Humour and discomfort

Humour is delightful, popular and interesting. Because with humour, all kinds of discomfort can be laughed away. Books and poems are quite often uncomfortable. Writers, theatre makers and stage artists Joost Oomen and Viv Groskop - both very skilled at handling laughter - examined the role of humour and discomfort in literature in a conversation moderated by poet Ellen Deckwitz. English spoken.
Joost Oomen is a poet, writer, theatre-maker and drummer. His debut novel Het Perenlied (The Pear Song, 2022) is a "tender, joyful, optimistic and overwhelming story" (Tzum). Visjes: een avontuur op Salina (Small fish: an adventure on Salina, 2022) is both travelogue and paean to Italian islands. Lievegedicht (Dear Poem, 2023) his first collection of poetry, received - unusually for poetry - reprint after reprint. His novel Het paradijs van slapen (The Paradise of Sleeping, 2024) is about love, death, Friesland, Terschelling, art and euthanasia. Joost regularly recites poems in TV programmes; in his theatre performance Alle dichters hebben gouden helikopters (All poets have golden helicopters), he explained how poetry works through stories about poets and his own work. He is also one of the three founders of the instagram channel @poezieiseendaad.
Viv Groskop is a writer, stand up comedian, broadcaster and performance coach. She is the author of best-sellers as How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking (2018) and Happy High Status: How to Be Effortlessly Confident (2023). Her podcast How to Own the Room is the biggest public speaking podcast in the world and features interviews with Hillary Clinton, Margaret Atwood and Julie Andrews. Her other books include The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature and Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature. She appears regularly on BBC TV and radio and for six years she did a run of sold-out one-woman comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Ellen Deckwitz is a poet, columnist, critic and presenter at literary events, including Writers Unlimited. For De steen vreest mij (The stone fears me, 2011), she was awarded the C. Buddingh' Prize for the best poetry debut. Her collection Hogere natuurkunde (Higher physics, 2019) is part travelogue, part myth and part testimony, and the outcome of conversations Deckwitz engaged in with individuals whose roots also trace back to the former Dutch East Indies. In 2022, Eerste hulp bij poezie (First aid at poetry) was published, an omnibus containing her collections Olijven moet je leren lezen (Olives must be read, 2020) and Dit gaat niet over grasmaaien (This is not about lawn mowing, 2021). Deckwitz writes columns for national daily newspaper NRC. In her NPO Luister podcast Poezie vandaag, she presents a Dutch or translated poem every workday morning. She is one of three critics of podcast Boeken FM.
Humour and discomfort was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens.