The bottom side of history

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Information

Date and time Friday 11 February 2000 20:30 tot 21:10 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - grote zaal

During the festival the Dutch edition was presented of Marlene van Niekerks novel Triomf, on the hilaric and sad events of a poor white family from the outskirts of Johannesburg. The festival asked Dutch writer Manon Uphoff to read this novel. Marlene van Niekerk read Uphoffs work. Host Michaël Zeeman led the discussion on the similarities between the work of these two novelists. Afrikaans/Dutch spoken.

Manon Uphoff

(The Netherlands, 1962) is a Dutch writer, screenwriter and visual artist. She made her debut in 1995 with the collection of short stories Begeerte (Desire), which was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize and the ECI Prize. The title story was awarded the Rabobank Spring Prize for Literature. Her first novel Gemis (1997) was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize. Her most recent book, Vallen is als vliegen (Falling is Like Flying, 2019), was shortlisted for both the 2019 Bookspot Literature Prize and the 2020 Libris Literature Prize. The novel was named the best Dutch-language novel of 2019 by NRC Handelsblad and Humo. Uphoff was editor of the literary magazine De Revisor and board member and president of PEN Netherlands. As a screenwriter, she wrote the feature film screenplay Een Groot Geweld (Topkapi Films).
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Michaël Zeeman

(Marken, 1958-2009) was a poet, a writer and a commentator, with a regular column on the Forum page and the book pages of the Volkskrant. Zeeman was the editor of the arts section of the Volkskrant and from 2006-2007 its Rome correspondent. In 2006 he and the writer Abdelkader Benali published an exchange of letters, exchanging ideas on politics, life, love and literature. In 2002 Zeeman received the Gouden Ganzenveer (Golden Goose Quill) for his merits for Dutch literature. Zeeman became well-known in the 1990s as the host of his monthly book programme 'Late at night after a short walk', later to be renamed 'Zeeman with books'. In 1991 he published his first volume of poetry, Beeldenstorm (Iconoclasm), winning him the C. Buddingh Prize. His second volume Verhoudingen (Relationships) appeared in 1995. In the same year he published short stories entitled De Verduistering (The Darkening). He died in 2009.
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Marlene van Niekerk

(Caledon, South-Africa, 1954) studied Philosophy and Comparative Literature. For her novel Triumph she was awarded several prestigious prizes, among which, in 1995, the Noma Prize for the best book to appear on the African continent.
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