the AI Better World platform.
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Shantie Singh

(The Netherlands, 1982) is an author, program maker, and moderator. Themes such as identity, diversity, women's rights, and emancipation are often central to her work. Her background is layered and connected to three continents in the countries of India, Suriname, and The Netherlands. She wrote about this in her debut novel Vervoering. This was followed by the novel De kier. In 2024, her non-fiction book Na de komma – Hindostanen en de erfenis van het kolonialisme (After the Comma – Hindustani People and the Legacy of Colonialism) was published, her plea for greater recognition and visibility of the Hindustani story in the Netherlands. This book inspired her theatre production Her (s)tories (2024-2025), an ode to the women from Hindustani migration history. In her De Dolle Kavita Talkshow, Shantie welcomes trailblazers (women, men, or anything in between) with a story that needs to be heard. She is also a member of the feministic writers collective Fixdit.

Go to the website of Shantie Singh
Instagram: @shantie.singh1
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Blue Moon

(The Netherlands, 1993) is a theatre choir from the city of Haarlem made up of about 50 men and women. They are a relaxed group, clearly as comfortable singing on the stage as on the street. Artistic director Harry Habets makes original choices from existing music and the choir interprets his compositions or arrangements -- sometimes even the work of choir members. This dynamic group brings theatrical elements to its performances, so that there's always more to experience than just the music. During Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague 2024, Blue Moon will perform part of their performance Het leven is vurrukkulluk, based on texts from Campert's novel of the same name, in the hall of the Koninklijke Schouwburg before the start of Ode aan Remco Campert.
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Benjamin Herman

is a saxophonist and one of The Netherlands’ most visible and productive jazz musicians. He has released over 50 albums as both a solo artist and as front man of his groove-orientated ensemble, New Cool Collective. His solo work varies from classic Dutch avant-garde with Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg to collaborations with Dutch poets, pop singers and hip-hop artists. Herman writes columns and presents the Soul & Jazz program on national broadcaster Radio 2 and the podcast Get In!, in which he speaks and makes music with young musicians from the world of jazz and related styles. The Benjamin Herman Quartet (that consists during Ode aan Remco Campert & Uitreiking Haagse Literatuurprijzen on 21 January 2024 of Benjamin Herman (saxophone), Thomas Poll (double bass), Timothy Banchet (piano) en Jimmi Hueting (drums) has formed the basis in his search for a recognisable and personal saxophone sound.
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Ronelda S. Kamfer

(South Africa, 1981) is one of today's most important South African authors. She writes in Cape-Afrikaans, a spoken language containing English words and slang. Her work has been translated into Dutch, French, Greek, Italian and English. Her first poetry collection Noudat Slapende Honde (Now Then Sleeping Dogs, 2008) paints a sharp picture of poverty. Santekraam (2012) contains stories in verse about a fishing village that must make way for a military site. Mammie (2017) is a loving as well as raw ode to her mother. Chinatown (2021) is typically hard-hitting. Kamfer's poems, as controlled as they are intimate and darkly humourous, tackle violence, the position of women, love and parenthood. Her first novel, Kompoun, was published in 2021. She compiled Die maan is swart (The Moon is Black, 2022), a collection of poetry by Adam Small, and has translated two of Kirsty Applebaum's Princess Minna children's books into Afrikaans.
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Celeste Ng

(USA, 1980) is coming to the Netherlands for the first time to appear at the 2024 Writers Unlimited festival. Her three novels are true page-turners. At this time, Ng is the most internationally read author with Asian roots. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), is a sensitive portait of a family of several cultures. Little Fires Everywhere (2017), an even bigger hit, was filmed featuring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington (available on Prime). Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts (2022), is about the love between mother and child and humanity in dark times, but also about the discrimination of people with an Asian background. Ng grew up in Pittsburgh and Shaker Heights (Ohio) and studied at Harvard University. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian.
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Mira Feticu

(Romania, 1973) is a writer, poet and columnist. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1993, after which she devoted herself to prose. In 2005, she moved to The Hague with her Dutch husband André. There she decided to write in Dutch rather than Romanian. In her novels, she has successfully developed a personal and candid writing style. Her publications include Lief kind van mij (My Dear Child, 2012), De ziekte van Kortjakje (Kortjakje's Illness, 2013), Tascha. De roof uit de Kunsthal (Tascha: The Robbery at the Kunsthal, 2015), Al mijn vaders en Picasso's keerzijde (All My Fathers and Picasso's Other Side, 2019), and Liefdesverklaring aan de Nederlandse taal (Declaration of Love to the Dutch Language, 2021). After the loss of André, she wrote her latest novel Gewone Hollandse jongens (Ordinary Dutch Boys, 2025) about grief, physical desire and the search for stability in the company of others. Her articles and columns appear in Tirade, De Groene Amsterdammer and Den Haag Centraal, among others.

Go to the website of Mira Feticu
Instagram: @mirafeticu
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Adriaan van Dis

(The Netherlands, 1946) grew up in a family with a past in the Dutch East Indies. He draws on these experiences in several of his works such as My Father's War (1995), Repatriated (2002) and in Naar zachtheid en een warm omhelzen (2023). Van Dis became well known via his literary television programme Here is... Adriaan van Dis (1983-1992). In addition to novels he has written novellas, travelogues, essays and plays. He presented TV documentary series and his podcast Van Dis Ongefilterd. He has received the Constantijn Huygens Award for his entire body of work. Recent publications are the collection Vijf vrolijke verhalen (2021), the novel KliFi, woede in de republiek Nederland (2022) and the essay De kolonie mept terug: over witte arrogantie en voortschrijdend inzicht: een denkoefening en leesreis (2024). During the Writers Unlimited Festival 2026, Van Dis will be the main interview guest on Saturday afternoon, 24 January, following the publication of his new book Alles voor de reis (Everything for the Journey), and on Sunday morning, 25 January, he and interviewer Simon Dikker Hupkes will record a new episode of his podcast series Van Dis Ongefilterd (Van Dis Unfiltered) live with an audience.

Go to website of Adriaan van Dis
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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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Ellen Deckwitz

(The Netherlands, 1982) is a poet, columnist, critic and presenter at literary events, including Writers Unlimited. For De steen vreest mij (2011), she was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize for the best poetry debut. Her collection Hogere natuurkunde (2019) is part travelogue, part myth and part testimony, and the outcome of conversations Deckwitz engaged in with individuals whose roots also trace back to the former Dutch East Indies. In 2022, Eerste hulp bij poëzie was published, an omnibus containing her collections Olijven moet je leren lezen (2020) and Dit gaat niet over grasmaaien (2021). Deckwitz writes columns for national daily newspaper NRC. In her NPO Luister podcast Poëzie vandaag, she presents a Dutch or translated poem every workday morning. She is one of three critics of podcast Boeken FM. Since Autumn 2025, she has been one of the presenters of Nooit meer Slapen, the VPRO's night-time cultural radio programme.

Instagram: @la_deck
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Zindzi Zevenbergen

(1990) is a writer of YA books and a freelance copywriter. She won the Zilveren Griffel prize for her debut, the YA book Lennox en de gouden sikkel (Lennox and the Gold Crescent, 2021). The illustrators of this book, Brian Elstak and Hedy Tjin, won the Zilveren Penseel. Zevenbergen again collaborated with Tjin as illustrator for their book De reis van Manie Schaafijs (The Journey of Manie Schaafijs, 2023), an ode to Surinamese storytelling; in word and image, they relate the true story of Francisco de Freitas, said to be the first vendor of shaved ice in Suriname.


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Maarten van der Graaff

(The Netherlands, 1987) debuted in 2013 with Vluchtautogedichten (Getaway Car Poems), which won the C. Buddingh' Prize. The jury praised his "boasting, swagger, and bravado." Van der Graaff escapes everyday reality in his very own getaway car — namely poetry — looking for new dimensions. His second volume Dood werk (Dead Work, 2015) won the J.C. Bloem Prize. He publishes poetry and prose in various magazines, performs regularly, and is editor and co-founder of the online literary magazine Samplekanon. His first novel Wormen en engelen (Worms and Angels, 2017) is a contemporary quest for the meaning of faith. In 2020 he published the poetry collection Nederland in stukken (The Netherlands in Pieces), followed by his second novel Onder asfalt (Under Asphalt, 2022). He curates compelling poetry recitation programmes each year for Writers Unlimited.

Go to website Maarten van der Graaff
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Lara Nuberg

(1990) writes, narrates and produces audio-stories about (colonial) history, identity and the culture of remembrance. She has been published in Dutch daily newspapers and the Indonesian monthly Moesson. Together with the Indonesian writer and visual artist Lala Bohang, she created The Journey of Belonging (2020), a quest for the influence of history on their lives and those of the women in their Indonesian families. In 2021, she appeared as one of the experts in the TV program Het Museum van Nederland (The Museum of the Netherlands). She is also head instructor and coordinator of the educational project Colonial Traces in My Neighbourhood, and is  currently working on her debut novel, Gado Gado, inspired by her own search for identity and belonging (expected in 2025). Early 2025 she will publish, together with Feba Sukmana, a reissue of the letters by Kartini.
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Sholeh Rezazadeh

(Iran, 1989) -- writer, poet and columnist -- received much praise and many prizes for her debut novel De hemel is altijd paars (The Sky is Always Purple, 2021). Readers were moved by the story of a young woman working in a charity shop, who falls in love with a musician and reflects on her homeland of Iran with mixed feelings. Rezazadeh, who studied medicine, came to The Netherlands in 2015. Her second novel, Ik ken een berg die op me wacht (I Know a Mountain Waiting for Me) appeared in 2023. In her characteristic poetic style, she writes about a woman who upends her life and travels from Amsterdam to Iran to join a nomadic family -- a story about yearning for quiet and space, told from the perspective of a river. Her first poetry collection, Neem ruim zei de zee, was published in 2024.
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Alejandra Ortiz

is a trans woman refugee from Mexico who fled transphobia and violence. In The Netherlands she works toward a better life for trans persons, and especially for trans persons of colour -- with or without papers. She has established a language centre, organized symposiums and co-authored research reports, all to improve the position of trans refugees. She received the 2023 Winq Community Award for her work and the Harper's Bazaar Woman of the Year Award 2024, Ortiz wrote the autobiographical De waarheid zal me bevrijden (The Truth Will Free Me, 2022) about her youth, her life as a transgender woman, her quest for a safe place to be herself, and her asylum application process in The Netherlands. It was selected as one of ten  Dutch rainbow-books, and was nominated for the Opzij Literatuurprijs 2023.
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Sacha Bronwasser

(The Netherlands) is variously a writer, speaker, art historian and curator, but writing usually tops the list. Her debut novel Niets is gelogen (Nothing is a Lie, 2019) was followed by Luister (Listen, 2023), an ingenously written and compelling novel set in the 1980s and now. A critic wrote: "Bronwasser brings Paris to life in this strong novel about an au pair. She ratchets up the tension smoothly and aptly." Art is an important theme in her work. Since 1998 she has been a freelance art critic for the Dutch national daily De Volkskrant, and she continues to write and speak about art for various media and clients. She is involved in various cultural projects as a founder, advisor and curator.
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Nisrine Mbarki

(The Netherlands, 1977) is a writer, poet, columnist and literary translator. She writes short stories, theatre scripts and poetry, and translates poetry from Arabic into Dutch. Her poems and columns regularly appear in Dutch literary magazines. She has appeared at festivals such as Poetry International, Globale in Bremen, Writers Unlimited, Read My World, the Felix Poetry Festival in Antwerp, and the Nacht van de Poëzie (Night of Poetry). She is co-founder and artistic director of the theatre company Landgenoten, for which she wrote Club Paradis (2016), which was staged in the Netherlands and Germany. Her debut poetry collection oeverloos (Endless) was published in 2022.
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Gershwin Bonevacia

(The Netherlands, 1992) is a poet, writer and performer. In 2017 he self-published his poetry debut Ik heb een fiets gekocht (I Bought a Bike) and sold more than 6,000 copies "out of his suitcase." As poet laureate of Amsterdam he wrote one poem per month for newspaper publication between 2019 and 2022. Bonevacia managed to make good use of his dyslexia: wrestling with words turned him into an inventive word artist, and a popular guest on cultural programs. In 2021 he translated the children's book Change Sings by U.S. spoken-word artist Amanda Gorman into Dutch and published the poetry collection Toen ik klein was, was ik niet bang (I Wasn't Scared When I Was Young). The latter is an ode to his young fearless self and an attempt to incorporate that person again. In 2023, Bonevacia  appears on stage in Terug naar Prinsenplein (Back to Prinsenplein).
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Emilienne Malfatto

(France, 1989) is an award-winning photographer, journalist and writer. Through intimate stories, her work revolves around social, feminist and post-conflict issues in the Middle East, Latin America and Europe. Her photos have been featured in publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post and Le Monde and exhibited internationally. Her novel Que sur toi se lamente le Tigre (May the Tigris Grieve For You, 2020), which won the 2021 Prix Goncourt for a debut, is about a family tragedy in Southern Iraq. Her non-fiction book Les serpents viendront pour toi (The Serpents Will Come for You, 2021) about the murder of social leaders in Colombia, won the Albert Londres book prize. Her second novel Le colonel ne dort pas (The Colonel Doesn't Sleep, 2021) brings to life three characters struggling with a war they cannot win. It has been translated into several languages.
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Sarah Sluimer

(1985), writer, theatre maker, columnist, wrote her debut novel (2018) with Keizer, about a celebrated Amsterdam theatre director who meets his Nemesis in New York. In 2020, she published her novella De Stilte (The Silence). She has a regular Saturday column in Dutch national daily newspaper NRC. Her columns from the past eight years will be collected under the title Geef je over (Surrender) and will be released in February 2024. In December, a play she wrote premieres with Orkater, titled En ze maakte een kind (And She Made a Child). She is working on a new novel.
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Bert Wagendorp

(The Netherlands, 1956) is a writer and journalist. He was a longtime sports reporter, first with a regional and then a national Dutch newspaper. In 1995 he published his first novel De proloog (The Prologue), about the wakeful night of a cyclist during the Tour de France. From 2006 to 2022 he wrote the Page 2 opinion column for the Dutch daily De Volkskrant every other day. The sport of cycling and friendship are central themes of his bestselling novel Ventoux (2013) and its sequel Ferrara (2019). Wagendorp also co-wrote the script for the film Ventoux (2015) and its sequel Laatste Ronde (Final Lap), which will be in theatres in 2024. Together with his daughter Hannah, he wrote Het Vader & Dochter boek (The Father & Daughter Book) and the novel Masser Brock (2017). The first two books of his novel series De memoires van Abel Sikkink (The Memoirs of Abel Sikkink), about a journalist who emigrates to America in the 19th century, appeared in 2022 and 2023.


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Eva Cleven

(The Netherlands, 1968) is a presenter, radio producer and podacast host. She grew up dancing and singing, mastered double pirouettes at the dance academy and studied musicology at the University of Amsterdam. Since 2015 she works for FunX, and has reported from Dutch music festivals. She created the podcast Moved by Sound with influencers from the music world and presented a youth program on Dutch broadcaster NPO3. She also took part in the reality-TV programs Expeditie Robinson (in 2019) and Race Across the World (which she won with Hugo Kennis in 2023).
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Sharid Alles

(India, 1980) is a radio producer, writer, presenter and editor. She started out as a web editor, but when radio station FunX launched, she moved over to radio. For the past dozen years she has worked as a presenter, radio DJ, producer, editor, editor-in-chief, program head and station manager for various Dutch radio channels. Besides her work in management, she has published the children's books Rocca en het geheime toverrecept (2018) and Rocca en de verdwijning van Oma Sala (2022). In 2022 she established her business, Alles in de Media, with which she focuses on making podcasts, writing texts and children's books, coaching (young) media talent and bringing about more diversity in the media.
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Roos van Rijswijk

(The Netherlands, 1985) is a presenter, interviewer and writer of prose, essays, interviews, columns, theatre pieces and reviews for a variety of Dutch publications. In 2016 she debuted with the novel Onheilig (Unholy), which won the Anton Wachter Prize. In 2017 her prose poem Calligram was published, upon which the daily newspaper De Volkskrant named her literary talent of the year. She wrote the collections Wat ben ik meer dan stilte – verhalen van geesten (What Am I But Silence - Stories of Ghosts, 2018), De olifant van de bovenbuurman (The Elephant of the Upstairs Neighbor, 2018, a picture book for adults with drawings by Sylvia Weve), and De Dwaler (The Wanderer, 2021). Van Rijswijk reviews translated fiction for Dutch national daily newspaper NRC and teaches at the Schrijversvakschool in Amsterdam.
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Jörgen Tjon A Fong

(1974) is a theatre producer, actor, curator and moderator, and since 2021 the director of De Kleine Komedie in Amsterdam. As founder and director of the theatre company Urban Myth, Tjon A Fong produces many (musical theatre) performances, talk shows and special programs in which the diversity and identity of The Netherlands and the Dutch population is a recurring theme.
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Margot Dijkgraaf

(The Netherlands, 1960) is a literary critic, writer, curator, interviewer, debate leader and "ambassador between France and the Netherlands in the field of literature", as a French ambassador once said. She has been writing about literature for some 30 years, mainly for the NRC daily. She published books on French and European literature, on Hella S. Haasse and Cees Nooteboom. Her In de voetsporen van mijn grootvader (2021) is an autobiographical search for her literary genes. Before that, she published Met Parijse pen. Literaire omzwervingen (in collaboration with photographer Bart Koetsier, 2020), which takes readers to Paris for walks in the footsteps of famous Dutch and French writers. She was joint artistic curator of the Netherlands' Guest of Honour role at the 2024 Leipzig Book Fair with German journalist Bettina Baltschev.

Go to the website of Margot Dijkgraaf
Instagram: @margotdijkgraaf
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Jan Mulder

(The Netherlands, 1945) turned to writing after a stint as professional footballer. Together with Remco Campert he wrote CaMu, their virtuostic front-page column for the Volkskrant newspaper, every other day for ten years. Mulder became an influential TV personality, including on Dutch talk shows. He has written books, including in collaboration with Remco Campert, since the 1970s. A collection of his prose (stories and columns) appeared as De vrouw als karretje (Woman as Cart, 2001). His more recent books include the novels Iris (2003) and Liefde en aardbevingen (Love and Earthquakes, 2018); Chez Stans (2010), memoirs of his time in football; the Boekenweek gift book Labradoedel (Labradoodle, 2010); and Tot u spreekt Jan Mulder (Jan Mulder Speaks to You, 2014), reflections on football and himself.
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Wilma de Rek

is a writer and books editor of the Dutch daily De Volkskrant. Previously, she was head of two other sections of the newspaper. She is the author of the books Canto Ostinato. Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk (Canto Ostinato: Simon ten Holt on his Masterwork), and Allemaal losers (Losers All). She is also co-author of the Encyclopedie der Nederlanden (with Bert Wagendorp); De stijl van de Leider (The Leader`s Style, 2011, together with Pieter Broertjes), a series of interviews with Johan Cruijff and others; and Van big bang tot burn-out (From Big Bang to Burnout, together with Witte Hoogendijk). Stand-up filosoof (Stand-up Philosopher, 2013) is a record of her conversations with René Gude, philosopher and thinker laureate, about the meaning of life, love, the role of the mind, approaching death, optimism, envy, and much more.

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Vanja van der Leeden

(The Netherlands, 1976) is a cookbook and culinary writer with a background as a professional chef. Her favourite themes are Indonesian, Italian and healthy. She has cooked for various restaurants in The Hague and Amsterdam. She is a columnist for Dutch TV culinary and talk shows, and can regularly be seen on the food-nerd channel Foodtube and as TV chef on a Flemish channel. Together with her husband, the food photographer Remko Kraaijeveld, she created the cookbooks Indorock (2019, which won the Golden Cookbook prize), Indostok (2020, focused on saté), Insane: gekmakend lekker en best gezond (Insane: Maddeningly Delicious and Quite Healthy, 2022) en Italopop: Italiaans, maar dan anders (Italopop: Italian, but Different, 2023).
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Sun Li

(Hong Kong, 1980) debuted in 2016 with a book about the family story behind a Chinese restaurant. She is also the principal author of the collection for ages 6+, Bedtijdverhalen voor Rebelse meisjes: 100 bijzondere Nederlandse vrouwen (Bedtime Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Special Dutch Women, 2021). In 2023 she published the Chin. Ind. Rest. kookboek, written with Danny Lee, Ka Fai Lee and Yan Ting Yuen: besides the classics - from babi pangang, bami and fu yong hai to koo loo kai - it includes dishes the personnel eat themselves, and it reflects on the history of such restaurants in the Netherlands. Together with Tjyying Liu she wrote the play Happy in Nederland about a mother and daughter and their Chinese-Indonesian restaurant. You can see it from January through March 2024 in Dutch theatres (26 January in Theater aan het Spui in The Hague).
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Tash Aw

(Taiwan, 1971) is a writer and essayist with Malaysian roots. His globally successful debut novel The Harmony Silk Factory was translated into more than twenty languages and won renowned literary prizes. His second book, Map of the Invisible World (2009) was also an instant international success. Both books deal with Asia's recent colonial past. The second novel is partly set in the turbulent 1960s in Indonesia; his characters make tangible the effects that political decisions can have on ordinary people. Subsequently, Aw published the novels Five Star Billionaire (2013) and We, the Survivors (2019), as well as the non-fiction book The Face: Strangers on a Pier (2016), in which he explores modern Asia through his own family story of migration and adaptation.
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Karin Amatmoekrim

(Suriname, 1976) debuted with Knipperleven (2004), followed by Wanneer wij samen zijn (When We Are Together, 2006), based on the history of her Javanese-Surinamese family. Her novel Het gym (The Gymnasium, 2011) describes Sandra, a Surinamese outsider, holding her own among preppy white girls. De man van veel (The Man of Much, 2013) is based on the life of the Surinamese national hero and writer Anton de Kom, and was followed by her memoir Tenzij de vader (Unless the Father, 2016), a painfully honest report of getting to know her father at age 22. Her PhD thesis on the late author Anil Ramdas (University of Utrecht) was published as the biography In welk land leef ik eigenlijk? (What Kind of Country Do I Actually Live in?, 2023). She regularly publishes stories, columns and opinion pieces.
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Marja Pruis

(The Netherlands, 1959) has been writing about the expectations men and women have of each other and of life since her debut novel Bloem (Flower). Her novel Atoomgeheimen (Nuclear Secrets is about intimacy and the loss of ideals. She has been called the chronicler of contemporary womanhood; she explores her themes further in her novels De vertrouweling (The Confidant) and Zachte riten (Soft Rites). Pruis works at De Groene Amsterdammer weekly as a literary editor and columnist, writing essays on topics as diverse as humour, shyness and greed. She received the Jan Hanlo Prize for her collection of essays Kus me, straf me, and the J. Greshoff Prize for essayism with Genoeg nu over mij. For her columns, collected in Oplossingen (Solutions), she received the J. Heldring Prize. In Boos Meisje. Over vrouwen en frictie (Angry Girl. About Women and Friction), she writes about the split in which girls and women find themselves, including portraits of writers she admires such as Renate Rubinstein and Vivian Gornick. Her recently published confrontational novel Huiswerk (Homework) is about white privilege and the tension between employer and employee.
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Judith Cyrus

(Suriname) is a chef, runs a lunchroom and writes about cooking and food. She grew up in a Surinamese family in The Netherlands, where her mother brought her up with classic Surinamese dishes but also with oysters, asparagus and a glass of wine. In 2017 she launched her business &Judith, leads Surinamese, Ottolenghi and vegan cooking workshops and cooks for private dining events. In 2021 she publishes her first cookbook: Paramaribo, een culinaire smeltkroes (Paramaribo: A culinary melting pot) and in 2023 her second: Toespijs, Creools-Caribische gerechten (Toespijs, Creole-Caribbean dishes). She writes a weekly column for Dutch daily Trouw. Judith's lunchroom is De Buitenvrouw in Amsterdam.
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Frederique van Rijn

(France, 1982) is a photographer and visual artist. Her photo documentary series focus on places with history. She works together with artists and writers such as Remco Campert and Elly de Waard. She is also a founder of the catering collective Ogentroost (which works with edible flowers) and a creative instructor at the Free School. For her book Het lichte oog huilt kleuren (The Light Eye Weeps in Colour, 2017), she photographed fragments of drawings, paintings, etchings, paint spatters and notable details in the Bergen atelier of the painter and poet Lucebert. She digitally combined these with her photos of the nearby landscape, and asked Remco Campert to choose fragments of Lucebert's poetry as titles for the collages. Currently she is working on a photo series in Neerijnen and editing photos from her grandmother's family archive.
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Frans van Deursen

(The Netherlands, 1962) is an actor, singer, composer and translator. In his successful stage career he has played the most diverse roles in the the widest variety of productions. A small selection: he was the Controller in Miss Saigon and Zoser in Aida. Elwood Blues in The Blues Brothers and Tiger Brown in The Threepenny Opera. He has played Astor Piazzolla and Judas, Pantaar and Hipockets Duncan. On TV he's had large and small roles in various Dutch-language series. His first album from 2010 featured translations of Tom Waits songs, followed by a 2015 album that set Leo Vroman's poetry to music. In 2023, together with director Theu Boermans, he is creating an adaptation and translation for the show Mozart's Zauberflöte - Next Generation.
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Erik Kriek

(The Netherlands, 1966) is an internationally feted comic artist, graphic novelist and illustrator. His comic series about the anti-superhero Gutsman ("Masked Defender of Male Inadequacy") and Gutsman's dfficult relationship with his sexy lover Tigra and her parents gained him fame and cult status. He is in demand as an illustrator and provides artwork for almost any kind of printable material: from skateboards, posters, CD and LP covers and sneakers to books, newspapers and magazines. Kriek's most recent publications include comic versions of the SF and horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft; a comic version of five "murder ballads" (In the Pines, 2016); and the graphic novels De balling (The Exile, 2019) en De kuil (The Pit, 2023).
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Eva van Manen

is an artist, songwriter, poet and music producer who moves between disciplines and worlds. Her debut album Politiek & Liefde (Politics & Love, 2018) bridges styles such as rap, electronica and guitar pop with a fluid, personal perspective, exploring the intersection of politics and love. For De Diepte In (Into the Deep, 2021) she collaborated with several pop and jazz artists. Her debut poetry collection Hoe zijn we hier gekomen? (How Did We Get Here?, 2021) delves into memory in search of the root of the question of how we came to be in this country, this body and this political climate. The collection is a string of abrasive situations and thoughts, in faraway places and close to home. Le Hérou (2023) is a solo EP of forest songs recorded in the Ardennes.
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Matthijs Sluiter

is a graphic designer. As Studio Het Mes, he designs identities, websites, books and logos for cultural and knowledge organisations. He is also an editor at typography website Fonts In Use, writes about design for Fontstand News and collects and shares type specimens on Mastodon. During the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival in The Hague, he will be subtitling the readings of Stem van de Stad (Voice of the City), the programme in which schoolchildren recite their Very Short Stories, with words and images in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Go to the website of Studio Het Mes
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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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Mark Verdult

is an illustrator working and living in The Hague. He also works at the Huis van Betekenis in Utrecht, a community and collective for illustration and graphic design. He creates storytelling illustrations for picture books, graphic novels and comics, with a penchant for portraying characters (poses, expression of emotion, interaction) as a starting point for his narrative work. One of his published series is Red Wanderer, a graphic novel about a lady named Red who, guided by a supernatural map, makes an important journey in which she must independently face her struggles, dilemmas and limits. Verdult studied illustration at the Utrecht School of the Arts and the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam.
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Jasper Albinus

(The Netherlands, 1997) appears on stage as poet and spoken word-artist. In 2017 he joined the Poetry Circle, a platform for performing writers and writing performers, and took part in the Slow Writing Lab of the Dutch Foundation for Literature in 2018. In his work he makes issues of identity, history and politics hit home. He may appear at literary festivals or in theatres, and sometimes adds a poetic note to a debate. He performed at the Oerol, Brainwash and Writers Unlimited festivals, among others.
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Sven Ratzke

(The Netherlands, 1977) is a Dutch-German singer, entertainer and composer whose one-man shows are internationally successful. He plays lead roles in musical theatre productions such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Cabaret and Rocky Horror Show. He tours with orchestras such as the Metropole and Holland Baroque. Since 1999 he has created his own shows, such as Starman and Where Are We Now (about David Bowie), Homme Fatale and Nachtspiele (Nocturnal Games). He has also worked with many international artists, including Nina Hagen, Rufus Wainwright, Hanna Schygulla, Ellen ten Damme, Claron Mcfadden, Frank Boeijen and The Tiger Lillies. In the 2023-24 theatre season, Ratzke takes on the title role in Marlene, a new interpretation of the work by British playwright Pam Gems.
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Dewi de Nijs Bik

(1990) made her debut with the poetry collection Indolente (de Arbeiderspers, 2023), in which she searches for a language that makes our shared past tangible - along the way, an unexpected historian presents himself: the oyster. Her work has also appeared in the literary magazines DW B, nY, Poëziekrant and SAND Journal, among others, and as audio work online on DIG and with the VPRO. She wrote articles and interviews for Dutch monthly Moesson for ten years, was an editor at Perdu and is a board member of the Auteursbond (Authors' Union). She recites her poems on various stages in the Netherlands and Belgium.
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Khadija Ibourk El Idrissi

(2002) is a poet who writes in Dutch as well as other languages. For instance, her debut poem De ontmoeting (The Encounter) was pentalingual. She was one of the Young City Poets of The Hague in 2022. There, she aimed to inspire young people to engage more with language, especially those who had just come to The Netherlands. She recited her poems at events such as the UIT Festival in The Hague and at the Bevrijdingsmaaltijd (Liberation Dinner). She joined the Poetry Circle 22/23 and will continue to pursue her poetry career from there to find her way.
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Sophia Blyden

(The Netherlands, 1993) 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. She has presented her poetry at a variety of Dutch literary events and publications. In her debut collection Dobberen (2024), the development from girl to woman is central to various storylines. How much control do you have over your body, boundaries and future?

Go to the website of Sophia Blyden
Instagram: @mrspillybean
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Angelina Enny

(Indonesia, 1978) is a writer, actor and theatre director. Her debut collection of stories, Nocturnal Melancholia, about the beauty and esthetics of depression, was nominated for the Kusala Literature Award and has been reworked for the theatre. In 2019, Angelina collaborated with the Dutch writer and musician Robin Block on the poetry collection In Between, Di Antara. In it, they seek out their personal stories, (family) memories and dreams, as well as their shared (Indonesian) history. The project resulted in the performance A Passage, Sebuah Antara, a mix of poetry, songs, movement and images, which they performed in 2019 at the Literature and Ideas Festival (LIFEs) in Jakarta. In 2021, her script The Fifteenth Night about the 1998 Riots, was nominated for Jakarta Film Fund. Her new work, Finding Sita in the Indies, is a novelette about the ancestral identity in colonial era.
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Dean Bowen

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a poet, performer and events programmer. As evident in his multilingual poetry collection Bokman (2018), his work looks at the relationship of people's identity to society. A strong performance won him the first Van Dale SPOKEN Award. In 2019 and 2020 he was poet laureate of Rotterdam. Ik vond geen spoken in Achtmaal (I Found No Ghosts in Achtmaal, 2020) describes, via diary entries, poems, confessions, and rituals, the search for what remains of a person long after he has died. He has published poems on the online platforms SampleKanon and Hard//Hoofd and in magazines such as nY and Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen. He teaches performance literature and poetry at the Creative Writing programme at ArtEZ. Together with Flemish writer and musician Joost Hoekaf, he creates introspective hip hop in the Vudu Cru project. His next collection, Masc:r, will be published in January 2026.

Instagram: @dean_bowen
Instagram: @vudu.cru
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Julien Ignacio

(The Netherlands, 1969) graduated with a degree in Literature and travelled through Asia, Australia, West Africa, the Caribbean (where his roots lie on the isle of Aruba), South America and the Middle East for four years. He publishes theatrical texts, columns and short stories. In 2008 he won the El Hizjra Literature Prize for his stageplay Hotel Atlantis. He is co-founder of the theatre company tgDakota, an editor with the literary magazine Tirade, and sits on the board of the Caribbean Literature Working Group. His debut novel Kus (Kiss, 2018) is a poignant and poetically written father-son story. He collaborated with writer colleague Raoul de Jong to compile Dat wij zongen (That We Sang, 2022), an anthology of Caribbean stories and essays. His second novel Goudjakhals (Golden Jackal, 2023) comprises a chain of historical and sci-fi migrant stories set in Aruba and Curaçao, Beirut and Tehran, Lesbos and Amsterdam.
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Burhan Sönmez

(Turkey, 1965) is a writer and, since 2021, chair of the writers' organisation PEN International. He is a Senior Member of Hughes Hall College and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. His novels have been translated into more than 40 languages and won international awards. He wrote the novels Kuzey (North), Masumlar (published in English as Sins & Innocents, 2014), Istanbul Istanbul (published in English under the same title, 2016), Labyrinth (under the same title published in English, 2019) en Taş ve Gölge (published in English as Stone and Shadow, 2023), among others. Sönmez was born in Turkey and grew up speaking Turkish and Kurdish. He worked as a lawyer in Istanbul before moving to Britain for political reasons and living there in exile for several years. He publishes in news media such as La Repubblica, Der Spiegel and The Guardian. He translated William Blake's poetry collection The Marriage of Heaven and Hell into Turkish.
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Ramsey Nasr

(The Netherlands, 1974) is a poet, writer, actor and director. He made his poetry debut in 2000 with 27 gedichten & Geen lied (27 Poems & No Song). Nasr acts in films and TV series and is a member of the International Theatre Amsterdam ensemble. His stage and screen roles have been awarded multiple times. He also writes theatre pieces, columns, essays and opinon pieces. From 2009 to 2013 he was the Dutch Poet Laureate. In his essay collection De fundamenten (The Fundamentals, 2021), he assesses a corona pandemic-struck nation; Nasr compacter (2021) gathers the best of his poems from a two-decade career. In 2023 he created a series for Dutch TV about objects from his own collections, Dr Nasrs Wunderkammer (Dr. Nasr's Chamber of Wonders).
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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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Maddy Stolk

(The Netherlands, 1970) is a writer, columnist and second-generation child of Indonesian descent. She worked as editor-in-chief for the Dutch magazines Elle, Elsevier and Harper's Bazaar. In addition, she is active as a columnist. The family novel Soedah, laat maar (Soedah, Never Mind, 2023) is Stolk's literary debut, in which she uses her own life as the basis for a haunting novel that is simultaneously moving, hard, painful and gentle. It is a story about a life with Indonesian parents and about the never-ending grief that parents pass on to their children. Her new novel, Waar wij altijd geweest zijn (Where We Have Always Been), will be published by Ambo Anthos in January 2026. This precursor to Soedah tells of three generations: grandmother, mother and daughter, each fighting for their autonomy and for their freedom in their own way.

Go to the website of Maddy Stolk
Instagram: @maddystolk
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Raj Mohan

(Suriname, 1962) published his first volume of poetry, Bapauti/Erfenis (Bapauti/Heritage) in 2008, an elaboration of the songs on his album Kantráki/Contract Labourer. The collection Tihá/Troost (Tihá/Comfort) followed in 2011 with lyrics from his pop album Daayra. The singer, poet and composer -- with parental roots in India, born in Suriname, and living in The Netherlands -- deals with societal themes and with subjects that are taboo within Hindustani and Indian circles. Mohan writes in Sarnámi, the mother tongue of the Hindustani in Suriname and the Netherlands. He is founder and artistic director of musical groups like the Raj Mohan Ensemble, Vistar and Shai'rana, with which he tours at home and abroad. He plays and sings compositions based on his own lyrics and on poems by contemporary Urdu poets in the (lightly) classical tradition of Northern India.
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Precious Alvares

is an all-round dancer and dance teacher specialising in African modern street-style dance. She grew up dancing in Touchée Dance Company, her parents' dance school in Utrecht. She performs, teaches, trains talented young people in Afrodance, and choreographs for artists and TV shows. Since 2016, she has been successfully building her community World of Afro, a dynamic platform focused on the diversity of modern African dance styles. In 2022, she won the Dutch Red Bull Dance Your Style competition.
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OTION - Master of Sceneries

(The Netherlands, 1987) studied musical theatre and contemporary dance at Codarts in Rotterdam. His compositions include music for the Ulrike Quade Company's theatre production De Foetushemel (Foetus Heaven, 2023), the National Theatre's Tijd Zal Ons Leren (Time Will Teach Us, 2023), and for the exhibition Continue This Thread (2023). His band OTION and the Submarines debuted at the 2023 Opera Forward Festival with the show Ripple. His ceremonial performances fuse dance, music, singing, storytelling and the artistic space.
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Gerda Blees

(The Netherlands, 1985) made her debut with the short-story collection Aan doodgaan dachten we niet (We Didn't Think of Dying, 2017) and then published the poetry collection Dwaallichten (Wandering Lights, 2018), nominated for the C. Buddingh' Prize. In 2020, she publishes her debut novel Wij zijn licht (We Are Light), which was awarded the Boekhandelsprijs and the European Union Prize for Literature, and nominated for the Libris Literature Prize. Translation rights to her novel have been sold to nine countries and tens of thousands of copies have been sold in the Netherlands. Week (2022) is a pregnancy in poetry; with wonder and self-assessment, Blees depicts how expectant motherhood changes her body and life.
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Aminatta Forna

(United Kingdom, 1964) focuses in her work on how horrors of war are remembered. Forna spent a part of her childhood in Sierra Leone where her father, a politician, was falsely accused of treason and hanged. These events were the subject of her memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water (2003). Before her debut as a writer, Aminatta Forna worked as a reporter and documentary filmmaker with the BBC, where she wrote and directed several notable documentaries about African history and culture. In her novel Ancestor Stones (2006) four elderly Sierra Leonian aunts tell stories of the past to their niece. And in the novel The Memory of Love (2010) a British psychologist in Freetown attempts to penetrate a collective silence about the past. In The Hired Man (2013) Forna brilliantly paints lingering tensions in one village in postwar Croatia. In Happiness (2018), a Ghanaian psychiatrist visiting London offers a view of Europe through African eyes.
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Tatjana Almuli

(The Netherlands, 1991) is a writer, photographer and journalist for various Dutch media. Her debut, Knap voor een dik meisje (Smart for a Fat Girl), was published in 2019. In it, she takes charge of the discussion about her body and speaks candidly about life as a fat woman in a country where thin is the norm. Her 2022 novel, Ik zal je nooit meer (I Will Never Again), about a (secret) family history, delayed grief, and a daughter who retrieves a little bit of the mother she lost too young. Almuli created the podcast Tussen dertig en doodgaan (Between thirty and death) with Malou Holshuijsen about what happens after age 30: the raw beauty of life, including its messy edges. She presents Dikke vette leugens (Big Fat Lies) on TikTok and Dutch broadcaster NPO3, an honest, cheerful and critical VPRO online series about and by fat people. Her third book, Tot lijf gemaakt, will be published in Spring 2026.

Instagram: @tatjanaalmuli
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Francine Oomen

(The Netherlands, 1960) was originally an industrial designer. In 1990 she began conceiving, designing, writing and illustrating children's books. Her big breakthrough came with the Hoe overleef ik… (How Can I Survive...) series, which won the Kinderjury Prize nine times in a row, the Young Jury five times, as well as other prizes. The series has 15 parts, and the story has been filmed for TV and the movies, as well as reworked into two successful musicals. An eponymous magazine was successfully published for seven years. For adults, Oomen has written the autobiographical graphic novels Oomen stroomt over (Oomen Overflows) and Hoe overleven we (How Do We Survive), and the poetry collection Gek van liefde (Mad with Love). In 2023 she launched a new series for twentysomethings, Hoe overleef ik alles wat ik niemand vertel? (How Do I Survive Everything I Tell No One?), a huge bestseller that spent weeks at the top of the Top Ten lists.


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Tirsa With

(1997) is a writer, translator, voice actor and well-known television host of national Dutch broadcaster NPO. With studied literature at the University of Amsterdam and, in 2020, was an advisor for multi-year subsidies with the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. Her short story Schrammen voel je tenminste (At Least You Can Feel Scrapes) was published in the anthology De Goede Immigrant (The Good Immigrant, 2020). She wrote the short story Nia as a contribution and reaction to the Asterisk Conversations podcast by Simon(e) van Saarloos with Nalo Hopkinson. Her Dutch translation of the YA novel Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson was published in 2021.
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Zheng Xiaoqiong

(China, 1980) is a poet. In 2001 she moved to Dongguan, one of southern China's major industrial centres, hoping for a better life. There, she worked in several factories and started writing poems about the experience. Through her penetrating work, Zheng grew into an icon: she has published about ten poetry collections, is one of China's most renowned poets, wins many prizes, and has been translated into many languages. With their strong contrasts, personifications and broken phrases, Zheng's poems show industrialization turns humans into part of the machinery. She counters this dehumanization with human uncertainty, fragmentation, dislocation and vulnerability. Her poetry collections published in English include Huangma Mountains, Collected Poems of Zheng Xiaoqiong, Pedestrian Bridge, and Poems Falling on Machines.
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Sophie Derkzen

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a journalist and presenter with a fascination for international politics and culture. On Dutch national broadcaster NPO Radio 1 she presents Bureau Buitenland for VPRO, awarded the prestigious Silver Reiss Microphone for best radio programme of the year in 2022. She made the podcasts Stad in Oorlog: Charkiv een jaar onder vuur (City at War: Kharkiv one year under fire; winner Silver Reiss Microphone 2023) and Generatie Merkel (4**** in de Volkskrant).She previously wrote for major Dutch publications, was a guest editor at the German newspaper Die Zeit, and worked in the political section of the Dutch Embassy in Berlin.
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Hashem Kabreet

(Syria) is a percussionist, trainer and workshop leader. He plays various oriental and world percussion instruments (frame drum, darbouka, djembe, cajon, handpan) in bands such as Étoiles Electriques and HAN Here & Now, in a variety of musical styles. For organisations like Sounds of Change, Raw Resonance, Art Root Collective, Orchestre Partout and Fort van de Verbeelding, he leads music workshops and creative trainings.
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Xillan Macrooy

(1993, Paramaribo) is a storyteller in literature, theatre and music. He moves between different disciplines, celebrating his identity as a shapeshifter. As the son of multiple worlds, the constant transformation of identity plays an important role in his work. His debut novel, Mensen als zonnen en mensen als manen (People Like Suns and People Like Moons), was published in September 2025. It tells the story of growing up as a Black queer boy in Suriname and how notions of masculinity influence an individual's life. He is currently touring theatres with his show A COMING OF (R)AGE RITUAL. His debut album SON will follow later this year.
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Sjaan Flikweert

creates spoken-word, music, dance/performance art and film. Flikweert is an interdisciplinarian who creates emotional worlds in which the smallest details take on a leading role. Through personal stories, she allows contrasts to coexist effortlessly and palpably, confronting her audience with assumptions, judgments and expectations. She has been an active performing artist at home and abroad for over 12 years. Her work was featured in the Dutch-language spoken-word anthology Hard op (Aloud, 2019). She has published the audiovisual poetry collections ergens thuis en de ruimte ertussen (somewhere at home and the space in between) and De werkelijkheid heeft me niet nodig (Reality does not need me), which was selected for the 2021 Dutch Film Festival.
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Hanna Bervoets

(The Netherlands, 1984) is a writer of novels, screenplays, plays, short stories and essays on media and popular (online) culture. Bervoets made her debut in 2009 with Of hoe waarom (Or How Why), followed two years later by Lieve Céline (Dear Céline), which was awarded the Opzij Literature Prize. A year later, the bestseller Alles wat er was (Everything That Was) was published, followed by Efter (2014), Ivanov (2016), Fuzzie (2017) and Welkom in het Rijk der zieken (Welcome to the Kingdom of the Sick) (2019). In 2017, Bervoets won the BNG Bank Literature Prize for Ivanov, and in the same year she also won the Frans Kellendonk Prize for her entire oeuvre. In 2021, her first collection of short stories, Een modern verlangen (A Modern Desire), was published and awarded the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize. In 2025, her tenth novel, Geld verdienen (Earning Money), was published. When Ellie and Freya each need money for their own reasons, they decide to take control of the stock market. After all, don't they deserve to be rich too?

Go to the website of Hanna Bervoets
Instagram: @hannabervoets
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Bas Haring

(The Netherlands, 1968) is a philosopher, writer and professor of Public Understanding of Science at Leiden University where he lectures about artificial intelligence and ethics. His books deal with the interface between philosophy and science; like no other, he knows how to make complex subjects accessible to large groups of readers. His debut Kaas en de Evolutietheorie (Cheese and the Theory of Evolution), awarded the Golden Owl for children's literature, uses examples to explain the true meaning of the theory. Since then he published, among others, De ijzeren wil (The Iron Will, about the brain, consciousness and thinking machines), Voor een echt succesvol leven (For a Truly Successful Life), Plastic pandas about disappearing nature, Waarom cola duurder is dan melk (Why cola is more expensive than milk), with jargon-free answers to basic economic questions, and Kunstmatige intelligentie is niet eng (Artificial Intelligence Isn't Scary).
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Abdelkader Benali

(Morocco, 1975) is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright and curator. His 1996 debut, Bruiloft aan zee (Wedding By the Sea), was an immediate success. His second novel, De langverwachte (The Long-awaited) won him the prestigious 2003 Libris Literature Award. Benali's subjects vary, but sports and the migrant who never really feels at home are recurring themes. He has written novels about his great passion of running, about his travels, and about migrants' cultural identity (Bad Boy). His work has been published internationally. Recent books include the novel Paradijsvogel boven Hoge Woerd (Bird of Paradise over Hoge Woerd, 2022) and Het andere verhaal (The Other Story, 2022), an essay about his research into 75 years of modern Moroccan art.
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Ilyaz Nasrullah

insists that he is first and foremost human, and then a computer scientist who graduated from TU Delft in Data Science, as well as a consultant who advises startups, large companies and governments on their digital strategy and digital innovation. According to him, digital technology is too often seen as an end in itself, which loses sight of people. And yet Nasrullah sees digital technology as an important means of making our lives and society more enjoyable. To make the human voice heard about digital technology, he became a columnist for Trouw newspaper; his columns stand out because they make topics such as artificial intelligence easier to understand. He believes that society can only take charge of technology if even "digital illiterates" understand the impact of that technology.
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Frank van Bommel

is a pianist who has diversity at his fingertips, with a particular affinity for melodic figures. He started with classical piano lessons from an early age, and received improvisation lessons from Misha Mengelberg. From the nineties on he forms or participates in several ensembles that perform his compositions, linked to contemporary music-influences and improvisations. He collaborated with theatre ensemble De Appel, with Willem Breuker and Eric Vloeimans in The Dolphy 2000 Project, and worked on the theatre plays Victoria and Poëzie is mijn adem (Poetry is My Breath) by Felix Strategier.
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Mark Nieuwenhuis

(1981) plays trumpet, composes and produces various styles of music. As a trumpet player, he plays in bands, with DJs and as a solo artist. He has played on countless stages at home and abroad, such as at Lowlands, Concertgebouw, Extrema Outdoor, Paradiso, Oerol and Mawazine Festival (Morocco). He composes on commission for film, television and theatre, as well as autonomously for ensembles and orchestras. He has collaborated with Sizzer Amsterdam, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Born Digital and Theatergroep Gehring and Ketelaars, among others.
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Benzokarim

(1996) is a poet and performer. In 2022, he won the El Hizjra literature prize for poetry and published his debut collection El Ghorba. In it, he talks to his father, mourns his mother and writes poetry about experiences that are recognisable to anyone with a migrant background. His second collection, Ons gaan allemaal (We're all going), has been awarded with the Jan Campert Prize 2025, yearly prize for poetry. As coach of Poetry Circle 070 and editor of Mensen Zeggen Dingen, he is working hard to pave the way for a new generation of world improvers. Benzokarim is Rotterdam's City Poet in 2025 and 2026.

Bekijk de website van Benzokarim
Instagram: @benzokarim_
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Peter de Bruijn

(The Netherlands, 1969) is redacteur van NRC. He is currently working as chief book editor of the newspaper. Before that, he worked as a film editor for 15 years, among other things.
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Jetse de Jong

is a pianist who grew up in a musical home. He first performed in local bars and restaurants as of age 13. With his fascination for improvisation, songs and accompaniment, Jetse is a sought-after pianist for all kinds of occasions. He gracefully tickles the piano ivories while fronting his New Orleans project Bayou Bayou and tours the world's theatres with Sven Ratzke. He has played with: Sven Ratzke, Michelle David, Jim van der Zee, WDR Funkhausorchester, Groot Omroepkoor, Eric Vloeimans, Laura Fygi, Isla van Hout, Hein de Jong, Rocky Horror Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Berlin), among others, and graduated in 2019 with a bachelor degree in Jazz Piano from the Amsterdam Conservatory.
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Samira Çiftçioğlu

is a first-year student of Communication at De Haagse Hogeschool and aspires to study Literature after her propaedeutic year. She is passionate about music, visual arts, reading and writing, and dreams of a career as an author. During the Writers Unlimited Festival 2024, Samira interviews writer and journalist Tatjana Almuli at the Speakers' Corner of De Haagse Hogeschool. The interview is a joint programme of the festival and The Lighthouse, De Haagse Hogeschool's platform that organises free accessible programmes for HHS students and staff (and all interested) on current, social issues and global issues.
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Rozalie Hirs

(The Netherlands, 1965) is a composer and poet. She took piano and singing lessons as a teenager, and then obtained her Master's degree in chemical engineering at the University of Twente. During this study, she sings in opera productions, and writes and sings for her new wave band Boolean. She then studied composition and classical singing at the Royal Conversatorium in The Hague, among other institutes. Hirs has composed a wide range of musical works: from electronic or electroacoustic, spoken-voice music and chamber music to ensemble and orchestral works. She first presented her poems in 1991, debuting in De Revisor in 1992 and releasing her first collection Locus in 1998. Subsequently, in addition to digital poetry, several collections follow, including ecologica (2023) on climate change, awarded the Jan Campert Prize.
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Tjibbe Veldkamp

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a writer of children's books. In 1992, his debut was published: Een ober van niks. Between 1993 and 2000, Veldkamp also wrote for Donald Duck and Disneyland. Since 2001, he has been a full-time writer and translator. Most of his books are picture books for which he frequently collaborates with Philip Hopman, and also with Kees de Boer and Wouter Tulp. His books have won several awards, including the Zilveren Griffel such as Maar eerst ving ik een monster (2021), which was named Picture Book of the Year the following year. For De jongen die van de wereld  hield (2023), he was awarded the Nienke van Hichtum Prize, biennial award for children's books. It is a highly original story about a 'possible child', a ghost still, who emerges from the spark that sparks when his parents meet. He desperately wants to live.
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Tomas Lieske

(The Netherlands, 1943) writes novels, short stories and poetry. He won the VSB Poetry Prize for Hoe je geliefde te herkennen and the Libris Literature Prize for his novel Franklin. Lieske studies Dutch language and literature at Leiden University. After a working period as a teacher and painter, he turned to writing from the age of 40. Some of his books, including the novel Alles kantelt, feature memories of his childhood in the part of the Hague district of Bezuidenhout destroyed by a 1945 bombing. Recent books are the novels Honderd hoge dagen (2020) and Het spettert geluk (2021), as well as Brandende kevers, a choice from his own poetry. He received the F. Bordewijk Prize for Niets dat hier hemelt (2023). In 2024 he publishes Wij van de Ripetta, a historical novel about Caravaggio, among others. He has been awarded with the Constantijn Huygens-prijs in 2024 for his body of works.
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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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Saskia Bruines

(Netherlands, 1962) is The Hague's alderman for Finance, Culture and Economy. She studied social geography with a specialisation in historical geography at the University of Amsterdam and published the book Binnewaeters Gewelt, 450 jaar boezembeheer in Hollands Noorderkwartier. From 1998 to 2006, she was a member of the Amsterdam City Council and an Amsterdam alderman from 1999 to 2002. She then served as alderman of Leidschendam-Voorburg from 2012 to 2017 and as alderman of The Hague since 2017.
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Walter Stokman

(1966) is a film documentary director and screenwriter. Stokman gained fame with ASH World Wide Suicide (2002), a documentary about American suicidal persons. For this film, he won the Best Documentary award at the Brooklyn Festival and received a Golden Calf. His documentaries are screened at festivals around the world and often win awards. Subsequently, he made films including Based on a True Story (2004), Beautiful in Beaufort Wes (2006), Scena del Crimine (Venice Film Festival selection, special mention Docudays Kiev), Dirty Window (2012) in which he follows the trail back to Hungary of a 19-year-old prostitute murdered in the Amsterdam Red Light District in 2009, Teledoc Adelborsten (2014) and true crime doc Lazy Duck (2022). In his new film The Kyiv Files, Stokman delves into old KGB files. In doing so, he examines files of people who, unbeknownst to them, were shadowed by the Soviet secret service.
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DJ Socrates

(UK, 1980), like the philosopher, remains curious about new things. Always pushing boundaries and incorporating fresh music. He approaches each set as a unique road trip with a wide range of styles and countries passing by. His kaleidoscopic sound includes global reggae, trippy cumbia, UK bass, slow rave & African acid. With 20 years of experience under his belt, Socrates has matured like a good wine to celebrate life with. During Writers Unlimited Festival, he will provide a swinging Silent Disco in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui during Friday and Saturday Night Unlimited from 23:15 hours onwards.
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Marjoleine de Vos

(The Netherlands, 1957) is a writer, poet, columnist and arts editor of Dutch national newspaper NRC. She writes about art, literature and cooking, and has a fortnightly column on the opinion page. A selection of these columns was collected in Nu en altijd: bespiegelingen (2000) and Het is zo vandaag als altijd (2011). She also wrote a column for the opinion weekly VolZin for ten years. In 2000, she published her first collection of poetry, Zeehond graag, which was nominated for the VSB Poëzieprijs 2002. Kat van sneeuw followed in 2003, then Het waait (2008), Uitzicht genoeg (2013) and Hoe verschillig (2021). In 2020, she published the hiking essay Je keek te ver. De Vos received the Groenman Language Prize in 2023: 'her delicate and poetic, on first reading mostly simple, use of language sings through in all her publications,' the jury said.
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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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Jan Kuijper

(Amsterdam, 1947) made his debut in 1973 with the collection Sonnetten (Sonnets), also the verse form on which he has focused in his literary oeuvre. In 1980, he received the Herman Gorter Prize for the collection Oogleden (Eyelids) and in 1990 the Jan Campert Prize for Tomben (Tombs) for which he drew inspiration from seven centuries of Dutch poetry. He also put his talent and technique to use in translations of, among others, dozens of children's books such as Lewis Carroll's De jacht op de Slaai (The Hunting of the Snark) and, in 2010, Hadewijch's Liefdesliederen (Lovesongs). Kuijper worked as an editor at publishing house Querido and later at Athenaeum-Polak &Van Gennep. He was editor of the literary magazine De Revisor from 1984 to 1993.
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Maartje Meijer

(1985) studied voice and piano major at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam to focus on arranging during her master studies, under the guidance of renowned arranger and conductor Jörg Achim Keller (NDR, WDR big band). Now she leads the young talent jazz department at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, writes commissioned music, conducts choirs and releases albums or EPs with her own songs. Since 2022, Maartje has been the musical director of the JONG JOC Bootcamp, the talent development project for young people of the big band Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.
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Youri Straatman

is a hairdresser and better known as De Mattenkoning (King of the Mat, the archetypical Hague hair style). 'Friesland, Zeeland, Germany, you name it': from far and wide, people come to Kinki Kappers Noordeinde in The Hague to have their mat taken care of by Youri. 'It's just a natural talent that's in me.' The sides and top short, the ears free and at the back 'let it freely flutter': Youri knows better than anyone how to cut the mat.
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The Voice - In search of the character's soul

Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 20:00 tot 20:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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We gave extra attention to the human voice during this festival edition with the theme "Human Voices". We asked Connie Palmen to write a new essay for The Voice - in search of the character's soul and to open Saturday Night Unlimited with it.

In her keynote speech, Palmen spoke about how an author gives voice to characters. The voice is the meeting point between body and soul, where interior and exterior meet. A novel begins to come alive through the voice of the character.

This theme was the subject of the following discussion between Palmen, Celeste Ng and Sacha Bronwasser, who published the novel Luister (Listen) in 2023. Writer and journalist Sarah Sluimer moderated.

Connie Palmen is the author of essays, stories, a novella, and her six great, award-winning novels, including I.M. and Jij zegt het (If You Say So). Recently she published Voornamelijk vrouwen (Mostly Women), a collection of personal essays about how eleven famous and headstrong women and one man give shape to their own lives.

Sacha Bronwasser is a writer and art historian. For twenty years, she was the fine art critic for the Volkskrant newspaper. Her debut novel Niets is gelogen (Nothing is a Lie, 2019) was followed in 2023 by Luister (Listen), an ingeniously written and riveting novel set in the eighties nad now.

Celeste Ng (USA), internationally one of the most-read authors with Asian roots, wrote three true page-turners. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), is a sensitive portrait of a family with several cultures. An even bigger bestseller, Little Fires Everywhere, was turned into a film with Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts (2022), takes on the love between mother and child, discrimination of people with Asian roots, and humanity in dark times.

Festival tip: Celeste Ng also appeared during Friday Night Unlimited (19 January 2024). Connie Palmen appeared on Saturday afternoon, 20 January 2024 in conversation with artist Sven Ratzke in the event You Do Something to Me about their collaboration on his new show Marlene, from which he performed several famous Dietrich songs.


Meer details bekijken

Garbage In, Garbage Out: Poetry event

Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 20:00 tot 20:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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Is the lyrical voice a chatbot confidently making statements based on an outdated dataset?

Maarten van der Graaff, who curated Garbage In, Garbage Out, asked these poets to listen carefully to chatbots skimming the Internet to answer our questions. What does the tone of chatbots forging all that information into sentences mean for poetry?

What is the role of the body in writing, reading and listening to poetry? Who or what do you actually hear when listening to a poem: an intimate voice, or a cacophony? Can the poem be a garbage collector?

Garbage In, Garbage Out is an event featuring both formerly published poetry as well as work newly written for the occasion by and with Ronelda Kamfer, Simone Atangana Bekono, Astrid Lampe, Dewi de Nijs Bik and (via a previously recorded video presentation) Zheng Xiaoqiong. Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life by Aminatta Forna

Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 20:00 tot 20:20 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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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: Hassnae Bouazza.

Aminatta Forna chose as her favourite Anils Ghost (2019) by Michael Ondaatje. In this novel, Anil returns to her homeland Sri Lanka, devastated by civil war. Commissioned by the United Nations, she investigates the victims of massacres on the island. When she falls under the spell of a skeleton she finds, a feverish search for its identity ensues - until Anil's own life is in danger. Meer details bekijken

The Voice of the City - Very Short Stories

Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 20:15 tot 21:15 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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Hague students of the Edith Stein College, John Dewey College and De Vrije School interpreted the Voice of the City in a Very Short Story. They were inspired to write these stories during writing workshops at school and a walk through The Hague, led by Diann van Faassen.
While they presented their stories, Matthijs Sluiter created live illustrations of the movement of the walk through the city as an extra interaction between word and image. Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life with Emilienne Malfatto

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 20:30 tot 20:50 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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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: Hassnae Bouazza.

Emilienne Malfatto chose as her favorit Undesirable Alien (L'indésirable, 1975) by French author, philosopher and academic Jules Régis Debray, a novel about a Swiss man who joins a group of insurgents in Latin America, and the politics and personal drama that follow. Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life with Ellen Deckwitz

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 21:00 tot 21:20 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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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: Hassnae Bouazza.

Ellen Deckwitz chose as her favorite The Evenings (De avonden, 1947) by Gerard Reve, his 1947 debut novel about Frits van Egters, a 23-year-old failed grammar school student plagued by terrible dreams. He is annoyed with his father, his mother and with his friends. Meer details bekijken

Film: The Kyiv Files (Pre-premiere)

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 21:00 tot 22:50 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 2
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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The former KGB archive in Kyiv was made public in 2017, allowing Ukrainians to view their personal dossiers from the Soviet era for the first time. For many older citizens, it was an opportunity to get answers to questions that had been haunting them for decades.

Director Walter Stokman delved into three very different cases to make this extraordinary glimpse into the methods and reach of the Russian secret service. In one case, it set up a fake military base to capture Dutch amateur spies Reydon and De Jager. The story of Française Regine Chivrac shows that the KGB’s methods also bordered on paranoia — while visiting family in Ukraine, she started a relationship with a student who later turned out to be an informer.

Stokman shows how that era's years of suspicion echo through to the present, with irreparable damage done to family relationships, a son now fighting against the Russians, and a generation of people who have been on their guard all their lives. A starring role goes to cameraman Jackó van ’t Hof’s meticulous observations of today’s Ukraine. (Source: IDFA)

The screening of the film was followed by a Dutch spoken Q & A with director Walter Stokman, hosted by Peter de Bruijn, chief literary editor at NRC. Meer details bekijken

Everything You Never Asked About Adoption

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 21:05 tot 21:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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In Everything you never asked about Adoption, journalist Sharid Alles spoke with writer Ennatu Domingo about her book Burnt Eucalyptus Wood, her quest for answers to her questions about identity, and her connection with her birthplace, Ethiopia.

"Where do you come from? Who are your real parents? Would you like to meet them?" These questions are put to adoptees repeatedly, often excessively, yet seldom touch upon the questions the adoptees themselves ponder.

In this program, Sharid Alles, and Ennatu Domingo, who share a history of adoption, delved into a discussion about the truly relevant topics. What does it mean to construct one's sense of self when the past is unknown? How does growing up in an adoptive family influence the way someone perceives and shapes their own identity? What challenges can adoptees face when trying to understand their cultural and personal identity?

Ennatu Domingo debuted in 2022 with her biographical story Burnt Eucalyptus Wood: On Origins, Language and Identity. At age 7 she came to Barcelona as an adoptee but never forgot her early years in Ethiopia. Her book is full of loving memories yet also shows the socio-economic realities. She impressively depicts the search for connection that many adopted and migrant children know so well.

Sharid Alles is a radio producer, writer, presenter and podcaster. For a dozen years she has worked as a presenter, radio DJ, producer, editor, editor-in-chief, program head and station manager for various Dutch radio channels. She has also recently published two children's books. Meer details bekijken

Chat GPT - The New Bestseller Author

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 21:10 tot 22:05 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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Humans and machines always seemed to reinforce each other. Since the advent of AI and a tool such as Chat GPT, the relationship between humans and machines has been on edge. What is the human voice? And what does AI's influence on the human voice mean for literature? Is ChatGPT a friend or foe for authors?

Bas Haring opened this event with a spoken essay addressing artificial intelligence and what it means for humans, and writers in particular.

Learn more about the possibilities and impossibilities of AI and ChatGPT in a conversation between writer Hanna Bervoets, who follows the developments in the field of AI and has experimented with ChatGPT; digital strategist Ilyaz Nasrullah; and philosopher Bas Haring. Moderator Oumaima Hajri researches artificial intelligence and ethics.

Hanna Bervoets is a writer of seven novels, several screenplays, stories and essays. in 2017 she won the BNG Bank Literature Prize for Ivanov, and in the same year, the Frans Kellendonk Prize for her entire oeuvre. In her novels, she often investigates the influence of science and technology on humans. Her novel Leer me alles wat je weet (Teach me all you know) was published recently. Bervoets also writes essays and reviews about media and popular (Internet) culture.

Bas Haring is a philosopher who holds a PhD in artificial intelligence and is professor of Public Understanding of Science at Leiden University. In his latest book Kunstmatige intelligentie is niet eng (Artificial intelligence Isn't scary), he writes, among other things, that "computer smarts" will make our lives a lot easier. But it is also suspenseful, because what is in store for all of us?

Ilyaz Nasrullah stresses that he is first and foremost a human, and only then an IT graduate in Data Sciences from TU Delft and a consultant advising companies and governments on digital strategy and innovation. According to him, digital technology is too often seen as an end in itself, which loses sight of people. The columns for Trouw newspaper stand out because they make difficult topics easier to understand.

Oumaima Hajri uses her expertise at the intersection of technology, ethics and society. She currently holds the role of Senior International Advisor at the Dutch Personal Data Authority, where she works on AI, algorithms and European legislation. She is also engaged in decolonisation and demystification of AI at the University of Cambridge, aiming to stop the negative impact of digitalisation on society, especially vulnerable minorities. She holds a BSc in International Relations, an MSc in Data Science & Society and is a board member at Public Spaces. She is also the initiator of the Alliance Against Military AI and co-founder of the AI Better World platform.

Festivaltip: after this programme, in Filmhuis Den Haag's Zaal 2 from 23:00-23:35 hours five brilliant short films (including an Oscar winner) were screened that come to grips with AI and the man-machine relationship. Meer details bekijken

Writers Unlimited Festivalcafé

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 21:15 tot 23:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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Here, at the beating heart of the Writers Unlimited festival, you could encounter one another over a drink. At the Radio Writers Unlimited-table, host and DJ Francis Broekhuijsen played tunes and got into conversations on air with festival authors, among others. In the Poetry Poly, Gerda Blees wrote a poem for you on the spot. The bookshop of De Vries Van Stockum, fully stocked with books by festival authors, was open all evening. From 23:15 hours, DJ Socrates welcomed you in his Silent Disco with swinging beats.

Meet & Greet at the bookshop:
Meeting with authors for a chat or book signing! Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life with Marja Pruis

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 21:30 tot 21:50 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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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: Hassnae Bouazza.

Marja Pruis chose as her favourite Mrs. Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf, the novel in which Clarissa Dalloway goes to buy flowers one summer morning. She is making final preparations for the party she is going to give that evening. As she walks through London, she reflects on her life. Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life with Astrid Lampe

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 22:00 tot 22:20 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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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: Hassnae Bouazza.

Astrid Lampe chose How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (2019) by Jenny Odell as her favorite. Meer details bekijken

Picture This -- Words Versus Images -- with Sacha Bronwasser and Emilienne Malfatto

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 22:10 tot 23:10 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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Sacha Bronwasser is an art historian as well as a writer. Emilienne Malfatto is a war photographer besides a writer. In both of their work, the language of the image plays an important role. What can you express in pictures that you cannot express in words? And conversely, what can you say with language as a writer that you cannot express via photos or fine art? Margot Dijkgraaf moderated this discussion, illustrated with images chosen by the writers, and with presentations of excerpts from their novels. Meer details bekijken

Old Ties, New Connections: A trip via the Indonesian past to the present

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 22:15 tot 23:15 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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The ties between The Netherlands and Indonesia is a complicated history, and has strongly influenced generations of people with roots in the Dutch Indies. How do writers from generations born in The Netherlands view the land of their (grand)parents? The country they only know from lore, and with which they have built a new relationship of their own? Old Ties, New Connections is about having roots in another country and another time, about displacement and fresh ties to Indonesia.

Adriaan van Dis' work leads back in part to his Dutch Indies background. His 2023 novel Naar zachtheid en een warm omhelzen (To Tenderness and a Warm Hug), deals with his youth with his grandfather and Ommie, the woman who cared for and brought him up when Van Dis could not go home because his father struggled with the trauma of having been in a internment camp.

Maddy Stolk wrote in her autofiction novel Soedah, laat maar (Soedah, Never Mind, 2023) about her mothers past in an internment camp and how it affected her whole youth while she empties the house after her mother's death. In this way, she confronts the ghosts of her youth one more time.

Authors Ellen Deckwitz, Lara Nuberg and Robin Block belong to the third generation of Indonesians in The Netherlands. How do they look at the preceding generations? What is their view of the country where their ancestors were born?

With a presentation by Adriaan van Dis, Ellen Deckwitz, Lara Nuberg and Robin Block. Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life with Tash Aw

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 22:30 tot 22:50 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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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: Hassnae Bouazza.

Tash Aw chose as his favorite Giovanni's Room, the 1956 novel by James Baldwin. The book focuses on the events in the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men in his life, particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni whom he meets at a Parisian gay bar. Meer details bekijken

Book of My Life with Celeste Ng

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 23:00 tot 23:20 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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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: Hassnae Bouazza.

Celeste Ng chose as her favorite Transformations (1971) by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Anne Sexton: this collection of poem-stories is a strange, wondrous retelling of Grimms' fairy tales including Snow White, Rumpelstilskin and Rapunzel. Meer details bekijken

Artificial Intelligence - Short-Film Compilation

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Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 23:00 tot 23:35 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 2
Price Saturday Night Unlimited
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In this compilation of five shorts -- four from The Netherlands and one from Luxemburg/Fance -- the filmmakers depict views of the relationship between humanity, machine and artificial intelligence with great creativity and, above all, with great realism.

Humanoid - Direction: Eva Wijers, 2018, 6 min.
Humanoid -- or "human or something like it" -- is a 2D frame-to-frame animation with a philosophical slant. It explores how our human self-image is affected by the rise of artificial intelligence. The project is inspired by Max Tegman's book life 3.0, which paints a dizzying picture of the possible near future. Form and content cannot be separated in this minimalist black-and-white film.

Car Craze - Direction: Evert de Beijer, 2003, 12 min.
An original sci-fi animation in which the Earth is ruled by ecologically responsible authorities. The planet seems under control until an eco-auditor discovers a society in which cars have developed into an autonomous life form, where the four-wheelers call the shots and people are reduced to inert, car-addicted passengers.

Bovenkamer/Upper Room - Directon: André Maat, 2015, 3 min.
Comic drama about a tireless guard and his small but important task: he cares for a jar of brains. Then the fuses blow and he makes an irrevocable choice.

Lifeless - Direction: Fokke Mars, Bas Jansen, Max van der Ree, 2016, 2 min.
A new type of organism is born, made not of flesh but of circuits and wires. Behold how the life of this organism unfolds, how it grows and flourishes until it inevitably ends. 

Mr. Hublot - Direction: Laurent Witz en Alexandre Espigares, 2014, 11 min.
Mr. Hublot lives in a world in which everything and everyone is mostly built of mechanical parts. The reticent Mr. Hublot is frightened of all change and the big bad world outside his door. He prefers cocooning in his cozy apartment, but the arrival of the dog Robot Pet changes things and turns the world of the good Mr. Hublot upside down. The 2014 Oscar-winner for best animated short! Meer details bekijken

Discover

29 September 2026

De gesmoorde stem van de vrouw door Alicja Gescinska

Dit korte essay werd geschreven door Alicja Gescinska voor het programma Vrouwen (her)schrijven geschiedenis op 14 september, over de stem van vrouwen in hun streven naar vrijheid, soms met gevaar voor eigen leven.

15 September 2026

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Get your Early Bird tickets for the big festival nights, Friday & Saturday Night Unlimited!