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Kristen Gehrman Wins Vondel Translation Prize 2024
The Vondel Translation Prize 2024 has been won by Kristen Gehrman for 'The History of My Sexuality' (Granta), her translation of the Dutch novel De geschiedenis van mijn seksualiteit by Tobi Lakmaker (Das Mag). According to the jury, ‘Kristen Gehrman brings Lakmaker’s bold narrative voice memorably to life with verve and irresistible comic timing.’ The Vondel Translation Prize is a triennial award of € 5.000 for the best English translation of a full-length Dutch-language work of literary merit and general interest. The prize will be awarded in London on 12 February 2025.
‘Falling is Like Flying’ and ‘Movies Showing Nowhere’ mentioned as Books of the Year
This week, The Times listed ‘Movies Showing Nowhere’ by Yorick Goldewijk (translated by Laura Watkinson) as one of The Best Children’s Book of 2024. On top of that, Falling is Like Flying, by Manon Uphoff (translated by Sam Garrett) has been listed in the Books of the Year selection by the Times Literary Supplement. Both titles were featured in our Dutch Fiction and Dutch Children’s Books brochures and promoted at international book fairs.
Shortlist Vondel Translation Prize 2024
The British Society of Authors announced today the shortlist of the Vondel Translation Prize 2025. ‘The shortlisted translators have tackled these idiosyncratic works and challenging themes with exceptional skill, unflinching integrity, and above all, flair’, according to the jury.
Olga Tokarczuk and Karol Lesman receive European Literature Prize 2024
On Saturday November 2, writer Olga Tokarczuk and translator Karol Lesman received the European Literature Prize 2024 for 'The Empusium' (De Geus Publishers). Romkje de Bildt, Managing Director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, handed over the award at The Kunstmuseum in the Hague, during Crossing Border Festival.
Alma's Daughters - Five Lives in the Shadowsd
In this innovative multi-biography, Jutta Chorus follows a fascinating female family line over the course of the past century and a half. The book begins in the nineteenth century with matriarch Alma and then follows the lives of Alma’s daughter Elly, her granddaughters Sylvia and Elly, and her great-granddaughter Lili. A writer, an agricultural scientist, a journalist, a photographer and a filmmaker. Had they been men, the biographer argues, they would have displayed their talents with more bravado and most likely gone down in history.
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Uprising — The Populist Revolt and Battle for the Soul of the West
In recent years the far-right’s growing mainstream acceptance has come to feel unstoppable. On a platform of identity, family, nationalism and anti-immigration, populist parties have seen electoral wins throughout the West. Underlying their valorisation of what is ‘natural’ and ‘realistic’, however, is a broader counterrevolutionary movement against the left-liberal globalist elite and what is perceived as the undermining of Western identity.
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When Humans Stray — Seven Animals Bite Back
For 400 years, European seafarers attempted to sail over the top of the globe for a shorter trading route. The famous polar explorer William Barentsz, who lent his name to the Barents Sea, died a hero, after becoming stranded in Novaya Zemlya in northern Russia. Today, however, he would have been able to complete his route in the summer.
Listening Practice
Initially, the emancipating power of internet technology was warmly embraced: the marginalised could finally influence political debate, new voices could shake up the dominant world order. But constant scrolling has led to a ‘dizzying swirl of current events’, overstimulation leads to mental shut down. Can we learn to listen again?