Friday Night Wintercafé: Spot on Young Poets

High-school students from The Hague reading their own poetry, result of workshops from the Hague Poets' Guild. Poets Sanam Sheriff and Joost Baars as well as student-poet Paula Golunska accompany the up-and-comers.

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Information

Date and time Friday 19 January 2018 20:10 tot 21:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer

Francis Broekhuijsen presents students of The Hague high schools reading their own poetry, the result of workshops led by members of the Hague Poets' Guild. Poet and VSB Poëzieprijs 2018-nominee Joost Baars, young poetry slam-talent Sanam Sheriff from India and last year's participating student poet Paula Golunska - Young Campert Prize 12017 winner - keep them company and read from their works as well.

During each Spot on Young Poets event (Friday and Saturday), one finalist for the Young Campert Prize 2018 was chosen. Both finalists read their poems during Sunday's Writers' Festival event, ahead of the award ceremony of the Jan Campert Foundation prizes. The public chose one of them as the winner of this prize for best Hague student poet. Come down and witness the literary future!

Sanam Sheriff

(India, 1995) is a poet and artist from Bangalore. In 2018 she graduated from Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, USA, with a BA in Creative Writing. She was a 2018-2019 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee, and the winner of the 2018 Button Poetry Video Contest. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Virginia Quarterly Review, The Offing, Vinyl Poetry & Prose, The Academy of American Poets, The Shade Journal, DW B, and elsewhere. She is currently an MFA candidate in Poetry at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is poetry editor of The Spectacle Magazine. Sheriff was a guest of the 2018 Winternachten International Literature Festival The Hague.
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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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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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Paula Golunska

is a young poet who won the first Young Campert Prize during the 2017 Winternachten festival. In the fall of 2016, she participated in Spot on Young Poets, the educational project of Writers Unlimited, poet Diann van Faassen 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. Paula presented her poem during Winternachten 2017. One of the three finalists, she won the Young Campert Prize for best student poet during the Schrijversfeest (Writers' Feast). She was a pupil at Edith Stein College in The Hague, and now studies at Wageningen University & Research.
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DJ Socrates

(UK, 1980), like the philosopher, remains curious about new things. Always pushing boundaries and incorporating fresh music. He approaches each set as a unique road trip with a wide range of styles and countries passing by. His kaleidoscopic sound includes global reggae, trippy cumbia, UK bass, slow rave & African acid. With 20 years of experience under his belt, Socrates has matured like a good wine to celebrate life with. During Writers Unlimited Festival, he will provide a swinging Silent Disco in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui during Friday and Saturday Night Unlimited from 23:15 hours onwards.
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