Writing poetry in Dunglish and other languages

Which role does English play in the poetry of the Dutch language area? Seven young poets answer with new poems.

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Information

Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 22:00 tot 22:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2

How can literature challenge language? Besides Mandarin and Spanish, English is the most-spoken language in the world. It is a language of power, of mass culture, of imperialism and domination, but also a language expressing solidarity, activism and understanding, in which the underpinnings of power can be attacked: a language of the majority full of minority languages.

What is the role of English in the poetry being written in the Netherlands and Belgium? Writers Unlimited put this question to seven young poets writing in English, in Dutch, in Dutch as well as English, who write multilingual poetry, who live in the Netherlands and Belgium, who were born 'here' or not.

What is the status of English in their poetry? Each has written a new poem especially for the festival: Veva Leye, Dean Bowen, Samira Saleh, Mia You en Caglar Koseoglu; also Joost Baars and Charlotte Van den Broeck, both nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize 2018, take part and react with their work. The VSB Poetry Prize 2018 will be awarded shortly after the Festival, on Thursday, 25 January, at the Diligentia Theatre in The Hague.

Line-up

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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Charlotte Van den Broeck

(1991) is a Flemish poet from Turnhout. After finishing her Language and Literature Studies at the University of Ghent, she explored word art at the Antwerp Conservatory. In the Poëziebordeel van Vonk en Zonen, Ondernemers in de letteren she performs as Lulu Wedekind. She toured with Saint Amour 2015. The same year, she was the closing act of the 33rd Night of the Poetry in Utrecht; in 2016, therefore, she opened the 34th Night of the Poetry. January 2015, her debut Kameleon was published by De Arbeiderspers. October 2016, she opened the Frankfurter Buchmesse together with Arnon Grunberg, as the youngest guest-country speaker ever. Her second poetry collection Nachtroer (2017) is nominated for the VSB Poëzieprijs (VSE Poetry Award) 2018.
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Joost Baars

(Leidschendam, NL, 1975) is a poet, essayist and bookseller. His very well received debut poetry collection Binnenplaats (Inner Space) was nominated for the 2017 C. Buddingh Prize and awarded the 2018 VSB Poetry Prize. According to the jury of the C. Buddingh Prize: "How must one love in the shadow of insecurity? Joost Baars gropes in the dark and find poems there that reveal unmistakable mastery and dizzying depth". Baars' poems are mystical but not religious. They attest to an enormous erudition and are simultaneously worldly, funny and romantic. The collection consists of four parts and includes translated sonnets of the English Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). Baars was a programmer with the Perdu Foundation and organizer of the poetry Festival Dichtersmarathon (Poets' Marathon), and is the publisher of Halverwege Chapbooks and the spiritual father of VersSpreken, a podcast about poetry.
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Mia You

(South Korea, 1980) is a poet, translator of Korean poetry and film scripts, and lecturer at the Department of English at Utrecht University. She grew up in the United States and lives in Utrecht. Motherhood, birth, heredity, and the racialization of everyday life form the common thread in her balanced lyrical work. She is the author of the (English-language) poetry collection I, Too, Dislike It (1913 Press, 2016) and has published in De Gids, Artforum, Boston Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. In 2024, her second poetry collection, Festival, was published in English by Belladonna Press and in Dutch by Uitgeverij Chaos. She works on the translation of Kim Hyesoon's poetry collection Synchronized Sea Anemone (2025).

Instagram: @quelpart
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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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Çağlar Köseoğlu

(1985) debuted in 2015 with 34, a poetry collection with a critical point of view towards the history and the present of Turkey. His poems were published in Samplekanon, nY, Kluger Hans, Deus Ex Machina and Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen. He is editor at nY and Contrivers' Review and teaches at Erasmus University College in Rotterdam.
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Veva Leye

(Oostende, 1981) is one of the most innovative young Flemish poets of our time. In many languages, topographies and language registers she tirelessly seeks out the limits of our limitless world. Since 2011 she works at CINEMATEK (the Brussels' film museum) and edits texts about film, mainly for cinephile platform sabzian.be. Her work as well as big thinkers such as Slavoj Zizek - known for his humorous, Marxist cultural criticism - are clear inspirations of here poetry. She is currently a guest writer with the literary Magazine nY, where she is experimenting in four issues. In that capacity, she undertook a written "dialogue" with the late writer, poet and translator Jacq Vogelaar. He called it "writing back". Leye quotes him: "Writing back is necessary, also over time, in order to defend yourself."
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Samira Saleh

(The Hague, 1994) has found a way to translate her feelings into Spoken Word. Her serious texts as well as her humoristic poems give a deep message to the attentive listener. She was part of the winning Team Zuid during the Slam 't Stad poetry tournament in Antwerp and performed at various projects across Belgium, among which Female Takeover in a Man's World show hosted by Navitas, the 44th Women's Day, Stand & Deliver in Ghent en Urban Woorden in Leuven. As from 2017 she is Slambassador for Belgium at the international exchange project Next Generation Speaks, and winner of the BILL-Award in the category Speaking. Behind the scenes you may find her as co-organisor of Mama's Open Mic and 't Graafste HOF! Keep an eye out for this badass upcoming poet! The revolution will not be televised, she will be heard!
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