Everything to do with letters
Is the language of poetry still free from ideology and manipulation? Or is it nonsense to think that poetic language escapes framing, the ideological loading of words? That is the main theme of this year's Poetry International poetry festival, which kicks off on Tuesday 7 June.
Ivo van Hove is America's best theatre director. The Nationale Opera recently picked up an Oscar for International Opera of the Year and now Carmien Michels, the Dutch Poetry Slam champion, has reached the third step of the podium of honour at the Poetry Slam World Cup. And this in the year when dyed-in-the-wool Girowinners are falling into the snow, racing drivers on their way to...
The novel Jij zegt het, in which Connie Palmen gives a voice to Ted Hughes, won the Libris Literature Prize yesterday. Of course, you can think all sorts of things about that. Maybe another book was better. Tastes and juries differ. In the novel based on facts and diaries, letters and biographies, Palmen gives the poet Ted Hughes a rebuttal. A rebuttal to all the...
Connie Palmen won the 2016 Libris Literature Prize on Monday evening, 9 May, with her novel You say. In the long history of this literary award, which was first presented in 1994, Palmen is only the third woman to receive the €50,000 cash prize and a bronze medal. Previous winners were Frieda Vogels (1994) and D. Hooijer (2008).
She came, saw and conquered. Until recently, Nell Zink was almost the embodiment of the cliché image of the poor writer, alone in an attic room. But when American writer Jonathan Frantzen touted her work, she grew into literary hype in no time. Her publisher gave her a six-figure advance. From nobody to 'Her Nellness' -...
She is small and petite, but as militant as a (Tamil) tiger. Indian writer Meena Kandasamy (1984) prefers to break with all conventions, and the word is her weapon. No Bollywood Anyone who thinks, based on the cover and the author's name, that The Gypsy Goddess is a sweet 'Bollywood novel' will be deceived. Meena Kandasamy's novel is about a true-life...
That there is an extremist magazine about burnings and beheadings, and that rich Britons have four-storey basements built under their houses for a private cinema or bowling alley - we learned a lot last night at the International Literature Festival Utrecht (ILFU). The programme of the Saturday night of the ILFU was as richly varied as that of the first evening. The...
Jan Gielkens has won the Filter Translation Prize 2016 for his translation of The Words of Grimm by Günter Grass. The prize of ten thousand euros rewards the most exceptional translation achievement of the past year. Grass's novel, published last year by Meulenhoff, places high demands on the reader and the translator, the jury felt. 'Deftly navigates Gielkens'...
Visitors either thought it was 'very cool' or they thought it was 'absolutely nothing' - PJ Harvey's reading, the opening act at tonight's International Literature Festival Utrecht, evoked totally opposite reactions. Rock diva PJ Harvey is not only a musician, but also a visual artist and poet. At ILFU, as the festival has been called since this year, she read from her...
'No barbaric act can ever erase press freedom,' French President Hollande tweeted immediately after the bloody attack on the editors of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in January 2015. German Chancellor Angela Merkel walked side by side with him in a mass demonstration for freedom of expression. But that was the reality of the time. Now she stands ...
In times of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, what power does the novel still have? Every so often, fiction is declared dead, but the International Literature Fesitval Utrecht (formerly City2Cities), which takes place this coming weekend in the former post office on the Neude, wants to show that novel pessimists are completely wrong. Nine highlights from the programme. PJ Harvey The Literature House, like last...
José Eduardo Agualusa, Elena Ferrante, Han Kang, Orhan Pamuk, Robert Seethaler and Yan Lianke have a chance to win the Man Booker International Prize 2016. The shortlist of six authors and titles was announced today. And, coincidence or not, we already interviewed one of the major contenders. Read that interview with José Eduardo Agualusa here, take in what he says about...
This was our April fool's joke for 2016. Thanks for sharing! During renovation work at the Stadsbank van Lening building on Amsterdam's Oudezijds Voorburgwal, a manuscript of a work of poetry that has since been attributed by literary historians to Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) has recently turned up. It concerns a rough, unfinished version of a play entitled 'Alva' and is dated around...
In his recent collection Achter het verdwijnpunt, death plays an important role. Poet Frans Budé lost no fewer than four poet friends in a short time and honoured them in verse. The 70-year-old poet himself still writes as avidly as in his younger years: in addition to an occasional collection on the Maas, to be published in May, he wrote poems for the upcoming exhibition...
It kept me awake one night. About that Radio Kunststof broadcast with Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer. Because, what exactly did the King and Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer say to each other and how does a singing Princess Amalia sound? Listen in. [audioplayer file="https://cultureelpersbureau.nl//wp-content/uploads/2016/03/WA-vs-Pfeijffer-©brechtje-roos-put-into-sound.mp3″] (music- Coralie Clement, recording- Put into Sound)
They still exist. Writers who find it hard enough to write a book, and so are happy to leave all the rest to a publisher. They may complain afterwards about poor marketing, minimal payment and guidance, but have no idea how they could do it differently. Fortunately, it is becoming increasingly easy to do things differently...
Writing cost him his marriage, he is being shadowed by the secret service and risks being arrested in Angola. But José Eduardo Agualusa, who has a chance of winning the 2016 Man Booker International Prize with his new novel A General Theory of Forgetting, does not hesitate to put down his pen. 'I won't let myself...
Is there any reason to buy the magazine 'Boekman 106′? For me, yes, although I should immediately throw a magazine that claims to be the Dutch forum for art, culture and policy into the dustbin for displayed arrogance. After all, with a circulation of only 1400 copies, and appearing four times a year, how can you give yourself such a...
The stupidest question I come across all too often is THE question: what is the tangible result of your projects for audiences? Or more broadly drawn: what can art & culture measurably add to lives? Add that question together with the current clamour for 'utility in art' and I get accutely red pimples from these non-answerable questions. And I...
International literary festival Winternachten wants to involve the public more in its programmes next year. 'Audiences increasingly want to have a say,' says director Ton van de Langkruis. 'That can be done in all kinds of ways, we are now brooding on that.' Winternachten attracted some 7300 visitors this year, equalling last year's attendance. Last edition's theme was 'Hello Darkness', and...
'Someone like Umberto is of greater value on earth than in heaven.' Actor Roberto Benigni, known for films like La vita è bella, said goodbye to his friend Umberto Eco (1932-2016) at his funeral at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan on Tuesday. Eco's grandson also spoke and thanked his grandfather for the stories told, the crossword puzzles, the books and music...
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