Charlotte Köhler Prize for poet marwin vos

This year's Charlotte Köhler Prize, a triennial award for writers of prose, poetry or drama, has been awarded to marwin vos (author's name without capital letters). She receives the 15,000 euro prize for her entire oeuvre and in particular for the poetry collection wild death.

The jury included poets Alara Adilow, Hannah van Binsbergen and Alfred Schaffer, winner of the 2017 Charlotte Köhler Prize.

marwin vos (Liempde, 1962) is a poet and visual artist based in Amsterdam. Her collections War Horses to the Suburbs and Life of Stars were nominated for the J.C. Bloem Prize and for The Great Poetry Prize 2020 and the Herman De Coninck Prize 2020. For Wild Death, she received The Great Poetry Prize in 2023.

Small body of work, big impact

The jury on the award to marwin vos: “With Vos, engagement is not a parole, but an analytical practice that structures the poem; the reader is not only addressed but engaged. (...) Decisive remained the power of form and the ability to sharpen - with tight linguistic precision and affective range - the public conversation. A small body of work, big impact: poetry that not only describes the world, but helps configure it.”

Presentation

marwin vos will be awarded the Charlotte Köhler Prize on Sunday afternoon 15 March, Charlotte Köhler's birthday, at the Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam.

The Charlotte Köhler Prize

The Charlotte Köhler Prize and the Stipend have been awarded since 1988. A different genre is considered for the prize every three years: prose, poetry, drama. The awarded work must have been published in book form in the three years preceding the year of the award. For theatrical works, the premiere date must be in the three years preceding the year of award. The award is made by the board of the Author Prizes Foundation. The Foundation is administered by the Authors' Association.

Previous winners:

Peer Wittenbols (stage), Manon Uphoff (prose), Alfred Schaffer (poetry), Ad de Bont (stage), Mensje van Keulen (prose), Jean Pierre Rawie (poetry), Rob de Graaf (stage), Willem G. van Maanen (novel), H.H. ter Balkt (poetry), Judith Herzberg (stage).