Feast of Writers

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Appearances by singer, cabaret artist and actress Jenny Arean (accompanied on piano by Peter van der Zwaag), singer Mathilde Santing (accompanied by musicians Bastiaan Mulder and Guus Bakker), memory psychologist and author Douwe Draaisma, jazz pianist and composer Maartje Meijer and photographer and writer Hans Aarsman made this a fantastic Schrijversfeest edition.

They performed to honour the winners of the literary prizes that the Jan Campert Foundation awarded on behalf of the City of The Hague. These were handed out during this Winternachten festival afternoon by the Mayor of The Hague, Pauline Krikke, and Robert van Asten, alderman for mobility, culture and strategy.

The Schrijversfeest was opened by young poet Maxime Garcia Diaz who reads from her own work. Then high-school students recited their poetry written during workshops at school. Among them Sumai Yahya, who won the Young Campert Prize last year. The audience decided which of three student nominees won this award for a young Hague poet this time.

Nelleke Noordervliet received the Constantijn Huygens Prize for her complete oeuvre. Since 1987 she has published a large number of novels, novellas, stories, essays and radio commentaries. Themes of historic ties, freedom, the collective and responsibility characterize her work. Her latest novel is Aan het eind van de dag (At the End of the Day, 2016)

Jan van Aken received the F. Bordewijk Prize for his novel De ommegang (The Procession). It takes place in Europe during the year 1400, "a time when fierceness prevails, death is always lurking, and the equally brilliant and opportunistic protagonist attempts to defend his position so that he can build a cathedral", according to the jury.

Annemarie Estor received the Jan Campert Prize for Niemandslandnacht (No-Man's-Land Night). This swirling prose poem, which reveals itself further at every reading, evokes a world that is both surreal and contemporary.

The biannual J. Greshoff Prize went to Marja Pruis for her essay collection Genoeg nu over mij (Enough Now about Me). "I" must deserve you, writes the journalist, critic and writer. She certainly deserves this prize for her full-out and unabashed thinking and writing.

This programme is a collaboration with the Jan Campert Foundation / Literature Museum.

Information

Date and time Sunday 20 January 2019 from 14:30 to 16:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1

Line-up

Nelleke Noordervliet

(Netherlands, 1945) writes novels, stories, essays, lectures and columns with a strong historical bent. She debuted with 1987's Tine of de dalen waar het leven woont (Tine, or the Valleys Where Life Lives), a fictitious biography of 19th-century Dutch writer Multatuli's first wife. Her book De naam van de vader (The Name of the Father) won the 1994 Multatuli Prize. In 2002 she wrote Pelican Bay, about slavery in the Caribbean and the Netherlands. Her essay collection Schatplicht (Tribute) appeared in 2013, and her 2016 novel Aan het eind van de dag (At the End of the Day) is simultaneously a portrait of a career woman and a snapshot of the second half of the 20th century. De val van Thomas G. (The fall of Thomas G.) tells about the publisher of a controversial book. Noordervliet's body of work was awarded the 2018 Constantijn Huygens Prize.
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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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Sumai Yahya

is a young poet from The Hague who won the Young Campert Prize during the 2018 Winternachten festival. In the fall of 2017, he participated in Spot on Young Poets, the educational project of Writers Unlimited, the Hague Writers Guild and Meermanno Museum | House of the Book. This project constitutes poetry workshops at Hague high schools, where students are given lessons in poetry and recitation. Sumai presented his poem during Winternachten 2018. One of the three finalists, he won the Young Campert Prize for best student poet during the Writers' Feast. He was at the time a pupil of the Edith Stein College in The Hague.
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Mathilde Santing

started singing at the age of 11. During her career, Mathilde wins three Edisons, one Gouden Harp and hits the charts with songs like Wonderful life and Beautiful people. Afterwards, she impresses with Dutch language songs. Her latest albums are Both Sides Now, the songs of Joni Mitchell (live) (2016) en Troublemaker (2018) that includes - for the first time - songs she wrote herself. Mathilde can be seen and heard regularly on stage, in the North Sea Jazz Club and making guest appearances for, among others, Sven Ratzke and Thijs Borsten.
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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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Jan van Aken

(Herwen en Aerdt, NL, 1961) is a writer of historical novels. He debuted with Het oog van de Basilisk (The Eye of the Basilisk, 2000), followed by De valse dageraad (The False Dawn, 2001), De dwaas van Palmyra (The Fool of Palmyra, 2003), Het fluwelen labyrint (The Velvet Labyrinth, 2005) and Koning voor een dag (King for a Day, 2008). His 2013 novel De afvallige (The Apostate) wom the Gouden Vullings. Van Aken is often called the Umberto Eco of the Low Countries. In his novel De ommegang (The Procession), which won the 2018 F. Bordewijk Prize, the memory artist, healer and architect Isidorus van Rillington has a encounter in 1450 that completely changes his life. Tzum wrote the following about it: "What literature can do: shape a past reality in such a way that it comes alive for those who have the ability to believe in it." The author also writes for Optima and Nieuw Wereldtijdschrift and teaches at the Schrijversvakschool (Writers' School).
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Annemarie Estor

(1973) is a poet, essyaist and illustrator of her literary works. She twice won the Herman de Coninck Prize: for her debut poetry collection Vuurdoorn me (Firethorn Me) in 2011 and for De oksels van de bok (The Buck's Armpits) in 2013. In 2015 she published Dit is geen theater meer (This Goes Beyond Theatre). Characteristic of her poetry is an erotic or more generally sensual and sensory approach. Her collection Niemandslandnacht (No-Man's-Land Night) is a "crime poem" about a divided city where little is what it seems. It's a world of extremes - exotic but often terribly recognizable. It was awarded the 2018 Jan Campert Prize. In 2020 she published the poetry collection De bruidsvlucht (The Bride Flight) and the long poem Een nieuwe biotoop (A New Biotope) in Zwemlessen voor later (Swimming Lessons for Later), a collection of climate poems featuring 160 Dutch and Flemish poets.
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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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Douwe Draaisma

(1953) is a special professor in the history of psychology at the University of Groningen. His graduate thesis De metaforenmachine (The Metaphor Machine) explores the metaphorical nature of the language we use to think and speak about memory. His monograph Ontregelde geesten (Disordered Spirits) deals with famous historic neurologists and psychiatrists like Parkinson, Korsakov, Alzheimer, Gilles de la Tourette and Asperger. To date, Draaisma has published four books about autobiographical memory, including the multiple prize-winning titles Waarom het leven sneller gaat als je ouder wordt (Why Life Goes Faster As You Grow Older, 2001) and Als mijn geheugen mij niet bedriegt (If Memory Serves Me Right, 2016).
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Jenny Arean

(Lisse, NL, 1942) enjoys wide renown and popularity as a cabaret artist and singer, and as a theatre, film and television actress. She was inspired to go on stage as a 14-year-old after seeing a Wim Sonneveld show. She started out with Wim Kan's ABC Cabaret and acted in TV musicals and many theatre musicals, such as Foxtrot. The duet she created with Frans Halsema, Vluchten kan niet meer (There's No Escape), has remained in the Top 2000 since 1977. She performs in musical cabaret and theatre shows with performers such as Robert Long, Dimitri Frenk Frank, Ischa Meijer, Raoul Heertje, Willeke Alberti and Marijn Brouwers. As of 2006, she reached an audience of over a million with the TV series 't Schaep. In 2018, she once again took on a film role in Gewoon vrienden (Friends Only).
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Hans Aarsman

(Amsterdam, NL, 1951) is a writer of novels, essays, plays and columns. As a photogrpher he is known for De Aarsman Collection (The Aarsman Collection), his weekly column in the Volkskrant newspaper in which he analyzes news photos. His photographic work has been shown in solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk Museum, the Dutch Photo Museum and the Bijloke Museum in Ghent. His successful theatre monologues were performed by Dirk Roofthooft, Josse De Pauw and Tom Jansen. His activities, which he calls his fieldwork, are the subject of the one-man shows he performs in theatres, such as Dokter Aarsman as of March 2019.
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Maxime Garcia Diaz

(The Netherlands, 1993) writes poetry and prose in Dutch and English. She studied at the University of Amsterdam and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her debut collection Het is warm in de hivemind (It's warm in the hivemind) was published in 2021 and was awarded the C. Buddingh' Prize for best poetry debut in 2022. In November 2025, her second poetry collection was published in both Dutch and English by De Bezige Bij: Het netwerk moet gebouwd worden and The network must be built.

Go to website Maxim Garcia Diaz
Instagram @maximgarciadiaz
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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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Robert van Asten

(Voorburg, 1978) is Alderman for Mobility, Culture and Strategy of the City of The Hague since June 2018. Libraries, monuments and cultural heritage are also part of his policy areas. Furthermore he is Alderman of Segbroek, one of the eight The Hague districts. Before taking office as Alderman, Van Asten was a member of The Hague's City Council for D66 since 2014. He studied tax law at Leiden University and worked for, among others, Deloitte and Vistra.
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Pauline Krikke

(Sneek, 1961) became the mayor of The Hague on 17 March 2017. Representing the Dutch political party VVD, she became a member of the municipal council in Amsterdam in 1994. In 1996 she became deputy mayor for Economic Affairs, Airport and Seaport. After the municipal council elections of 1998, she was re-elected as deputy mayor and changed her portfolios to Economic Affairs and Employment, Construction, Housing and the Economy. In September 2001 Pauline Krikke became mayor of Arnhem. After 2 full six-year terms, she decided not to continue as mayor for a third term. In July 2013 she resigned her post in Arnhem. In addition to her role as mayor, she was also a member of the board of the international Red Cross /Red Crescent Movement from 2005 to 2013. From October 2014 she was general director of the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, her main love remained public service. In 2015 she therefore became a member of the Senate. She resigned that membership when she was inaugurated as mayor of The Hague.
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