Real Or Not Real - The Reality of Virtual Lives

How do we construct truth in an age where everything is digitally shaped?

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Information

Date and time Saturday 24 January 2026 21:20 tot 22:10 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Price 15,- (up to 30 years or Ooievaarspas)
25,- (Early Bird, up to 26 December, thereafter 35,-)
32,50 (DenHaagPas).

How do we construct truth in an age where everything is digitally shaped: identity, desire, power, intimacy? If the internet is our mirror room, which reflection do we still believe? We explore how identity is built, distorted and devoured online. What happens to intimacy when algorithms are listening in? What remains of a city, a body, a relationship, when everything becomes a feed? A sharp, vulnerable and sometimes ironic dive into the friction between our real lives and the version we show.

In this conversation with Daniëlle Zawadi, writer Sheena Patel (UK) and poet Maxime Garcia Diaz (NL) examined how digital spaces guide our gaze: how we curate ourselves, how we project others, how desire clings to images that are never entirely ours. The programme zoomed in on the tension between what we share and what we conceal, between the control we think we have and the logic of systems that guide us. What does closeness mean in a world that is always online but rarely truly present?

Real Or Not Real - The Reality of Virtual Lives was curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2026 by Mojdeh Feili.

Line-up

Maxime Garcia Diaz

(The Netherlands, 1993) writes poetry and prose in Dutch and English. She studied at the University of Amsterdam and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her debut collection Het is warm in de hivemind (It's warm in the hivemind) was published in 2021 and was awarded the C. Buddingh' Prize for best poetry debut in 2022. In November 2025, her second poetry collection was published in both Dutch and English by De Bezige Bij: Het netwerk moet gebouwd worden and The network must be built.

Go to website Maxim Garcia Diaz
Instagram @maximgarciadiaz
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Sheena Patel

(United Kingdom) is a writer, poet, and assistant director for film and television. Her debut novel, I'm a Fan (2022), won the Discover Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. “I stalk a woman on the internet who sleeps with the same man as me.” After this initial confession, a young woman recounts her affair with a successful, married man. When it turns out that he has several mistresses, including an insufferable influencer, she develops an obsession not only with the man, but also with his popular mistress. It culminates in a fiery story about desire, love, and an unequal power dynamic. The narrator keeps a close eye on the Instagrammer's social media and her friends minute by minute. The Guardian: “A fizzing debut that's hard to put down. Patel's searing novel skitters through a world of toxic exes, mean girls, and bad jobs—and it's addictive.”

Instagram: @imightbesheenapatel
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Daniëlle Zawadi

(1999) is a writer of prose, spoken word, theatre pieces and columns. She performs throughout the Netherlands, publishes in literary magazines, and made her theatrical debut with the one-woman show Alstublieft, Zawadi (Please, Zawadi), followed by Ondervonden (Filed Under, 2023). Her stories are often about what it means to be a a second-generation bicultural GenZ-er, her Congolese roots, and friendship. In 2025, she published Ik kan eigenlijk niet op deze manier werken (I Can't Really Work This Way), a collection of recitation texts dedicated to the FreePalestine, FreeSudan, and FreeCongo movements. She is also a curator of literary programmes. In her home town The Hague, she founded Het Zwarte Schaap (The Black Sheep), a platform for word art and spoken literature that participated in the 2025 Writers Unlimited Festival with presentations and spoken-word performances.

Go to the website of Daniëlle Zawadi
Instagram: @daniellezawadi
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