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Indien je een mens bent, laat dit veld leeg:.

LITERARY

Everything to do with letters

How writer Maartje Wortel was confronted with herself: 'I was literally and figuratively running the same laps over and over again.'

For five years, writers Maartje Wortel and Niña Weijers walked endless laps through the Oosterpark every day. When that suddenly came to an end, Wortel was suddenly confronted with herself in a big way. 'I didn't feel I had anything to hold on to anymore'. Cheerfully waving, Maartje Wortel (38) approaches, a full bag of groceries in hand. 'Not handy no, for a walking interview,' observes...

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Maartje Wortel lives through the Oosterpark

by Eline Crijns
18 May 202130 March 2022
7 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

'The book is a declaration of love to Niña, I dedicated it to her unborn child.' Writer Maartje Wortel (38) lived right by Amsterdam's Oosterpark until recently. Her friend and fellow writer Niña Weijers lived on the other side. For five years, they walked laps of the park together, sometimes several times a day. In The Groove, Carrot tells about...

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'Writing has been my salvation.' The troubled life story of Vamba Sherif

by A Quattro Mani
16 May 202116 May 2021
8 min read
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Actually, all his female characters are based on his powerful mother and grandmother, says Vamba Sherif (47). In his new, autobiographical book Unprecedented Love, the Liberian-born writer tells his troubled life story to his daughter Bendu. An ode to his homeland and the most important women in his life. I was born into a learned and influential family. The Sherifs...

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'I can finally have real fun again.' How "devil child" Angélique (51) survived 25 years of abuse and mistreatment

by A Quattro Mani
11 May 202130 March 2022
12 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

A devil child she was called, and that is how her parents treated her. Angélique van Deursen (51) was mistreated and abused for 25 years. It marked her for life, but did not completely destroy her. Even though it would have been close. Angélique van Deursen (r.) and journalist Maria Genova (l.) Two fathers 'As a child I felt I had two fathers....

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Rarely have I experienced a historical book that is so accessible and so imaginative

by Eline Crijns
11 May 2021
7 min read
HERITAGE, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

With journalist Bianca Stigter's book Atlas of an occupied city, you walk through today's reality, as it were, with historical virtual reality glasses on. An extra layer appears over the familiar backdrop of Amsterdam's streets: of World War II occupation. What wartime past is hidden in the streets and behind the facades? Atlas...

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New stage for Dutch thriller at Utrecht Library

by one of our members
6 May 202129 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only, LITERARY, PRESS

Under the title 'The Dutch thriller awards 2021', the four most important thriller awards (Gouden Strop, Hebban Thrillerprijs, Schaduwprijs and Zilveren Strop) will be presented from the Utrecht Library on Saturday 5 June. The ceremony will mark the start of 'The Week of the Exciting Book', which begins on Monday 7 June. With 'The Dutch thriller awards 2021', the Utrecht Library, readers' platform Hebban.nl and the...

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Writers writing. That's what Moped at Sea is about, and that's ok.

by Wijbrand Schaap
3 May 2021
3 min read
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Many avid readers will dream of their favourite author sitting at their table one day, talking about her work. Perhaps just as many avid readers will take their dream author on a stroll, want to drink lamb on a café terrace or take them to a darkroom. Or to a classical concert at the Concertgebouw. All can be done. Some will even just...

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Excluded after a boner in the shower. Dries Muus on his bold debut novel

by A Quattro Mani
3 May 2021
6 min read
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For years, writer and reviewer Dries Muus (36) beat around the bush. Until he realised he could, or rather had to, use a drastic event from his own life for his debut novel The Deviation. Stiff Two accomplished manuscripts ended up in the bin before Parool reviewer Dries Muus' debut novel saw the light of day. But third time's the charm, and after...

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Also in my mind, 'Journey through the night' is due for a 35th printing

by Onno Weggemans
22 April 202129 March 2022
7 min read
For members only, LITERARY, PERSONAL, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

The 35th(!) edition of Reis door de nacht, the classic novel written by Anne de Vries, was published recently. As a ten-year-old boy, I sympathised intensely with the war adventures of Jan de Boer and his family members. The book is also a metaphor for my own struggle against darkness. It is a lovely spring day. In the ditch, a duck swims with her...

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Godfried Bomans: respectively loved, vilified, misunderstood and forgotten

by Jeroen de Valk
12 April 2021
18 min read
HERITAGE, FAITS DIVERS, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

Godfried Bomans died half a century ago. Almost immediately afterwards, the Netherlands' best-loved writer sank into oblivion. It is time for a reappraisal of Bomans' literary work and even his political views. I delved into the archives, also looking for the few traces of Bomans in Amersfoort. First some round figures. Seventy years ago, he delivered a lecture...

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Janice Deul on 'translationgate': 'Surely you can expect people in the literary world to be able to read?' Nerd podcast #10

by Wijbrand Schaap
9 April 2021
2 min read
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Stage poetry is usually held in lower esteem than written poetry. While stage poets can touch so powerfully. Only during the Night of Poetry, every year in Utrecht, do we honour the performers among the poets. Then it's back to the 'jokers' who can rhyme, as was recently written about Ingmar Heytze in a podcast announcement. Spoken Word, the...

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'If you touch just one person, it can change the world' "Desperate optimist" Adriaan van Dis wrote a book full of joyful anger

by A Quattro Mani
4 March 20214 March 2021
10 min read
LITERARY

It is a fresh and lively book, the new novel by Adriaan van Dis (74). In his characteristic humorous tone, Van Dis broaches the big themes of our time in KliFi: climate change, the refugee crisis, political populism, (im)freedom. When in the republic of the Netherlands a crushingly hot summer turns into a hurricane and a village of refugees is wiped out, silence...

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Between heaven and hell: Frank Westerman on our fascination with the cosmos

by A Quattro Mani
25 February 202130 March 2022
8 min read
For members only, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

At the time Covid-19 flattened normal life, Frank Westerman had fortunately already done his research for his new book. To take care of his parents, he was suddenly living 'at home' again for three months, in his boyhood room on the outskirts of Assen. Writing offered him the chance to escape to heavenly realms: Cosmic Comedy is about the human...

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'I tried to turn something terrible into something beautiful.' Douglas Stuart wrote a gripping novel about his alcohol-addicted mother

by A Quattro Mani
15 February 202130 March 2022
9 min read
For members only, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

Last year, he became the second Scot ever to win the prestigious Booker Prize, and that too with a debut novel. The unexpected success of Shuggie Bain has a bittersweet edge for Douglas Stuart (44). For the story of maverick Shuggie, who loses his hapless, single mother Agnes to drink, is based on his own childhood. Shuggie grows up...

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Snow

by Onno Weggemans
8 February 202130 March 2022
3 min read
For members only, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

It is almost Christmas. Miss Kate and Miss Julia are giving their annual ball. One by one the guests appear, there is dancing, eating (greasy brown goose, marinated rib eye, pudding), there is apprehension about Freddy Malins who is bound to appear drunk again, and Gabriel gives a short table speech as usual. Gabriel fears his speech will be too pompous. He...

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free to

by Ingmar Heytze
2 February 20212 April 2022
3 min read
For members only, Column, Ingmar Heytze, LITERARY, PODCAST, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

It schmaltzes. It rattles. It is set in Brabant. And my name is underneath it, with 'free to' as a sham in front of it.

A trip around the world, a bike, a cat and her bodyguard Dean: 'Nala makes my life a lot more exciting'

by A Quattro Mani
26 January 2021
6 min read
LITERARY

When he left Dunbar over two years ago for a round-the-world bicycle trip, Scottish Dean Nicholson (32) could not have suspected how much his life would change. When he rescued a kitten a few weeks old from a ditch in Bosnia, his life took a completely different turn. Since then, Nala and he have been inseparable, cycling together...

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Veni, Vidi, Vici

by Onno Weggemans
25 January 202129 March 2022
3 min read
For members only, LITERARY, PODCAST, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

Every writer dreams of being translated. Into English (world language), Chinese (big market) or, if necessary, into Icelandic (always wanted to go there on holiday). Sometimes it is necessary to give that dream a helping hand.

Keep Standing! 5 tips for VPRO's new book programme

by Wijbrand Schaap
17 January 2021
6 min read
LITERARY, MEDIA, TELEVISION, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

With these five tips, we are sure to come up with a wonderful programme, in this bizarre summer we are facing, in which we will hopefully be allowed to hit the streets again at all. My fingers are crossed for both.

The stuffiness from Maeve Brennan's stories is easy to spot at the moment

by Onno Weggemans
10 January 202129 March 2022
3 min read
For members only, Column, LITERARY, PERSONAL, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

It is no coincidence that I am rereading The Twelve Year Wedding just now. Because the tightness in the story resembles the tightness of our own time. Like Delia and Martin Bagot, we are trapped in a suffocating existence. Shun contact with fellow human beings. Miss the fresh air of visits to cafés, museums, film houses and theatres. Dublin 1917 is the Netherlands 2021.

'My novel offers an opening for conversation about mental illness' Lize Spit on her new book "I am not there"

by A Quattro Mani
27 December 2020
5 min read
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'Seeing your loved one derail before your eyes is the worst thing there is: the most secure suddenly becomes the most unsafe. You can live with someone for weeks or months before it becomes clear that they are slowly slipping into delusions.'

Alaa al Aswani: 'Literature doesn't change politics, it changes people'

by A Quattro Mani
18 December 202029 March 2022
7 min read
For members only, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

Four years ago at the Winternachten Festival in The Hague, we spoke about it with Egyptian writer Alaa al Aswani, who was disarmingly upbeat despite the fact that he can barely publish in his own country. On lack of freedom of expression and fiction in times of fake, this year's theme, Al Aswani could have a word. 'Freedom of expression is even worse now than under dictator Mubarak.'

Guilt helps no one. Philosopher and writer Jannah Loontjens took a closer look at her gnawing conscience

by A Quattro Mani
16 December 202030 March 2022
7 min read
For members only, LITERARY, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

I have come to realise that guilt creates a distance. To others, I sometimes come across as cool and reserved; this is because I unconsciously shut down to suppress my feelings and desires. I don't want to get in the way of others with my emotions. But that also means I rarely let the other person get close.

TIMEN JAN VEENSTRA RECEIVES BOYER TROPHY

by one of our members
16 December 202030 March 2022
2 min read
LITERARY, PRESS, PODIUM ART, THEATER

The awarding of the Boyer Trophy took place at Theater Bellevue in Amsterdam during A Theatre Author Thing You Must Attend, following the Boyer Lecture organised by the Authors' Union, which this year was delivered by Jetse Batelaan.

Dutch playwrights still have no idea about the quality of the stage work of their predecessors.

by Wijbrand Schaap
8 December 20208 December 2020
3 min read
HERITAGE, LITERARY, PODCAST, PODIUM ART, THEATER, APPRECIATE & DONATE!

Dutch theatre is thriving, despite frantic attempts by various Rutte cabinets to bring it down. And even though money is always short as a result: a lot of new theatre is being made. More than ever, even. But.

There is a but.

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