Winternachten Festival offers the best chance to see great writers up close. And Francis Broekhuijsen.

From 18 January, The Hague will be all about Winternachten. We think this is the most fun literature festival in the west of the Netherlands. This year, it is about Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood, the motto of the French Revolution, among other things. But also about Karl Marx. Under the motto 'we the people', Winternachten is about populism and secession, about collectivity and individualism. In short: how do writers from countries like India and urban neighbourhoods like the Schilderswijk view today's confusing world.

In this post, you will find links to the books of authors performing at the Winternachten Festival 2018. We bring you those links in collaboration with Bol.com. With a purchase through those links, you also help us through the winter, because Culture Press, like the author, receives a percentage of the sales proceeds.

The Kick-off on Thursday

Poetry slam talent Sanam Sheriff from India, poets Efe Murad (Turkey) and Ghayath Almadhoun (Sweden), and poet-writer Maarten van der Graaff and Rodaan Al Galidi from the Netherlands. With these writers, Winternachten festival introduces a new international literary generation. They read from their own work and Hassnae Bouazza then speaks to all participants about the expressiveness of poetry.

Mohsin Hamid is from Pakistan and was nominated for the Man Booker Prize just this year with his novel Exit West. He will therefore deliver this year's Free the World! speech, the traditional opening of the four-day festival. Afterwards, the PEN Awards will be presented. That award usually goes to writers who cannot attend in person because their government prohibits outbound travel or they are in prison. Or are missing. That makes the awards festive, but also tragic and certainly necessary.

This will include music by Boi Akih. And poetry by Joost Baars.

Friday Night Unlimited

Two long evenings of poetry, conversation, music and even dance at the Theater aan het Spui. We will be there for the sixth year and are looking forward to something more playful. Because that is actually part of it. But from us there will mainly be a combined live report via twitter and witty post-event reviews, and possibly a special interview. Like the one two years ago, with Susan Neiman. About David Bowie, who had just died at the time.

The Access. Winternachten chief guest Susan Neiman on David Bowie (among others) #wn16

Who else is coming along? Too many to mention. A try (and buy their books!): in the cinema, it starts with a programme featuring Felix Rottenberg, Gerlinda Heywegen and Tom Domisse. It is about rhetoric. Or: how to use a speech to bend your audience to your will.

Freedom, equality and fraternity

How Adriaan van Dis and Damien Denys grazing each other on the sofa (with words) can be witnessed in Hall 2, at 20:00, while simultaneously in the main hall Alain Mabanckou holds a lecture on freedom, equality and fraternity, and what they actually still mean to us. Afterwards, Louise O. Fresco, Luuk van Middelaar, and Stephan Sanders will discuss the value of these concepts with him and each other. There will also be music.

Gustaaf Peek wrote a pamphlet in 2017 (Resistance!) in which he called for the work of Karl Marx re-evaluate. His idea of equality between people was not so bad, according to the young poet. He discusses that viewpoint with Georgian-German writer Nino Haratischwili and the Romanian poet and essayist Magda Cârneci. Professor and essayist Paul Scheffer leads the conversation.

Oxytocin

Bas Heijne engages later in the evening in conversation with Flemish cultural historian and author David Van Reybrouck, the French-Moroccan bestselling author Leïla Slimani, the Turkish poet and philosopher Efe Murad, the German writer Fatma Aydemir and Polish novelist and journalist Grazyna Plebanek. It's about that which causes oxytocin: brotherhood. Something that has both pleasant consequences (Cosy!) and unpleasant ones (Those others are no good). Could be spicy conversation.

The first evening ends (before the dance party into the wee hours) with an ode to joy. Almost all the writers and poets of the evening recite their own version of the European idea.

Book of my life

Fixed and evening during both evenings is the 'Book of My Life' section, in which writers explain to Hassnae Bouazza what the book was that shaped their lives. We can expect: Gustaaf Peek, David van Reybrouck, Joost Baars, Ghayath Almadhoun, Alain Mabanckou, Mohsin Hamid, Leila Slimani, Grazyna Plebanek, Magda Carneci, Marjolijn van Heemstra, Sanam Sheriff, Charlotte van den Broeck, Efe Murad and Fatma Aydemir.

Out on the streets

Saturday during the day, when authors have recovered a little from the previous night, Winternachten spreads across The Hague. In the ISS (the terrestrial version) is about storytelling, or 'Storytelling'. Efe Murad (Turkey), Magda Cârneci (Romania), Mira Feticu (Netherlands) and Çaglar Köseoglu (Netherlands) will interact with students and exchange stories of revolution. Promises to be a warm bas.

A few other writers delve into the Schilderswijk, in the library of this famous neighbourhood there are performances by Sanam Sheriff, poetry slam talent from India and young writer-columnist (and Schilderswijker) Hizir Cengiz. Poet and neighbourhood resident Ibrahim Eroglu will perform Turkish poetry together with his daughter, vocalist Cansu Eroglu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHnNQ_3J6yQ

Big party it will also be at Theater Dakota in that other famous district of The Hague, Escamp. If only because Rodaan al Galidi passing there. He joins forces with Charlotte Van den Broeck on. And then, of course, there is music. By Monir Goran this time.

There will also be performances by local residents and students, who will come with their own stories and items. Partly due to the always flamboyant presentation by Francis Broekhuijsen, it promises to be an intense afternoon.

Reading club

For people who do not dare or cannot go into the neighbourhood, there is of course plenty to do around the fetival heart in the Theater aan het Spui. Kader Abdollah and Funda Müjde talk about their favourite book, Frank Westerman talks to Mohsin Hamid about his novel The Fall of the Fundamentalist and, for the real aficionados, Ban Heijne talks about Madame Bovary with the ever-youthful NRC Reading Club. Go there, you really can't go wrong.

Saturday Night Live.

There really is too much happening here. Actually. It's about Marx, about borders, Marjolein van Heemstra gets on the sofa with Damiaan Denys. Ghayath Almadhoun, Hassnae Bouazza, Mohsin Hamid and Paul Scheffer talk about the necessity of borders and the impossibility of borders. With German best-selling author Fatma Aydemir and Grazyna Plebanek, among others, it is about the anger swirling in Europe.

Outside, or rather in Winternachten's café, the foyer of Theater aan het Spui, schoolchildren will take their first steps on the poetry path. Until they can dance again. With DJ Socrates.