Writers Unlimited at the Spotlight Festival

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On Saturday, 6 September, you can find us at the Spotlight Festival. Visit our stand on Spuiplein between 13 and 17 hours, get a taste of the festival atmosphere, and purchase tickets for the Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival The Hague 2026 with a 50% discount all weekend!


SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL - Saturday 6 September 2025 - Spuiplein, The Hague - 13-17 hours. Free entrance.

- At the Poetry Clinic, author, poet and columnist Gerda Blees will write a personal poem for you on the spot.

- Share the Book of Your Life with our Living Books and discover new titles and authors.

- Host and DJ Francis Broekhuijsen will set the tone and tell you all about the upcoming Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival, taking place from January 22–25, 2026, in The Hague.Come by, listen in, and get inspired!


Friday Night Unlimited and Saturday Night Unlimited are grand, super varied festival nights on five stages of Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag about and featuring books, films, stories, poems and current issues on five stages. Writers, poets and artists from home and abroad perform in talks, recite and talk about their favourite books and films.

You choose your own route along about twenty talks, interviews, recitations and performances that vary from night to night. Each performance lasts about twenty to sixty minutes. Dutch or English spoken.Your ticket gives access to all talks and performances on the evening in question.


TICKET PRIZES FRIDAY & SATURDAY NIGHT UNLIMITED, per night:

  • Young people up to 30 years: €15 (on sale from 5 September 2025)
  • Ooievaarspashouders: €15 (on sale from 5 September 2025)
  • Regular:
    • Spotlight Festival offer: €17,50 (on sale 5, 6 and 7 September 2025)
    • Early Bird: €25 (on sale from 8 September - 26 December 2025)
    • From 27 Dec - 24 Jan: €35 / DenHaagPas: €32,50

Information

Date and time Saturday 6 September 2025 from 13:00 to 17:00 hrs
Location Spuiplein (bij Amare) - Den Haag

Line-up

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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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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Levende Boeken

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