The Voice - In search of the character's soul

Connie Palmen, Celeste Ng and Sacha Bronwasser on the voice of their characters

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Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 20:00 tot 20:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Price Early bird price until 26 December €25
Regular €30
All up to 30 years / Ooievaarspas €15
DenHaagPas €27,50

We gave extra attention to the human voice during this festival edition with the theme "Human Voices". We asked Connie Palmen to write a new essay for The Voice - in search of the character's soul and to open Saturday Night Unlimited with it.

In her keynote speech, Palmen spoke about how an author gives voice to characters. The voice is the meeting point between body and soul, where interior and exterior meet. A novel begins to come alive through the voice of the character.

This theme was the subject of the following discussion between Palmen, Celeste Ng and Sacha Bronwasser, who published the novel Luister (Listen) in 2023. Writer and journalist Sarah Sluimer moderated.

Connie Palmen is the author of essays, stories, a novella, and her six great, award-winning novels, including I.M. and Jij zegt het (If You Say So). Recently she published Voornamelijk vrouwen (Mostly Women), a collection of personal essays about how eleven famous and headstrong women and one man give shape to their own lives.

Sacha Bronwasser is a writer and art historian. For twenty years, she was the fine art critic for the Volkskrant newspaper. Her debut novel Niets is gelogen (Nothing is a Lie, 2019) was followed in 2023 by Luister (Listen), an ingeniously written and riveting novel set in the eighties nad now.

Celeste Ng (USA), internationally one of the most-read authors with Asian roots, wrote three true page-turners. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), is a sensitive portrait of a family with several cultures. An even bigger bestseller, Little Fires Everywhere, was turned into a film with Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts (2022), takes on the love between mother and child, discrimination of people with Asian roots, and humanity in dark times.

Festival tip: Celeste Ng also appeared during Friday Night Unlimited (19 January 2024). Connie Palmen appeared on Saturday afternoon, 20 January 2024 in conversation with artist Sven Ratzke in the event You Do Something to Me about their collaboration on his new show Marlene, from which he performed several famous Dietrich songs.


Line-up

Connie Palmen

(The Netherlands, 1955) is always exploring the boundaries between fact and fiction. She shot to fame with her first novel De wetten (The Laws, 1991). Her two subsequent novels, De vriendschap (Friendship, 1995) and I.M. (1998), also became bestsellers. She went on to publish Geheel de uwe (Sincerely Yours, 2004), Lucifer (2007) and Logboek van een onbarmhartig jaar (Logbook of a Merciless Year, 2011). Palmen has written several collections of essays, such as Een kleine filosofie van de moord (A Brief Philosophy of Murder, 2004), Het geluk van de eenzaamheid (The Joy of Loneliness, 2009) and Het drama van de afhankelijkheid (The Drama of Dependence, 2017). Many of her novels are based on events in her own life; her essays are exceptionally narrative. In 2023, she published Voornamelijk vrouwen (Mainly Women), personal essays about eleven women and one man who shape their lives in idiosyncratic ways. Palmen engages with them, challenges them, and discovers differences and similarities with her own life. Her multi-award-winning work is also internationally successful and has been translated into twenty languages.
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Sacha Bronwasser

(The Netherlands) is variously a writer, speaker, art historian and curator, but writing usually tops the list. Her debut novel Niets is gelogen (Nothing is a Lie, 2019) was followed by Luister (Listen, 2023), an ingenously written and compelling novel set in the 1980s and now. A critic wrote: "Bronwasser brings Paris to life in this strong novel about an au pair. She ratchets up the tension smoothly and aptly." Art is an important theme in her work. Since 1998 she has been a freelance art critic for the Dutch national daily De Volkskrant, and she continues to write and speak about art for various media and clients. She is involved in various cultural projects as a founder, advisor and curator.
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Sarah Sluimer

(1985), writer, theatre maker, columnist, wrote her debut novel (2018) with Keizer, about a celebrated Amsterdam theatre director who meets his Nemesis in New York. In 2020, she published her novella De Stilte (The Silence). She has a regular Saturday column in Dutch national daily newspaper NRC. Her columns from the past eight years will be collected under the title Geef je over (Surrender) and will be released in February 2024. In December, a play she wrote premieres with Orkater, titled En ze maakte een kind (And She Made a Child). She is working on a new novel.
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Celeste Ng

(USA, 1980) is coming to the Netherlands for the first time to appear at the 2024 Writers Unlimited festival. Her three novels are true page-turners. At this time, Ng is the most internationally read author with Asian roots. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), is a sensitive portait of a family of several cultures. Little Fires Everywhere (2017), an even bigger hit, was filmed featuring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington (available on Prime). Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts (2022), is about the love between mother and child and humanity in dark times, but also about the discrimination of people with an Asian background. Ng grew up in Pittsburgh and Shaker Heights (Ohio) and studied at Harvard University. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian.
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