Everything to do with letters
On Sunday 6 April, American YA author Jandy Nelson is coming to Utrecht! At Vogelfrei, ILFU is organising a YALFU Book Talk with Nelson about her work and her new book Als de wereld wankelt, a rock-solid novel brimming with love, secrets and enchantment. She previously wrote the award-winning bestseller I Give You the Sun. Jandy Nelson will be interviewed by our regular YALFU host, Samya Hafsaoui. After...
Literary translators in the Netherlands and Flanders are in an increasingly vulnerable position in the labour market. Factors such as the dominance of English, rising sales of foreign-language titles and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) are having a significant impact on their already precarious situation. This is according to a qualitative study conducted by the Boekman Foundation on behalf of the...
Dr Elly Jaffé Prize of €40,000 for literary translator French - Dutch The Dr Elly Jaffé Prize 2024 for the best literary translation from French into Dutch has been awarded to Kiki Coumans. She receives the prize for her oeuvre and, in particular, for her translation of Zomer '80 by Marguerite Duras, which was published in 2022 by...
The book industry, or should we say the book field, will have shrunk at least 2 per cent by 2024. You just don't read that in the press releases about the industry's annual figures, which the CPNB director ance now tells us to call 'field'. Something about flowers. The ability to present all the news, including the bad, as something beautiful, good and cheerful....
Which theatre text will be named the best Dutch-language work of 2023? The jury today announces the four nominations of the Toneelschrijfprijs 2024: BOG.2 by BOG, The Story of Travis by Esther Duysker, Tijd zal ons leren by Romana Vrede and Zanger zonder volk by Giovanni Brand. The Toneelschrijfprijs 2024 awards the writer of an original Dutch-language play first performed in 2023. The winner will be...
Floris Kortie has come of age. The classical-music industry's merriest curmudgeon has proved in 2024 that he can carry Podium Klassiek on his own. That he managed to get the continuation of Podium Witteman, where he was allowed to freewheel as the insightful nephew, through a deep crisis is to his credit. After the departure of Mike Boddé, who he says is more...
The Nederlandse Associatie voor Podiumkunsten (NAPK) and the Authors' Union have agreed on adjustments to the Model Contract for writing a theatre text. The director of the NAPK and board members of the Auteursbond have just signed the new contract. The new version of the agreement incorporates recent developments in the regulations regarding the author's contract law, which the...
In a survey on aggression and harassment towards authors by Ipsos I&O commissioned by WritersSafe, 14% of authors said they had experienced one or more incidents in the past year. Half of these have even experienced multiple incidents. The majority faced verbal aggression (12%). Authors face by far the most verbal...
In the first version of Explore The North's new website, the builders had forgotten to mention in which city the festival would take place. This has since been remedied with a beautiful 'about us' page, so that even non-Leeuwaars know where to go. The production house cum festival is in the Basic Cultural Infrastructure from the next edition. That means that...
Heartbreaking diary entries from the Ukraine war formed the basis for Nora Krug's new book. 'The drawn image has the power to provide a different perspective on reality.'
With Ben Okri, the Internationales Literatur Festival Berlin (ILB) has brought in the grand master of contemporary literary storytelling. 'See the magic of things around you.'
It was with a certain scepticism, I must confess, that I began Winny Sorgdrager's book "Oxygen of Society. Why Culture is a Government Issue".1 I won't elaborate; let's just say that a book about Dutch cultural policy has been published before. More than once, in fact, and in those books...
Outstanding, wonderful, wonderful - the juries of the two Filter Translation Prizes 2024 were short of words to sing the praises of all 10 nominated translations of the past year. All the nominees made translations so good that the juries became genuinely happy reading them. Still, a choice had to be made: one translated work for adults and one translated children's book stood out...
Wim Landuyt won the 2024 Dutch Poetry Slam Championships in Utrecht, beating seven other finalists. He received the Gouden Vink trophy and €1000. The event, part of the International Literature Festival Utrecht, was judged by both audience and jury. The NK Poetry Slam celebrated its 22nd edition.
New names confirmed: including David Nicholls, Tommy Orange, Maggie Stiefvater, Teun van de Keuken and Carolina Trujillo. ILFU International Literature Festival Utrecht takes place this year from 21 September to 5 October. Some 200 writers and over 20,000 visitors visit ILFU every year. Earlier, ticket sales started for major festival events such as the Night of Poetry, Exploring Stories, the Belle...
Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexijevich will be present during the International Literature Festival Utrecht to receive the Belle van Zuylenring 2024 and deliver the accompanying Belle van Zuylen lecture. Presentation Belle van Zuylenring 2024 During the ILFU International Literature Festival Utrecht (21 September to 5 October), the Utrecht Literature Prizes 2024 will be awarded. The Belle van Zuylenring, an international...
Do the stories of cleaners also have a place in art history? Poet and visual artist Maria Barnas will be artist-in-residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Amsterdam in 2024-25. During her stay, she will research the biography of artist Jo Baer (1929) and how oral history can be used to record art history. Can you also base art history on memories, stories and maybe even gossip? This Artist-in-Residence position is made available annually by NIAS and the Academy of Arts. The work of...
Write your own Ikje and get published. The Ikje on the back page of NRC has been an institution for more than 20 years. Thousands of hilarious, tragic and recognisable incidents by unknown Dutch people captured in 120 words form the chronicles of everyday life. Reason enough for ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) to organise a one-off all-encompassing Ikjes marathon. We call on everyone...
Ten translators in the spotlight in one fell swoop - the nominations for the annual Filter Translation Prizes have been announced! They are all wonderful books, for young and old - and more than scintillating translations.These are the nominations for the Filter Translation Prize 2024: And also five nominations for the Filter Translation Prize 2024 for children's and youth books: The winners The winners will be announced live...
ILFU 2024's festival theme is 'I am many Stories'. This year's ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) will take place from 21 September to 5 October, and carries the motto 'I am many stories', borrowed from Marilyn Monroe. The programme includes regular ingredients such as the Utrecht Book Market, the NK Poetry Slam, the YALFU (Young Adult Festival), Book Talks and...
Ten years after the death of world-famous writer Gabriel García Márquez, the novel he was working on when he left life is published. Seeing Each Other in August is unfinished but highly enjoyable. Died in harness He died in harness, Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. The concise novel In August We See Each Other was the book he was working on when he...
After the self-inflicted death of his beloved, writer Matteo Bianchi struggles with his grief, his anger and guilt. With Those Who Are Left Behind, he reaches out to others who went through the same thing. Conflicting feelings 'I hate him. I hate him so much for what he did.' Sometimes Matteo screams at the walls that his beloved S. is an asshole. And an egotist. But...
Mountains, trees, solitary inhabitants... Down in the valley is another 'real' Paolo Cognetti. You could call him the chronicler of mountains and mountain life. Few writers tell so beautifully about life at altitude, in the middle of nature, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, as Italian author Paolo Cognetti. With his filmed bestseller The Eight Mountains, he conquered the...
A sensitive, moving novel about natural and human violence: The Night Trembles by Nadia Terranova is highly recommended. The major earthquakes in Umbria in 2016 are probably still on many people's minds. But who remembers that over a hundred years ago, the south of Italy was hit by a devastating earthquake, the most destructive even in Europe in the 20th...
American writer, filmmaker and artist Miranda July (1974) is coming to Utrecht on Saturday 15 June 2024. For the ILFU literature festival, she will give a one-off Book Talk in TivoliVredenburg about her long-awaited new novel All Fours. Miranda July gained worldwide fame with the 2005 feature film Me and you and everyone we know, for which she wrote the screenplay, directed and starred in...
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