Timothy Snyder, renowned American historian specialising in the history of Central and Central Europe, opened Writing in Times of War with a mini-lecture on the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Writers Andrei Kurkov, Timothy Snyder and Lisa Weeda then explored in a  conversation with Eva Hartog, using their own work and the work of their fellow writers, what it means to write about and in times of war. Is language adequate, does language offer comfort and is language the best medium to tell the world about the situation in a war zone? Is fiction sometimes necessary to describe the facts?

Timothy Snyder is an internationally leading historian specialising in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Holocaust. The professor of History at Yale University has published influential studies such as Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz (1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (2003); Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist’s Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (2005); The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (2008); Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), Thinking the Twentieth Century (with Tony Judt, 2012); Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015); On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017); and The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018) and the highly topical On Freedom (2024).

Andrei Kurkov is a Ukrainian writer famous for the mix of harsh realism and absurdist humour in his novels and non fiction books. He was born in Leningrad, grows up in Kyiv and writes in Russian and Ukrainian. His works have been translated in 37 languages and were published in 65 countries. He is a respected commentator on the situation in his country. In The President's Last Love, Kurkov employs humour and cynicism to describe how a boy manages to work his way up to become the most powerful man in the country. Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev, his eyewitness account of political unrest in the Ukraine, was published in 2014. Dairy of an Invasion (2022) and Our daily war (2024) are collections of Kurkov's writings and broadcasts as well as a remarkable record of a brilliant writer at the forefront of a 21st-century war. In 2024, he published The Silver Bone, the first part of The Kyiv Mysteries, his series of crime novels in historical settings. The second part The Stolen Heart will be published in 2025; the third part The Public Sauna Case is in development.

LIsa Weeda writes prose, plays and non-fiction. Her chapbook De benen van Petrovski (Petrovski's Legs), a literary account of her trip to the Ukraine, where her grandmother comes from and a large part of her family still lives, was published in 2016. Her debut novel Aleksandra was published in 2021. In it, her grandmother is the hub of the story. She sends main character Lisa to the Donbas to search for her uncle Kolja. The novel, grimly topical due to the war in Ukraine, encompasses in a maelstrom of dreams and nightmares both the history of a country and a family. Weeda has published work in De Revisor, Tirade, Das Magazin, De Titaan and De Optimist. In 2024 she published her novel Dans dans revolutie (Dance, dance, revolution).

Eva Hartog is a Dutch-Russian journalist who worked in Russia for ten years. Hartog studied Political Philosophy at the Leiden University. She was the editor-in-chief of the English-language newspaper The Moscow Times from 2017 to 2019. As a correspondent for publications such as De Groene Amsterdammer, she lived and worked in Moscow until her visa was not renewed in 2023. Now, she is a journalist for Politico where she publishes about Russia and about autocratic tendencies across the globe.

Writing in Times of War was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens. Meer details bekijken

Writers told 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: Ellen Deckwitz.

Onjuli Datta spoke abut Theft by Finding by American author and humorist David Sedaris, famed as the ‘king of comic tales’. Those who saw his him perform live know: the diary reading is the highlight of the evening. For Theft by Finding (2017), he selected his own diary stories from 1977-2002, the period when he held all sorts of odd jobs and his writing developed. Meer details bekijken

Students of the Edith Stein College in The Hague interpreted De stem van de stad (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

Writers Unlimited was not the only one celebrating an anniversary in 2025: Het Zwarte Schaap, The Hague's spoken word and spoken literature platform was celebrating its fifth anniversary: a safe meeting place and community for writers and their stories.

Het Zwarte Schaap opened the Saturday Night Unlimited programme in Zaal 2 of Theater aan het Spui with a special festival line-up. Performing in What Fuels Your Fire? are philosopher and spoken word artist Lev Avitan, writer and poet Rosabelle Illes and young spoken word talent Kylie Lyandra. Their readings were musically accompanied on piano by Djuwa Mroivili. In conversation with moderator Sophia Blyden, they answered what drives them to take the stage again and again, to constantly seek out people who listen to their words.

Rosabelle Illes, writer and spoken word artist from Aruba, tries to grasp the intangible and incomprehensible in her work. In her readings, she occasionally collaborates with musicians.

Djuwa Mroivili is a Comorian-Dutch multidisciplinary artist. Although trained as a classical pianist, she also experiments with other formats of performance in which music plays a role.

Lev Avitan is a word artist, philosopher and theatre maker. His work is characterised by vulnerable self-reflection and social engagement. His spoken word film Mijn moeder wil niet meer leven (My mother doesn't want to live anymore, 2024) can be seen on NPO START. With Nabil Tkhidousset, he played 7sheb 3lik, a stage performance on fatherhood and trauma transmission, in autumn 2024. Spring 2025, he will publish a poetic philosophy book.

Kylie Lyandra is a young spoken word artist and medical student who uses her words to discuss important issues. She finds comfort and strength in writing and its vulnerability. In 2022, she will start her spoken word journey. From her depression and love to growing up as a black girl, she brings it to the stage.

Sophia Blyden, moderator of What Fuels Your Fire?, is a poet, programme maker and studied Modern Dutch Literature in Leiden. In her prose and poetry, she explores themes such as loneliness, power relations and the boundary between fact and fiction. She also likes to be inspired by fairy tales, myths and pop culture. Her debut collection Dobberen was published in 2024.

Het Zwarte Schaap: What Fuels Your Fire? was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Daniëlle Zawadi. Meer details bekijken

With her enthusiasm and humour, Lidewijde Paris ping-ponged with the audience about meanings, interpretations and emotions. She provided viewing tips ahead of time so that after the screening, she could discuss the story and how it is told step-by-step with the audience. What symbolism was on view and how should you interpret the film's title? Was there a tipping point in the story? How did the film steer the viewer's emotions? She pointed out, where appropriate, literary techniques, and gave examples from famous novels. Note: Dutch spoken.

In the Iranian short film The Dinner Party, her daughter's engagement party is a more than stressful affair for Najibeh, who is the perfectionist mother at the heart of Neda Jebelli's vibrant short film.

It is not just about looking after her guests, but she also has to deal with a family secret and the political turmoil raging outside her door. The film is set entirely in the kitchen, with the women, behind the scenes of the party, where their courtesies and labels slowly crumble.

The Dinner Party is based on the writer/director's personal experiences as a teenager in Tehran during the 2009 Green Revolution. Instead of situating her film in the middle of the protests, she wanted to look at it from a different perspective: the female, domestic space. Within this domestic microcosm, power shifts strangely begin to mirror those of the outside world.The result is a film with depth, functioning not only as domestic drama but also as a political voice.

The Dinner Party (2023, 13 minutes)
Directed by: Neda JebelliIran.
With: Nazanin Farahani, Shaghayegh Shourian, Sarah Sajjadi, Pooneh Parsaie. Meer details bekijken

Writers told 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: Ellen Deckwitz.

George Abraham spoke about Gate of the Sun (2000), one of the best-known books by Lebanese writer, advocate of the Palestinian cause and university lecturer Elias Khoury, who died in 2024. In an emergency hospital of the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut, fate has brought two men together. Joenis, a freedom fighter who made his mark in the 1948 war, lies in a coma. His protégé Khaliel, a 40-year-old Palestinian nurse who was born in the camp and never saw his homeland, refuses to accept that his hero is doomed. Meer details bekijken

Writers told 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: Ellen Deckwitz.

Mira Feticu chose as her favorite the novel De Mitsukoshi Troostbaby Company (2021) by Auke Hulst, an ambitious hybrid of memoir, robot story, time travel narrative and alternate history, focusing on loss, guilt and parenthood. Meer details bekijken

At a time when war is raging in Europe, in the Middle East and on the African continent, the question arises: what is the role of remembrance today? For many Dutch people, the Second World War is central to the national culture of remembrance. But what does this emphasis on one war mean for our image of the Netherlands?

Herdenken onder vuur (Remembering under Fire) explored how the emphasis on the Second World War in Dutch remembrance affects our national self-image and what role it plays in the recognition of other forms of violence, such as those in the former colonies and forms of oppression today.

The National Commemoration on 15 August 1945, the day commemorating the end of the Japanese occupation in Indonesia, is used as a case study. How does this commemoration relate to the broader historiography of the Netherlands and which voices are given space here or not?

With literary contributions by Sinan Çankaya, Maurits de Bruijn and Lara Nuberg, Herdenken onder vuur offered a reflection on the thesis of how commemoration is not only about the past, but also about the choices we make today. In conversation led by Nancy Jouwe, we explored how war, colonialism and identity continue to shape our national self-image and collective memory. Dutch spoken.

Remembrance under Fire was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Lara Nuberg. Meer details bekijken

In the beating festival heart, you met with a drink and a bite to eat. Presenter and DJ Francis Broekhuijsen created the right atmosphere with his virtual Writers Unlimited Radio Show, kept you informed about the extensive festival programme and you could always request your favourite song On Air.

The famous Hague poet Sjaak Kroes created a tailor-made poem for you with his Woordenwisseling (Exchange of Words). Poet Dorien Dijkhuis took you on a seven minute journey in VER, her poetic VR installation. De Vries Van Stockum's bookshop was open all evening and richly stocked with books by festival authors; you could also meet them there and have their work signed.

Together with the Silent Eclectic Disco Show by DJ Socrates, we danced into the late night. Didn't want to dance but wanted to have a chat? Then there was plenty of room for that. No obligations, do as you like..that was the credo of the Writers Unlimited Festival heart! Meer details bekijken

What does it mean when you have to leave your country of origin to start a new life in another place? Writers Abdelkader Benali and Rešoketšwe Manenzhe told stories about migration and displacement, based on their latest books. Çiler Ilhan moderated the conversation.

In her debut novel Scatterlings (published in the Netherlands as Zwervelingen), Manenzhe wrote about the disintegration and displacement of a biracial family as a result of the racist 1927 Ontuchtwet, which criminalised biracial relationships.

Stories of migration also take centre stage in De opdracht van de Moor (The Assignment of the Moor), Abdelkader Benali's new novel published in January 2025: stories of travellers, refugees and fortune-seekers that form the basis of an ambitious project: moving flood-threatened Venice to a safe desert in the Middle East.

Rešoketšwe Manenzhe is a poet, short story writer and novelist. Her short stories and poems have appeared in the Kalahari Review, Fireside Fiction, Praxis Magazine, Lolwe, FIYAH, and the 2017 Sol Plaatjie European Union Anthology, among others. She holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Cape Town (UCT). Her debut, the historical novel Scatterlings (2020) is set in 1927, when South Africa passes the Immorality Act, prohibiting sexual intercourse between white and black people. Those who break the draconian new law face imprisonment.

Abdelkader Benali 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. His new novel De opdracht van de Moor (The Moor's mission) is published in January 2025.

Çiler Ilhan writes novels, essays, reviews and translations for various newspapers and magazines. In 2006 she debuted with the short-story collection Ruya Tacirleri Odası (Chamber of Dream Merchants). Surgun (Exile, 2010) won the EU Literature Prize and was published in 24 countries. In 2021 she published Nişan Evi (Engagement), a novella about lives lost under the weight of power factors in eastern Turkey.

Scatterlings was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens. Meer details bekijken

Writers told 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: Charlotte Remarque.

Timothy Snyder chose as his favorite book The Handmaid's Tale by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. Meer details bekijken

American poet George Abraham feels strongly about the war in Palestine because of his Palestinian roots. They also write from a queer and feminist perspective about the right to exist, gender roles and identity.

Dutch filmmaker Beri Shalmashi has roots in Iranian Kurdistan. Among other things, she has made films about the devastating effects of war in her homeland and a host of other themes. Her most recent film Casting Call is about an actor who feels forced to play a role he does not want to play.

Both read and showed excerpts from their work and engaged in conversation with Movies That Matter director Margje de Koning. What is their working method and what are the differences in approach between a writer and a filmmaker? What do they hope to trigger in the reader or viewer with their texts or film? Do they see their work as an indictment or as medicine?

A crossover programme with film and literature, and on art and human rights, organised by Writers Unlimited and Movies that Matter.

George Abraham is a Palestinian American poet, performance artist, and writer. They are the author of When the Arab Apocalypse Comes to America (Haymarket Books, 2026) and Birthright (2020) which won the Arab American Book Award and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. They edit for Mizna, a Southwest Asian and North African diasporic literary journal, and are co-editor of HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE US: Palestinian Poetry (Haymarket Books, 2025). Their current projects also include Eve, a performance project with Fargo Tbakhi re-imagining Milton's Paradise Lost through the lens of Palestinian resistance. They currently teach in Amherst College's English department as a Writer-in-Residence.

Beri Shalmashi is a screenwriter and director, she graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy and obtained her MA from the Utrecht School of the Arts. Shalmashi's first film Mama was nominated for a Gouden Kalf and she won the prestigious Silver Camera for Storytelling with Big Village. She made Aan de rand van de revolutie (On the Edge of the Revolution) for Dutch national broadcaster VPRO's Frontline, set in the Kurdish border region between Iraq and Iran, and curated The Fire in Their Eyes, featuring work by 20 artists on the roots of the philosophy ‘woman, life, freedom. She is screenwriter of the telefilm Casting Call, worked as a consultant for the Netherlands Film Fund and is director of programme agency Avanti.

Margje de Koning is a filmmaker and director of Movies That Matter. After finshing her Theatre and Film Studies, she made many documentaries for various broadcasters in The Netherlands and abroad. At Dutch national broadcaster IKON, she was responsible for the Television Department from 2005 and, from 2012, Head of TV, Radio and New Media. When IKON merged into national broadcaster EO in 2016, she was Commisioning Editor Documentaries there. In 2019, she became artistic director of Movies That Matter in The Hague, which screens human rights related films during the annual festival and many other events year-round.

Festival tip: the upcoming Movies That Matter festival edition will take place from 21 up to and including 29 March 2025 at Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. Meer details bekijken

Writers told 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: Charlotte Remarque.

Sophia Blyden chose as her favourite book Never Let Me Go (2005) by Nobel Prize laureate Kazuo Ishigoro, a gripping novel (successfully adapted for the big screen, like his best-known book The Remains of the Day) about moral dilemmas surrounding clones bred to save the lives of others. Meer details bekijken

Your perception of Femininity and Masculinity challenged: this program was a celebration of Gender, Literature and Creative Energy.

Alvina Chamberland and Alara Adilow read from their work and spoke with Alejandra Ortiz about in what way these concepts define their work and their lives. After the conversation (in English) the venue was turned into a Room of Joy, with music and dance to celebrate everyone's uniqueness, opened by a performance of poet and spoken word artist Zaïre Krieger. Music artist and performer Patri Roa Johansen and DJ Shari Jae subsequently got everyone on their feet to dance along.

Alara Adilow is a Somali poet and writer living in the Netherlands. Her poetry collection Mythen en stoplichten (Myths and Traffic Lights, 2022) was one of the most striking debuts of recent years. She has published poetry in Dutch literary publications, and works on her first novel Kijk es naar al dit licht (Look at all this light), to be published in 2025.

Alvina Chamberland is a Swedish-American author of predominantly literary autofiction novels, residing between Athens and Berlin. Through poetic prose, sharp social commentary and self-deprecating gallows humor her novel and English language debut Love the World or Get Killed Trying (2024) dives into the mind of Alvina, a trans woman on the eve of turning 30.

Zaïre Krieger is a poet, spoken word artist, activist, journalist and translator. Her performances are layered, rhythmic and sincere. She translated the poem The Hill We Climb recited by Amanda Gorman during Joe Biden's inauguration into Dutch. In 2025, Krieger's bilingual poetry collection Chameleon will be published, about creating your own place to feel at home and allowing yourself to be multidimensional.

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. Ortiz wrote the autobiographical De waarheid zal me bevrijden (The Truth Will Free Me, 2022) about her youth, her life as a transgender woman, and her quest for a safe place to be herself.

Patri Roa Johansen is a Colombian-Danish classically trained musician, a performance artist, and a trans community builder. Currently, he lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is a member of Papaya Kuir, an intersectional feminist organization for and by Trans, Lesbian & Queer Latinx asylum seekers/migrants in The Netherlands. He is also a founding member of the award winning House of Løstbois, an Amsterdam-based drag king collective. Since 2019, Patri aka LatinX Charm, has done creative research on gender expression through realness drag.

Shari Jae has been the driving force of the T-Huis (Transhuis) in Amsterdam, a safe space for trans people in Amsterdam's Red Light District, since its inception. In 2024, she took a festive leave as coordinator. She remains committed to the target group. As a baby, she arrived in the Netherlands in the late 1960s from Biafra (now Nigeria), where a civil war was raging at the time. Growing up with foster parents, she never saw the effects of polio as an obstacle. When she was in her 40s, she made her gender transition. She has been an ambassador for Pride Amsterdam since 2021.

Trans, Writing, Joy is curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Alejandra Ortiz and Shantie Singh. Meer details bekijken

Humour is delightful, popular and interesting. Because with humour, all kinds of discomfort can be laughed away. Books and poems are quite often uncomfortable. Writers, theatre makers and stage artists Joost Oomen and Viv Groskop - both very skilled at handling laughter - examined the role of humour and discomfort in literature in a conversation moderated by poet Ellen Deckwitz. English spoken.

Joost Oomen is a poet, writer, theatre-maker and drummer. His debut novel Het Perenlied (The Pear Song, 2022) is a "tender, joyful, optimistic and overwhelming story" (Tzum). Visjes: een avontuur op Salina (Small fish: an adventure on Salina, 2022) is both travelogue and paean to Italian islands. Lievegedicht (Dear Poem, 2023) his first collection of poetry, received - unusually for poetry - reprint after reprint. His novel Het paradijs van slapen (The Paradise of Sleeping, 2024) is about love, death, Friesland, Terschelling, art and euthanasia. Joost regularly recites poems in TV programmes; in his theatre performance Alle dichters hebben gouden helikopters (All poets have golden helicopters), he explained how poetry works through stories about poets and his own work. He is also one of the three founders of the instagram channel @poezieiseendaad.

Viv Groskop is a writer, stand up comedian, broadcaster and performance coach. She is the author of best-sellers as How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking (2018) and Happy High Status: How to Be Effortlessly Confident (2023). Her podcast How to Own the Room is the biggest public speaking podcast in the world and features interviews with Hillary Clinton, Margaret Atwood and Julie Andrews. Her other books include The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature and Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature. She appears regularly on BBC TV and radio and for six years she did a run of sold-out one-woman comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Ellen Deckwitz is a poet, columnist, critic and presenter at literary events, including Writers Unlimited. For De steen vreest mij (The stone fears me, 2011), she was awarded the C. Buddingh' Prize for the best poetry debut. Her collection Hogere natuurkunde (Higher physics, 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 poezie (First aid at poetry) was published, an omnibus containing her collections Olijven moet je leren lezen (Olives must be read, 2020) and Dit gaat niet over grasmaaien (This is not about lawn mowing, 2021). Deckwitz writes columns for national daily newspaper NRC. In her NPO Luister podcast Poezie vandaag, she presents a Dutch or translated poem every workday morning. She is one of three critics of podcast Boeken FM.

Humour and discomfort was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens. Meer details bekijken

Writers told 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: Charlotte Remarque.

Lisa Weeda chose as her favorite Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, a 2022 novel of speculative fiction by fanatasy novelist Rebecca F. Kuang, who was born in China and raised in the USA. Thematically similar to The Poppy War, Kuang's first book series, the book criticizes British imperialism, capitalism, and the complicity of academia in perpetuating and enabling them. Babel is set in an alternative-reality 1830s England in which Britain's global economic and colonial supremacy are fueled by the use of magical silver bars. Their power comes from capturing what is "lost in translation" between words in different languages that have similar, but not identical, meanings. Meer details bekijken

Writers told 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: Charlotte Remarque.

Çiler Ilhan spoke about The Woman Has No Name by Turkish journalist, best-selling author and women's rights advocate Duygu Asena (1946-2006), a novel about growing up in Turkey. It is the story of a young woman who rebels against what she sees as unjust traditions and customs in modern Turkey. From an early age, she tries to break away from strict morals. Consequently, her search for passion and an identity of her own causes problems. When this book was published in Turkey in 1987 with the title Kadının adı yok, it was initially banned. It has since gone into reprint 40 times and has been released translated in several countries. Meer details bekijken

DJ Socrates unleashed his beats on your headphones and got you into a deliciously swinging groove. Dance along at the Silent Disco! Or rather catch up over a drink? No obligations, do as you like. Meer details bekijken