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Dutch New
Dutch Foundation
Poets
for LiteratureContents
2 Alfred Schaffer
Challenges, Obsessions,
and Fascinations
4 Radna Fabias
6 Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
8 Frank Keizer
10 Dean Bowen
12 Joost Baars
14 Kira Wuck
16 Marije Langelaar
18 Simone Atangana Bekono
20 Gerda Blees
22 Lieke Marsman
24 Asha Karami
26 Roelof ten Napel
28 Maartje Smits
30 Jonathan Griffioen
32 Babs Gons
34 Akwasi
36 Ellen Deckwitz
38 Tsead Bruinja
New Dutch Poets
40 Recent translations
45 Elsewhere
46 General informationChallenges, Obsessions, even explicitly presented as ‘research.’ This approach doesn’t
Alfred Schaffer
necessarily mean that the work is autobiographical, but it does
and Fascinations mean that the individual and particular is chosen over what are
purported to be universal and general truths.
A lot of new poetry seems to be informed by the realization
that the power and knowledge of the subject are in all respects
These are challenging times for the world – and, by extension, limited, but that this quandary can be explored in the work. The
for poetry and the arts. Debates surrounding issues such reader is encouraged to actively look and think for themselves.
as climate change, migration, sexual abuse, racism, and It’s a striking tendency in contemporary poetry, but of course
discrimination based on sex and gender are taking place at the that’s not all that’s going on. Poetry is thriving like never before,
heart of society, with ordinary citizens actively participating and the great diversity of the work that is being produced is a
through social media. In other words, citizens have become a testimony to that. Accessible poetry exists alongside the still-
political factor – the voice of the individual is being heard. flourishing hermetic tradition, politically and socially engaged
poems exist alongside apolitical work. A number of young
A term that keeps popping up in this context is ‘identity’: what poets are writing long, ambitious, meandering poems full of
is a ‘national’ identity, what is a nation? Who or what am I, apt metaphors and similes, while others are pithy and succinct.
as a unique individual? Who do I want to be or become, and Some poets stay close to spoken language, while others make
how fluid is my ‘self’? What are my beliefs, what is my history everyday language strange again. It’s no longer the case that
and what past do I want to be associated with? Many young one approach is more popular, successful, or acclaimed than
artists, theatre makers, writers and poets – who aren’t outside another – the days of clear, dominant trends are over, at least
observers, of course, but are right in the middle of this rapidly for now.
changing reality – seem explicitly to be engaging with these At the same time, poetry has long ceased to be the exclusive
questions in some way. domain of white men. We are seeing more and more female
How do you write poetry that isn’t just about form and style, poets and poets of colour from backgrounds that aren’t
about language and craft, but that is also relevant and tackles exclusively Dutch. This too is resulting in new stories being told
all sorts of urgent issues? A growing number of young poets on and generating exciting poetry that is resonating with a wide
the Dutch literary scene are centering their own perspective and audience. Yes, Dutch poetry is in a state of constant flux, but
lived experiences. It’s no wonder that a genre like spoken word with the emergence of so many new young poets it now seems
should also be gaining in popularity in the Netherlands. The to be heading in a truly new direction, one that reflects the
New Dutch Poets
result is a strongly narrative kind of poetry. Individual poems challenges, obsessions and fascinations of this complex
are thematically linked and together tell a story that is at turns 21st century.
lyrical, prosaic and essayistic. In some cases, collections are
Alfred Schaffer (1973) was Afrikaans, English, French, of desire by reimagining the bullying, this book reveals the
born in The Hague to Dutch German, Macedonian, Turkish, life of Shaka kaSenzanga proximity of love and cruelty, of
and Aruban parents and Indonesian, and Swedish. khona, the 19th century Zulu historical colonialism and our
has lived alternately in the Mens Dier Ding (Man Animal monarch, in a modern context. postcolonial present.
Netherlands and South Africa. Thing), his seventh full-length The poems deploy a panoply
He is regarded by critics as collection, is one of the most of forms and voices, shuttling
one of the most talented celebrated Dutch poetry between first- and third-per-
poets writing in Dutch today. collections of the past decade son narratives, confessions
Also a translator and scholar, and has been translated into and gossip, daydreams,
Schaffer currently teaches at English, French, and Afrikaans. and game show transcripts.
Stellenbosch University First published in 2014, Mens From spear-sharpening to Rights
in South Africa. His poems Dier Ding tackles racism, the late capitalist suburbs, royal Marijke Nagtegaal
have been published in refugee crisis, and the politics fratricide to schoolyard m.nagtegaal@debezigebij.nl
2 3Radna Fabias (1983) spent years quietly working on her debut. When what i hid (excerpt)
Radna Fabias
Habitus came out in early 2018, it was met with a flood of rave
reviews, and Fabias wowed audiences at every poetry festival with her
outstanding performance. The following year, the collection won
virtually every Dutch and Flemish poetry award – from the C. Bud- rims
dingh’ Prize for the best debut to the Herman de Coninck Prize and the impeccably polished rims shining in the sun
the Grote Poëzie Prijs. And rightly so, because Habitus is a truly bril- too big and too expensive for the cars they spin under
liant collection of poems about a woman caught between two worlds.
Fabias was born on the island of than a home, Fabias’ poetry is looking the tinted windows of the cars with the shining rims
Curaçao, a former Dutch colony for a form of its own: the poems take the almost horizontal drivers of the cars with the tinted windows and the shining rims
in the Caribbean, and came to the on wildly divergent styles, at times the explosive bass from the subwoofers installed in the trunks
Netherlands at the age of seventeen. reminiscent of ‘travel guides’ and
the dust from the dry fields
Her poetry is rich with sensory detail, theatre or film scripts, as in ‘view with
letting the reader see the blue of the a coconut (in soviet montage)’: ‘the and pomade: green
sea and the pink and yellow of houses tropics paint orange-yellow a more or the black version
and churches in the Antilles. But if you intense orange-yellow but / someone smells of oil refinery
immerse yourself in Fabias’ cinematic keeps calling and crying.’ perfect
language, you also discover the other Fabias’ poetry gets deep under your
side of the idyll: ‘the street kids on skin; it’s sharp and visceral, exposing for the hair of the modern Negro in the 1980s
undersized bikes / the way they dance flesh, muscle, fear, and sensuality. perfect
their bikes around girls who have just It shows that identity is made up of to accentuate the natural blackness, to make it gleam
started menstruating / the mothers a complex mixture of ingredients perfect
who warn about them / the mothers / – of ‘faith, superstition, and (great)
for catching the dust
only.’ grandmotherly advice’, of experiences
Fabias’ poetry examines the position and preconceived notions. She from the dry fields where spiky bushes grow
of the migrant, shuttling between cleverly plays with stereotypes and the dust
two worlds, in search of a home. This makes biting jokes: ‘like many women carried on the trade wind
strongly composed collection looks I always knew I’d marry a man / it
all around and all over
at the fictions of her mother country ended up being a black man because
the poky bars
New Dutch Poets
and arriving at a new home, at people’s that looked better with my dress / a
histories, mothers and fathers, but matter of contrast.’ Fabias is already on the side of every road, blacktop or dirt
also at skin colour, stereotypes of an essential voice in Dutch-language the women behind the barred windows of the bars on the side of the road
exoticism and gender. Perhaps rather literature. the women
the holes
Translations Rights the women on the streets
Habitus was translated into Jolijn Spooren
French by Daniel Cunin (Car- j.spooren@singeluitgeverijen.nl but not after dark
actères, 2019) and will be pub- the holes in the road
lished by Deep Vellum (USA),
translated by David Colmer.
‘What transforms this into
Publisher great poetry is its
De Arbeiderspers momentum and rhythm,
the wealth of its images,
Management and its nuanced vision on
Michael Roumen human existence.’ translated by
michael@michaelroumen.com Piet Gerbrandy, Ons Erfdeel David Colmer
4 5One of the rising stars in contemporary Dutch literature, Marieke If it happens to you
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
Lucas Rijneveld (1991) made their debut with the poetry collection
Kalfsvlies (Calfskin), which won the C. Buddingh’ Prize for best
Dutch-language poetry debut, prompting de Volkskrant to proclaim
them National Literary Talent of the Year. English translations of
Rijneveld’s poems have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation,
Gulf Coast, Asymptote Journal, and The Enchanting Verses Literary
How do you go to bed when you have just run over a sheep? Trembling on the edge of the bed
Review. In 2018, Rijneveld published their first novel, The Discomfort
your cold hands like raw steaks over your eyes, her hand
of Evening, which was a phenomenal success in the Netherlands.
Recently shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize, the
forms half an orange which presses heavily upon your knee, back and forth
translation rights have been sold in fifteen countries.
it moves, squeezing out everything that has happened to you but don’t forget the speed
Rijneveld, who currently lives in mother, distant father and deceased
of speaking, without pause everything remains a void, sadness has little chance of coming
Utrecht and works part-time at a dairy grandmother through the unfiltered
farm, grew up in an Orthodox Reformed voice of a narrator who struggles with through. Please speak of wine you think, of how the children
Protestant family in the province of insecurities, eerie dreams, gender, and
North Brabant. The Discomfort of sexuality: ‘Mummy, I whisper softly, are growing and of all the poppies recklessly springing open, but her head has long been an
Evening tells the story of a family of the wolves are waiting at the door for a autocue, you know what you must say to comfort her:
religious farmers devastated after the shot / and I’m lying here with a body of
accidental death of one of the children. carbon paper / waiting until someone
playing fair weather has more to do with rain, and it’s raining as though we once invented
Rijneveld’s prose corresponds in many traces a better winter of myself.’
ways to their poetic world: their writing Ultimately, Rijneveld draws the the sun. You walk circles round the bedroom, trying to click your thoughts
is exuberant and rich with imagery, reader into a landscape where fantasy,
unapologetically youthful, brutal, and humor, and tragedy vibrantly converge, together like a bracelet, wash your hands again and again and examine them, testing their
adventurous. inanimate objects are brought to life, purity, body hissing like a rusty barbeque.
Fantoommerrie (Phantom Mare), and long-concealed secrets surface in
Rijneveld’s second collection of poetry, language that forms a world of its own.
She says there are glasses and a bottle of wine in the nightstand, left from the last time that
was published in 2019. The poems in
you trembled and all that blood. After two glasses she gives up, you shrink beneath the sheets
Phantom Mare continue Rijneveld’s
fascination with a childhood spent
New Dutch Poets
in the countryside. Rijneveld’s long like the sheep beneath the tires, you think of everything that has ever perished and the slap
stanzas confront God, a fearful that it brought with it, you carry this with you until your heart becomes a grave, your head
the granite stone above it, finally at rest you weep wine until it is
Translations ‘Rijneveld has created a no longer about the sheep but about who will comfort the driver, you poor, daft dog.
The Discomfort of Evening is world of language unlike any
published by Faber and Faber other: their wild, striking
(UK), Graywolf Press (USA), imagery in all its horror and
Suhrkamp (Germany), Buchet beauty will be imprinted on
Chastel (France), Al Arabi my mind forever.’
(Egypt), Nutrimenti (Italy), Ella Griffiths, Editor,
Temas de Hoy (Spain), and Faber and Faber
other languages.
‘Shockingly good.’
Rights
Max Porter translated by
Hayo Deinum
hdeinum@atlascontact.nl Sarah Timmer Harvey
6 7Frank Keizer (1987) writes distinctly contemporary poetry, describing
Frank Keizer
the existence of a young Dutchman in the early twenty-first century,
and at the same time firmly embedded in literary tradition. Keizer
also combines a colloquial tone with politico-philosophical jargon.
Using these building blocks, he constructs an oeuvre and determines
a position antithetical to the late-capitalist present time.
Keizer debuted in 2012 with the chap- His first print collection, Onder normale
book Dear world, fuck off, ik ga golfen omstandigheden (Under Normal Cir-
(Dear world, fuck off, I’m going to play cumstances), was published in 2015.
golf), in which the narrator finds him- Inspired by American authors such as
self situated in a completely privatised Chris Kraus and Bruce Boone, Keizer I have remained behind in the night.
present. In opposition to marketisation shows how the personal has become North Amsterdam is at my feet
and consumerism, the poems search political. He portrays the exhaustion and I can’t find any use for it.
for places where community and soli- and despair of a contemporary young
There is capitalism as usual, never mind
darity continue to exist. It is telling that man raised in the apolitical 1990s,
this chapbook was published by the revealing his attempts to reconnect which name it has hidden behind
Creative Commons project: in this way, and re-engage. Herman Gorter, an and my face
Keizer lets readers share his poems for outspoken, early-twentieth-century
is the face of the recession,
free. Marxist poet, provides inspiration in
In the following years, Keizer sought this struggle for change. my laugh a grimace between docility and pain.
new opportunities for community Keizer’s second collection, Lief A delicate motor system has made way
building. Together with fellow poet slecht ding (Sweet Bad Thing, 2019), for the motor system of dumbness.
Maarten van der Graaff, he founded continues along the course already set
Samplekanon, a free online maga- out: the characters find themselves on The motor system of someone who watches films
zine with the motto ‘Magazines are ‘a post-militant path to something that at a desk, drinks beer at a desk,
societies.’ In this publication, Keizer will become the future.’ writes poems at a desk.
and Van der Graaff present Dutch and
foreign-language literary texts that Poems written at a desk
New Dutch Poets
might receive little attention elsewhere become desk poems.
because of their innovative form and I cost my economy money,
content.
but not enough.
Publisher ‘Such subtle language.
Polis What an asset this poet is!’
Alfred Schaffer,
Rights De Groene Amsterdammer
Harold Polis
harold.polis@polis.be ‘Intelligent poetry, written
with rhetorical sensitivity
Contact to the tensions, conflicts
www.frankkeizer.net and desires of our time.’
Erwin Jans, De Reactor
translated by
Donald Gardner
8 9An erupting volcano – that’s the image that comes to mind when mi skin
Dean Bowen
you see Dean Bowen (1984) on stage. The poems in his 2018 debut
Bokman (Goatman) are no less impassioned. Bowen was immediately
recognised as a unique and necessary new voice in Dutch poetry.
His work is both moving and politically charged.
my skin my cast iron skin my equator skin my cast iron
equator skin my skin my scarring skin my grey scarring
Bokman can be read as a search for Sranantongo and Papiamentu came skin my grey skin my asylum seeker skin my skin my
identity – or rather, a dissection of about: ‘our guilt, an unknowing dat we
colorblind skin my smoke skin my color smoke skin
the layers that go to make up this koesterden in het langgeleden’ (that we
complex term. What shapes a person? cherished in the long ago). is burning my burning skin my cursed skin my cursed
What shaped Dean Bowen? Language, Bowen’s debut was nominated for skin is burning my skin my prayer skin my prayer
family, origins, the diaspora. In a cycle the C. Buddingh’ Prize for the best marshmallow skin my cloud marshmallow skin my
of poems that bears his own name, poetry debut. Bokman is a confronting burning cloud skin my skin my marshmallow skin
Bowen lets a multitude of narratives collection that forces the reader to is burning my skin my unreeled skin bare my bare
intertwine, recounting the history of reflect on their role in history, their
unreeled skin my capitulate skin my skin my blues skin
Suriname – the indigenous popu- position in the debate about racism,
lation, the colonial oppressors, the the Dutch colonial past, heritage and my limpid skin my limpid blues skin my skin my blues
Maroons, the slaves: ‘i know the stories identity. Straddling multiple conti- is burning skin & my skin is a home my rust
of this water before it was water for nents, Bowen masterfully untangles skin my skin rusts my rust skin is burning
plantations.’ a myriad of origins to deconstruct the
In this furious, polyphonic collection, idea of a singular narrative. oxidizes
language follows its own logic and
grammar. The disjointed structure of
my skin oxidizes my neutral skin my black neutral skin
the lines of his poems is not acciden-
tal. Just as the abolition of slavery in my pinched off black neutral skin is burning my
Suriname is commemorated every year picked skin my dry skin my dry skin is
with the celebration of Keti Koti (‘bro- burning my matured skin my matured skin is
ken chains’), Bowen frees the Dutch
New Dutch Poets
laundered skin my laundered skin is skin my becoming
language from its constraints. Instead, skin my malleable becoming skin my language skin is
he mixes different languages to create
malleable my skin is burning my miracle skin
something new, similar to the way
my annotation skin my annotation miracle skin my
mirror skin my splinter skin my mirror splinter skin my
Publisher ‘With his idiosyncratically magic conjuring skin my #blackboymagic skin my black
Jurgen Maas constructed sentences,
Bowen liberates the Dutch skin is conjuring skin and boys are burning
Rights language from its rules.’
Jurgen Maas Janita Monna, Trouw
info@uitgeverijjurgenmaas.nl
‘It’s a substantial work
Contact which confidently presents
www.deanbowen.nl the poet’s anger and
fractured sense of self.’
Alfred Schaffer, translated by
De Groene Amsterdammer
the poet
10 11Joost Baars (1975) is a poet, essayist, and bookseller. His poetry debut
Joost Baars
Binnenplaats (Enclosure) was published in 2017, though he had already
been writing poetry for several years by that point. The collection
was a huge success – it was reprinted five times and awarded the VSB
Poetry Prize, the most prestigious poetry award in the Netherlands,
and nominated for the Herman de Coninck Prize and the C. Buddingh’
Prize. Joost Baars writes essays and criticism for literary magazines
and appears at festivals both in the Netherlands and abroad.
the rustling in the trees is
Joost Baars’ work marks the return of follows after the prayer is an inextrica- not the rustling in the trees.
religion to Dutch poetry, after many ble part of the ‘genre’. Indeed, this one
decades in which God was as good as of the strengths of Baars’ poetic faith; it is Your voice. the rustling
absent. Many of his poems are prayers: the silence cushions the poems in the
which is always the same, is not
poetry forms the linguistic ‘enclosure’ same way a riverbed holds a river, his
in which the silent ‘You’ is passionately predilection for two-line stanzas effec-
addressed. In his debut, Joost Baars tively weaving an overarching sense of always the same. it unlocks me,
shows himself to be indebted to the quietude. works its way inside of me, to the
autonomist tradition, while at the same A key theme in Baars’ poetry is the
time, he irrevocably breaks with it by act of naming: the creative power of place that is Yours, where You appear
rejecting the self-referential aspect of language and the disconnect between
to be absent. that’s where I can hear
autonomist poetics. the thing itself and the image that the
His poems are a far cry from her- language evokes. The most impressive
metic linguistic microcosms – if any- aspect of Baars’ work is that in explor- Your peaceful livid churning, not
thing, they are the opposite. In poetry ing these ideas, he manages to invite the rustling, but the rustling
that leans toward the mystical, he the whole world into his poetic prayers,
attempts to use language as a way to moving his writing beyond elemental that makes the rustling sound,
reach a place beyond words: ‘tell me, theology or the philosophy of language. from a place in me that doesn’t sound,
does Your silence / speak to me or does In a stunning series of poems, he
my speech / here go unheard, and if / addresses the birds like a modern-day
this mutual quiet should be broken / by Saint Francis, with his powers of where the words I speak
reply, which one / of us would shatter don’t exist until You speak,
New Dutch Poets
observation in a class of their own.
first?’ The fact that the (divine) other
remains silent doesn’t mean that these where You are born in the rustling
prayers are failing. The silence that of the rustling of the sound-
Publisher ‘A mature and poignant less rustling and shape me inside.
Van Oorschot debut by a poet in full
command of his craft who
Rights is sure to go from strength
Menno Hartman to strength.’
menno@vanoorschot.nl Jury’s statement,
C. Buddingh’ Prize
Contact
www.joostbaars.nl ‘Fantastic, dense poetry.
A gift to the Dutch poetry
scene.’ translated by
Ellen Deckwitz, De Morgen
Astrid Alben
12 13The daughter of a Finnish mother and an Indonesian father, Kira The sea is hungry
Kira Wuck
Wuck (1978) grew up in Amsterdam. She studied Creative Writing at
the Schrijversvakschool. In 2011, she broke through by winning the
Dutch Poetry Slam. A year later, her debut collection Finse meisjes
(Finnish Girls) was published, which left a deep impression with its
cornucopia of original images and surprising observations.
If you want to know where people wait
Finse meisjes was awarded the Lucy them, that make Wuck’s characters so
B. & C.W Hoogt prize in 2013, and tangible and touching. you need to look for the cigarette butts
nominated for the C. Buddingh’ Prize In the poem ‘This Party’ she writes: on the beach
and the Jo Peters Poetry Prize. In 2016, ‘This party is so boring Sylvia says / I tiny dreams like folded-up notes
Wuck published a somewhat absurdist wish someone would put something in
collection of short stories called Nood my drink.’ It is striking how much these
landing (Emergency Landing), which desires are accompanied by a sense of waiting is like the sea
earned her a nomination for the J.M.A. calamity, danger, and violence that may time comes towards us
Biesheuvel prize. In 2018, her second or not be subtle. ‘Sometimes I see the
like an extended drought
poetry collection, De zee heeft honger things I want / as a tidal wave that can
(The Sea is Hungry), was published. cover the land / to get there first I have
Both Wuck’s poetry and short stories to drown,’ Wuck writes in her poem thirst is so great we can’t name it
are characterised by the way everyday ‘Hanoi.’ we can’t drink salt water
life and absurdity are interwoven. The If uprootedness, loneliness, and the
characters Wuck introduces to us in desire for contact are today’s human no one knows how long the sea sleeps
her parlando writing style struggle with condition, then Kira Wuck is one of her thighs are always cold and willing
a fundamental sense of displacement the Netherlands’ most astute poetic
and loneliness that ‘smells of calf’s commentators.
liver in a baking dish,’ as she puts it. we take with us everything we own
Although their coping strategies are below us swim children without hunger
rarely effective, there is no question of most of all we wish we could go back to the moment
these people giving up or succumbing
New Dutch Poets
before everything began to falter
to lethargy. It is their resilience, and
the often hilarious way she presents
when waiting still meant dreaming and
the sea wasn’t hungry
Translations ‘Kira Wuck’s wondrous,
A selection of Kira Wuck’s melancholic gaze remains
poetry has been translated striking.’
translated into German by Paul Demets, De Morgen
Stefan Wieczorek for Virgines.
‘She combines laconic irony
Publisher with lively, absurd fantasy
Podium and a talent for touching
and recognizable imagery.’
Rights
Ons Erfdeel
post@uitgeverijpodium.nl
translated by
Michele Hutchison
14 15After studying art at the Arnhem Art Academy and Nottingham Trent We lay fertile on the pavement
Marije Langelaar
University Marije Langelaar (1978) turned to writing poetry. Her
first collection De rivier als vlakte (The River as Plain), was published
in 2003, followed six years later by De schuur in (Into the Shed,
2009) for which she received the Hugues C. Pernath Prize. For her
most recent collection Vonkt (It Sparks, 2017), she received the Jan
Campert Prize and the Awater Poetry Prize, several nominations, and
many excellent reviews.
From the beginning, Marije Langelaar sea loose / hurl our torsos into the
has shown herself to be a sensual waves / fight a slash in the wind / bolt
poet, whose aim was to taste the scream sink.’ In Vonkt, both the lines
marrow of life, to experience it in all its and poems are longer and more narra-
We laid our genitals down.
fullness, abundance and beauty, taking tive in style. A relationship crisis sends
an almost Nietzschean approach. the poet reeling; the light that was Flaring up crimson like wild tropical birds.
The brilliance of light and the glow previously celebrated is now painful We ate something.
over a pond are not only observed – in like ‘a shard in our neck,’ but after We tried to fit them in each other
Langelaar’s work, simply looking is leaping into the ‘abyss,’ she emerges
those wild tropical birds, to pile them up, to rotate them
not enough. Instead, the voices and reborn. Triumphantly, her sexuality
the figures in her poems aspire to be returns: ‘That night I fucked like a wild gently.
everywhere, to commune with the thing with a scholar in / conversational Irresistible sounds came free
world around them: ‘Oh, the longing theology.’
to enter all the houses!’ and ‘Then he Beside people, animals and plants, and so crimson we rose high as a wave.
walked to the pond / and broke through even inanimate objects are filled with
the glittering surface / with his boots / soul (‘there is a spark in this table, this
he swam around it doing breaststroke.’ lamp and in you dear / listener’) and We chiseled a shadow on the table.
In Langelaar’s vital poems, life brims one metamorphosis leads to another:
and the images tumble over each other ‘I was a flame I was a flame I was a Gong strike.
in rapid succession. The title of her torch, pulsating / torch in a jet black
Someone calls our name.
second collection De schuur in might night.’ As the judges of the VSB Poetry
indicate a form of withdrawal, but Who is calling us?
New Dutch Poets
Prize wrote: Marije Langelaar’s unique
here too the atmosphere is wild and poetry ‘roars, flames, stamps its foot Who confirms us?
sometimes destructive: ‘everyone is and anoints.’
a beachcomber here but we / cut the
Publisher ‘Vonkt is a collection that
De Arbeiderspers sputters and crackles – the
sparks of joie de vivre and
Rights love of language fly from it.’
Jolijn Spooren Jury Report, Jan Campert Prize
j.spooren
@singeluitgeverijen.nl ‘Effervescent and
hallucinatory, physical,
Contact lyrical, vital, energizing,
www.marijelangelaar.nl alienating, fundamental,
challenging, intoxicating.’ translated by
Jury Report, Awater Poetry Prize
Donald Gardner
16 17Simone Atangana Bekono (1991) writes poetry and prose. She studied (excerpt)
Simone Atangana Bekono
Creative Writing at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem,
graduating with a thesis project that would become her poetry debut,
Hoe de eerste vonken zichtbaar waren (How the First Sparks Were
Visible, 2017), which was awarded the Poetry Debut Prize Aan Zee
in 2018. Simone Atangana Bekono’s poetry constantly alternates
between combativeness and tenderness, showing how the personal
can be simultaneously poetic and political.
Who made the young me sweat in bed
In her sweeping epistolary poems, The poet regularly returns to her long-
Atangana Bekono explores the rela- ing for relaxation, holidays, and recalls with visions from the psychiatric ward
tionship between body and identity, childhood memories, rebuilding mental girls who’ve grown obsessed with the man
and ways of expressing this in poetry. spaces where she can break free from and the touch of the man, and the touch of the woman
The problematic nature of the body her identity. ‘I think of black a thousand
features in the very first poem of the times a day and try to draw / the word that makes them realise they want to be a man
collection. Following a forest birth – out of me.’ Characteristically, she also
beyond civilization, as it were – it is turns her engagement and the com- I fear the man and want to eat him up
the silhouette rather than the body plexities surrounding her potential
but I am also scared that he has eaten me up
that speaks up, denying its physicality identities into the objects of her inves-
and connection with the earth: ‘a body tigation: ‘I think that actually, I care a that I was born in the man’s stomach
become unrecognisable / greedy and lot about everything. The only problem or ribcage or in a toe
chaotic / not rooted in the earth.’ is that you can’t care about everything but escaping from his body
Her realisation that having a black, simultaneously.’
has made me lose mine
female body triggers a range of reac-
tions, from feelings of displacement I want to eat the man up the way I eat Facebook
to anger at those who oppress it and installation art
(‘I hoped to be able to eat the man up / and have for years now eaten up enormous amounts of light
to protect my sisters’). In the ultimate,
shining on my face
inevitable metamorphosis, ‘I am a cool
afterthought, a drum kit, I am a reli-
gious fanatic,’ she attempts to resist
New Dutch Poets
I hoped to be able to eat the man up
categorisation. As Atangana Bekono to protect my sisters
writes, ‘All black people don’t exist.’
but I feel what’s left of the man gnawing at my insides
searching for a way out through my womb
my navel, my open mouth
Translations ‘What connects the poems
How the First Sparks Became is a solid voice that stops
Visible. Translated by David shot of nothing, not even
Colmer. London: Emma Press, far-fetched associations.
2020 (in preparation). These lead to finely-spun,
powerful epic poems, it
Publisher turns out.’
Lebowski Maria Barnas, de Volkskrant
Rights
Kim van Kaam
kim@wintertuin.nl translated by
David Colmer
18 19If the world and everything in it can be infinitely dissected into parts, Wim
Gerda Blees
where does this leave humans? This is the question that Gerda Blees
(1985) seeks to answer in Dwaallichten (Wandering Lights), a debut
that immediately captured the attention of juries, critics and readers
with its distinctive interrogation of our complicated existence. These
are poems in which French kissing and particle physics go hand in
hand.
‘And I ask you / whether we’re just an Dwaallichten is an exploration of how
accidental collection / of nuts and to live, writing that is at times painful
bolts in the hand of someone who / and confronting, but due to the open-
may never have had the intention of ness and the sense of wonder Blees
making / a working machine out of brings to human suffering, her flights He grabbed his hip flask and his carrier bag
us.’ In light-footed poems with tragic of absurdity, and an innate feeling for
as well as his red bicycle and set off
undertones, Blees describes people rhythm and sound, these are poems
who have ended up slipping through that are difficult to put down. An for a building site on the Schie.
the cracks due to circumstance, indi- incredibly strong debut that leaves the
viduals trying, in various ways, to keep reader yearning for more.
He started talking to the ripples in the water
a grip on reality. In the Spring of 2020, her debut novel
Blees, who also writes short stories, Wij zijn licht (We Are Light), was pub- softly at first, but later shouting a song
is a keen observer, which results in lished to excellent reviews. something heavy, a psalm or a few bars of passion.
stunning images such as these lines
from the titular section, ‘Wandering
Lights,’ about ‘those people… at night Then he lay down on his stomach to watch
/ they’re afraid the canals won’t be and when the water didn’t rise he
able to sleep / if the door isn’t left ajar.’ brought his lips to it himself.
She chooses not to emphasise mis-
ery or madness, instead Blees often
approaches difficult subject matters He may have felt the cold of the water on his face
from an unexpected angle, as when her
New Dutch Poets
but nothing is certain, least of all his thoughts,
language turns toward an anorexic girl: or who or what it was that started sinking in on him.
‘Hunger has eaten the last flesh / from
her skeleton.’
Publisher ‘Open, non-judgmental,
Podium contrarian while at the
same time attentive and
Rights loving – that’s how [Blees]
post@uitgeverijpodium.nl looks at people, specifically
those who walk just off the
Contact beaten path.’
www.gerdablees.nl Janita Monna, Trouw
translated by
Judith Wilkinson
20 21Lieke Marsman (1990) debuted with Wat ik mijzelf graag voorhoud Identity Politics Are a Fad, You Say
Lieke Marsman
(Things I Tell Myself, 2010), which was awarded no less than three
literary prizes. Witty, vulnerable and hyper-aware, Marsman’s ideas
take flight in poems such as ‘Perseverance’: ‘What’s lovely about
being touched / is that it doesn’t have to last long to be long-lasting
and the strange thing about being touched / is that it reverberates
and keeps on pounding / while it stills you.’
Marsman published her second poetry ‘Cancer is so common / you hear about
collection, De eerste letter (The First it Wednesday morning / you die on a And I say, Fads are our political identity
Letter) in 2014, followed by Man met Tuesday afternoon / no stroboscopes / Manifestations of our political choices
hoed (Man With Hat) in 2017. Addition- no cloakroom tokens / the sun shines / deeply rooted in who we are
ally, 2017 also saw the publication of a mundane watery sun / above the A10
fads and trends are the gateways
Marsman’s critically acclaimed first / exit for Home Depot.’
novel, Het tegenovergestelde van een Translated in collaboration with the last available lifeboats
mens (The Opposite of a Person). The English poet and translator, Sophie in the artificial wave pool of our image-centred age
novel, which at its heart is a queer love Collins, The Following Scan Will Last
story, boldly combines fiction, poetry, Five Minutes was published by
And I am just so scared of disappearing
and essay to explore intimacy in an era Liverpool University Press in 2019,
of global warming and climate chaos. with excerpts appearing in The London that I am prepared to grasp onto anything
In the Spring of 2018, Marsman was Review of Books and Poetry Magazine. Is there a hacktivist
diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The Opposite of a Person was pub- who could interrupt mortality?
Her most recent collection, The Follow lished in France by Edition Rue de
ing Scan Will Last Five Minutes (2018), l’Echiquier (translation Daniel Cunin)
was written in the months following and will be published in the UK by Is there a way
her diagnosis. Inspired by the work of Daunt Books. to let out a single scream
Audre Lorde and Susan Sontag, Mars- without anyone feeling the need to respond, while
man uses poetry and essay to examine
at the same time making it known
both her personal experiences and
the politics of having a sick body in a that I desperately need to hear
New Dutch Poets
society that appears equally ill: from other sufferers?
We are all sufferers, you say,
and we already hear far too much from one another
Publisher ‘Lieke Marsman has
Pluim evolved a stringent poetics
of limit and capacity, of
Rights body and language and
Lisette Verhagen self. The scan is a metaphor
Peters Fraser + Dunlop for Marsman’s particular
lverhagen@pfd.co.uk quality of attention –
committed and complete.’
Contact Lavinia Greenlaw
www.liekemarsman.nl
translated by
Sophie Collins
22 23Asha Karami is a poet, a doctor who works in adolescent health and a I don’t work for you no more
Asha Karami
ringside physician at martial arts tournaments. She learned to speak
four languages fluently as a child, and has changed her name several
times. In 2018, she won second place at the National Poetry Slam
championship, having competed as an ‘anti-performance’ performer.
Her highly lauded debut, Godface (2019), was nominated for the
Herman de Coninckprijs, De Grote Poëzieprijs and E. du Perronprijs.
Godface is a collection of contrasting disarming honesty and humor: ‘the
images and rapidly shifting perspec- last time she was pregnant / she only
this was the last time i logged into my work e-mail
tives, evoking the idea of a play for wanted fresh herring / we bought a
voices or masquerade. Initially, the hijarbie for her unborn daughter / and i am no longer the monster i once was
poems appear to be neutral obser- then we lost contact.’ In less careful
vations; fragmented accounts from hands, this kaleidoscopic approach to my whole life i never got a fair share of the pie
a rotating cast of characters whose poetry could seem flighty, but the writ- from now on i’m going to draw a sharp line between me and my surroundings
voices range from the highly distinc- ing is always anchored by the strength
tive to collective and obscured. But of Karami’s vision.
i’ll just grab my diary
the narrative is swift to separate the Asha Karami’s experimentation is
author from the chorus, with Karami’s not limited to the page; she has also today i decided to start tomorrow
persona often piercing the fray: ‘Why do collaborated with multimedia artists one last darn attempt at recovery
you constantly come across yourself? / to give her poems the opportunity
because you’re scattered everywhere / to speak through digital bodies and i was born with two vaginas
everything and everyone is talking to landscapes and push them into new and i don’t believe in doors
you / you must first secure your own terrain. In a recent interview with The
this is my third death already and i’m only in my thirties
mask / before helping anyone else.’ Optimist, Karami said of her work:
The contours of Karami’s poems are ‘For me, poetry is a means of action or
porous; voices, moods, locations, and resistance. Unreasonable, physical, i don’t believe in civil wars either
time merge in writing that is not bound and instinctive. I want to communicate even if i hate your culture
by traditional form. Relentless rhythm my sense of disruption and alien- maybe we’re related because i’ve got
gives way to space and silence; poems ation to the reader or listener. I want
New Dutch Poets
two more half-brothers somewhere
morph into letters, dialogues, and the- to explore the limits of language and
ater. Karami subtly directs the chorus, genre conventions, and, if I succeed,
when i die i want to be there
often balancing the darker matter with break through them.’
i don’t want it in my sleep i
want to say goodbye don’t go without me
Publisher ‘Godface is the kind of
De Bezige Bij collection that haunts you,
getting better and better
Rights the deeper you sink into it.’
Marijke Nagtegaal Meander
m.nagtegaal@debezigebij.nl
‘Incomparable, disorienting.’
Janita Monna, Trouw
translated by
David Colmer
24 25At twenty-one, Roelof ten Napel (1993) debuted with the critically- psalm (he says: take the second young bull)
Roelof ten Napel
acclaimed collection of short stories Constellaties (Constellations).
His first novel, Het leven zelf (Life Itself), was published three
years later, and in 2018, Ten Napel’s first collection of poetry, Het
woedeboek (The Book of Fury) was published. Nominated for three
awards, the collection made waves with its content; Ten Napel’s sharp
reckoning with his religious upbringing, a modern-day apocryphal
composed of tightly-knit lyrics, psalms, and romantic verse.
While the title might suggest other- poems titled ‘Boy,’ which the jury for
wise, the poems in Het woedeboek the Grote Poetry Prize proclaimed were
are thoughtful, precise dissections of ‘some of the most beautiful love poems the weeping willow is gone,
a deeply oppressive milieu. Likening this young century has seen.’ and along the tiled path the sleepers too.
anger to ‘an old engine block’ that Ten Napel’s latest collection, In het
this year for the first time I didn’t see
needs to be dissembled and examined, vlees (In the Flesh) was published in
Ten Napel summons a claustrophobic early 2020. In this collection, Ten Napel the magnolia flowering, its falling,
scene: ‘Just wait until a hand lifts you strives to make us aware that our opin- spreading through the garden.
up, then / drops you again, enraged.’ ions, whether political, religious and
Ultimately, the anger is channelled philosophical, cannot be separated
god lays the dew on my skin
towards thoughtful introspection, from our bodies and are, in fact, influ-
with the poet recognising the sheer enced by them. At times cinematic, but not on the grass, or on the grass
impossibility of ridding himself of God this collection works through the many but not on my skin.
through writing: ‘that which makes ways a body can feel pain or is unable
the visible visible / is bound to remain to connect or understand. What can
unnoticed / itself, / like you, you a body know? Meandering between that is how he speaks, he
remain.’ hesitant and assertive, the poems do uses it. if a void appears between me
In Het woedeboek, Ten Napel’s not seek to answer the questions they and the world, he fills it up –
talent is apparent; rising above the pose: ‘in the flesh lives / what has no
a man without teeth, who looks at me,
linguistic influences of Calvinism, he name, as long as / it is fought, and
reveals himself as a poet who can doesn’t break.’ his hands open in front of him, up and down
bend language to his will. The proof of as though weighing something,
New Dutch Poets
this is in the poet’s ability to distill the his mouth full
anger into love. Ten Napel concludes
of an autumnal red, bleeding tongue.
his debut with a series of tender love
Publisher ‘The best debut poetry
Hollands Diep collection in years.’
Ellen Deckwitz, De Morgen
Rights
Marleen Seegers ‘Roelof ten Napel is a
marleen.seegers true star. The Book of
@2seasagency.com Fury raged on inside me
long after I had finished
Contact reading it.’
www.roeloftennapel.nl Jeroen Dera, De Standaard
translated by
Michele Hutchison
26 27Maartje Smits (1986) completed her undergraduate studies at the Meer legs
Maartje Smits
Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy and holds a Masters in Design from the
Sandberg Institute. In 2015, she published Als je een meisje bent (If
You’re a Girl), a playful and powerfully feminist collection. Two years
later, it was followed by Hoe ik een bos begon in mijn badkamer (How I
Started a Forest in my Bathroom, 2017). Influenced by Juliana Spahr
and Bruno Latour, Smits was one of the first Dutch poets to bear
witness to the rise of environmental consciousness.
With its mix of feminism, multilingual- ‘This is no place for extinction / the last
ism, digital culture, and telephony, Als humans draws boxes in the sand / in I would möchte be
je een meisje bent showcases a talent order to feel at home / she knows the a frauship’s shallow schouwdek
for eclectic avant-gardism. Smits’ names of all the animals and other /
a bitsy bitchy lust objection
signature is her capacity to crack concepts that have become obsolete.’
open language, frequently borrowing In the trailblazing tradition of
and blending in words from German, Françoise d’Eaubonne, Smits has with dikke thighs
English, and French. In the poem ‘An infused Dutch-language poetry with
dikes off all men deck
Empty Text Message,’ Smits nimbly eco-feminism.
unites the digital experience with deilig thighs bulk carriers that
the analog: ‘I was about to move / mir tar all, tenderly tegen affection
followed ein / pulsing blue dot / past halten
lukewarm streedlines / streets light
canal / strips die leaving town.’
Digital culture also permeates her ik want thighs that faul
second collection, with Smits clev- behouwen and dare to be seen
erly combining text and photography
zie you siegst
to explore the natural world and the
human narratives around it. In particu- minne Seekontainer legs
lar, Smits is concerned with the malle- siegst minne peal d’orange
ability of landscapes and the increas-
cellulite royal ’t squirts
ingly inescapable effects of climate
New Dutch Poets
change. The poem ‘The Last Human’ lukewarm tea dregs in my lazy rolling dans lui
includes the lines: weil go on and choose to you weinst
past my solid soaked legs
Publisher ‘A collection that must
De Harmonie be read aloud, language
that should be heard and
Rights tasted.’
Elsbeth Louis de Poëziekrant
elouis@deharmonie.nl
‘The strength of her
Contact work lies in her original
www.maartjesmits.nl associations, in her ability
to bind words and images
in unexpected ways.’ translated by
Awater
Vivien D. Glass
28 29Jonathan Griffioen (1987) writes about growing up in a small
Jonathan Griffioen
provincial town in his first collection Wijk (District, 2015), which
was nominated for the C. Buddingh’-prize. His second collection,
Gedichten met een mazda 626 (Poems with a Mazda 626), followed
in 2018, and was awarded the J.C. Bloemprijs 2019. It was also
longlisted for the Grote Poëzie Prijs.
Wijk offers up a panoramic view of a A narrative has been woven into the
teenager’s life. In five long and mean- poems, which helps sustain a sense
dering poems, the poet sketches of cohesion: the poetic persona stays
teenagers hanging out on street cor- awake for 40 hours thinking about his
ners, in small squares, and at empty dead friend Jimmy who used to drive ‘a I pull the strand of handkerchiefs from the tank of a 323
bus shelters. The poems are strongly red Mazda 626 from 1990’. Memories of spend the rest of the evening searching for a second 323 and
associative. Griffioen scrutinises his his special-needs school in the for-
youth in a stream-of-consciousness- ested parts of central Holland and the spend 20 days thinking about all the different ways
like flow of images and thoughts. His therapies he had to endure are alter- to get rid of the surplus 20
poetry turns from the descriptive to the nated with memories of Jimmy and
lyrical, using the repetition of single visions of a resurrected Jimmy.
I lose my footing and fall from observation,
words and lines to establish rhythm Death, love, and entrapment are
and musicality. themes that dominate Griffioen’s take a tumble in your estimation I also find two prints
There is an observational and solip- work, narrative poetry in which prose on a martini bottle one is jimmy’s
sistic strength at play in Griffioen’s sections alternate with more lyrical
work, allowing the reader to directly passages.
access the mind of his protagonist. I can see who I am in a red mazda
Without reservation, the poetic 6 2 6 from 1990 jimmy is a sheep and I am a bird
persona takes the reader on a tour in a red mazda 6 2 6 from 1990 I catch fire
through the different layers of his in a red mazda 6 2 6 from 1990
autistic consciousness. This approach
is further developed in Gedichten met I rise above the misty grain field
New Dutch Poets
een mazda 626.
Publisher ‘Incomparable, intriguing,
Lebowski insistent, stimulating,
captivating, spirited,
Rights witty, mesmerizing, and
Jasper Henderson ritualistic.’
jasper.henderson Jury report, J.C. Bloem Prize
@lebowskipublishers.nl
‘A unique voice with melody
and a tight rhythm. We’d
like to read more of this
kind of poetry.’ translated by
Dieuwertje Mertens, Het Parool
Astrid Alben
30 31Babs Gons (1971) is a writer, spoken word artist, theatre maker, Just Right
Babs Gons
organiser, and teacher. She regularly performs at festivals and
literary events both in the Netherlands and abroad, including South
Africa, Sudan, Curaçao, and Brazil. Gons is the editor of Hardop (Out
Loud, 2019), an anthology highlighting the work of eighteen spoken-
word poets. She is also the recipient of several awards, including the
2018 Black Achievement Award for Arts and Culture and the 2019
International Slam-O-Vision Contest Title with her poem ‘Assman vs.
People Woman.’ Sometimes you just want to lay your head down
on the earth,
In 2017, Gons published her debut, If love is the monument, intersectional
Hoe kan het toch? (How Can it Be?), a feminism forms the foundation of raise your fist to the sky,
collection of poetry exploring various Gons’ poems. In an ode to the writer let the tears fall and say:
forms of love, her unyielding love for Toni Morrison, Gons unearths the pain Is it because I am black, white, female
her son, the ecstasy of falling in love of slavery ‘even if no one wants to hear
too tall, too small, too big,
and the pain of falling out of it, the about it.’ In ‘One More Someone,’ Gons
complexity of loving your family. In the artfully exposes her exhaustion at too sweet, naughty,
captivating ‘You can be everywhere, being othered whenever she enters a because I’m ugly, honest,
you can be everything,’ Gons contem- public space, challenging the reader direct, poetic, eloquent,
plates an absent father: ‘We who grow to examine oppression at the intersec-
up without our own fathers / have tions of gender, class, and race. too visible, invisible,
already had our hearts broken long Long considered the Queen of vulnerable,
before our first love.’ Dutch-language spoken word, the misunderstood, praised,
In ‘Last Poem for J.G.’ the poet power of Babs Gons’ live performance
poor, proud,
invokes love she once had for her ex, transfers seamlessly to the page,
acknowledging that behind the argu- expanding the platform for her epic unapologetic and confrontational?
ments and grief, memories of their old explorations of love and identity. That’s why, right!
intimacy remain: ‘I loved to see you
cook / in the way too small kitchen /
where we had to touch each other to And the earth pushes you up
add the chickpeas / to the spinach.’ with her soft hands,
New Dutch Poets
The relationship is over for good, but kisses you on the cheek and whispers:
Gons is determined to build it a literary
It’s because you are so very human.
monument.
Not too much, not too little, human enough.
Just as human as other human beings.
Publisher ‘Gons’ gaze is far-reaching.
Atlas Contact She is fierce, but moving.’ Just right.
Janita Monna, Trouw
Rights
Hayo Deinum ‘A creative wordsmith with
hdeinum@atlascontact.nl a biting wit who brings
her words and a range of
Contact characters to life on the
www.babsgons.com stage with equal ease.’
Giorgio Piet,
Hiphop In Je Smoel translated by
the poet
32 33Akwasi Owusu Ansah (1988) is a rapper, actor, spoken word artist Question
Akwasi
and poet. At nineteen, the multifaceted artist formed the rap
collective Zwart Licht, with whom he released three full-length
albums. In 2014, Akwasi released his solo album Daar ergens
(Somewhere There) through his own record label, Neerlands Dope,
and four years later, published his first collection of poetry, Laten we
het maar niet over hebben (Let’s Not Talk About It, 2018).
In his impressive literary debut, Akwasi shamed for his appearance, a school
explores the difficulty of opening up teacher comparing him to Black Pete.
when it comes to life’s most painful Akwasi makes clear that he wants to
and uncomfortable moments, mag- move beyond simply cataloging expe-
nifying the human tendency to dance riences and address the omnipresent
around truths, defer the most difficult ‘elephant’ in the room: ‘Apart from the
conversations and through silence, fact / that I’m enjoying this / am I again Have you ever been to Cape Town?
turn certain subjects into taboos. / the only one who sees it / where did
Akwasi grapples with the effects these you get this? / and how did he get in? Have you ever hijacked a language?
impulses have on personal relation- / through the door / or / through the Hijacked land?
ships, and, on a larger scale, the impact window / are we really going to act / as
Hijacked a person?
of avoidance on contemporary Dutch if you all don’t understand me?’
culture. Akwasi creates poetry that is both Hijacked someone’s good hope?
Drawing inspiration from Marcus playful and searingly direct, using No?
Garvey, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an intimate voice to speak pointedly
Kendrick Lamar, a trip to South Africa, about taboos in intimate relationships,
and the birth of his daughter, Akwasi’s power dynamics, post-colonialism, and Okay
razor-sharp poems are cathartic systematic denial in the Netherlands
deconstructions of daily discomforts and South Africa. Laten we het er maar
and inconvenient truths. Alongside niet over hebben is a fresh and exciting It was just a question.
lighter moments of everyday awkward- addition to the Dutch-language literary
ness, identity and racism are recurring landscape.
New Dutch Poets
themes; the poet recalls a radio DJ’s
racist comments, the painful reac-
tions of strangers on the street, being
Publisher ‘Akwasi is an inspiring man
Ambo Anthos who speaks directly from
the heart.’
Rights Meander
Orli Naamani
onaamani@amboanthos.nl ‘It hits home, word for word,
sentence for sentence.’
Contact
Marie-Claire
www.akwasi.net
translated by
Sarah Timmer Harvey
34 35Poet, columnist and theatre maker Ellen Deckwitz (1982) first made Grandmother (1921-2014)
Ellen Deckwitz
her name, when she was crowned Dutch Slam Poetry Champion
2009. In 2011, she published her debut, De steen vreest mij (The Stone
Fears Me), a surreal and darkly humorous look at family relationships
and childhood fears, that won her the C. Buddingh’ prize. She also
published a bestselling handbook for emerging poets, a series of Legs of steel,
essays about poetry, published as Olijven moet je leren lezen (You chest of titanium.
Must Learn to Read Olives, 2016), De blanke gave (The White Gift, Immune system of a sewage worker,
2015) and Game of Poems, a collection inspired by the HBO series the conscience of a stock market trader.
written together with fellow poets Ingmar Heytze and Thomas
Möhlmann.
She was three metres tall and proud
of her skin
A recent addition to Deckwitz’s impres- ‘Keep yourself clean, little one / do not
that never tanned, that looked vaccinated
sive oeuvre is Hogere natuurkunde boast / about extra food, consume it in
(Higher Physics, 2019), which was silence / above the latrine.’ against the sun.
awarded the Herman de Coninck Prize In Hogere natuurkunde, history mate-
and the E. Du Perron Prize and was rialises in one long, galloping poem, She was a piece of land,
nominated for the Grote Poëzie Prijs. a form that suggests momentum, as hoed with rifle butts,
The jury said that in these times of though the past is nipping at the poet’s
global crisis, her poems offer comfort heels. At pace, Deckwitz deftly reveals
and put things in a new perspective. how stories, silences, and habits pass musical to her marrow
The poems in this outstanding through generations and perpetuate
collection focus on Deckwitz’s grand- themselves.
(Wibi Soerjadi? how I play piano
mother, who survived a Japanese It is a career-defining collection that
he’s no match for me.)
internment camp in Indonesia during could only have come from a writer of
World War II, and the enduring influ- Deckwitz’s caliber; these are poems
ence of this experience on her family. that must be read. had offspring as simply
The poet’s grandmother constantly as she passed wind,
reminded her that life was full of
danger, and the importance of being (I didn’t feel a need for
New Dutch Poets
prepared: children but in my day
we didn’t have pills.)
couldn’t keep her down
Publisher ‘Higher Physics reads like even if you sat on her,
Pluim one long, dashing, image-
rich poem. ’ (they had me producing on the line,
Rights Maria Barnas,
Mizzi van der Pluijm NRC Handelsblad no baby managed to poison me.)
mvanderpluijm
@uitgeverijpluim.nl ‘A clever counternarrative
about inherited scars and
Contact the bond between two
www.ellendeckwitz.nl people.’
Alfred Schaffer, translated by
de Groene Amsterdammer
Donald Gardner
36 37You can also read
