State of European Literature

Now online: the texts of the speeches on de Nederlandse Boekengids:
Nelleke Noordervliet
Eva Meijer

This year’s State of European Literature is delivered by renowned Dutch author Nelleke Noordervliet and commented upon by Dutch philosopher Eva Meijer and PhD students Andries Hiskes and Seger Kersbergen from the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies. Noordervliet will elaborate her ideas about the courage of the writer that will be used as input for the European Literature Night, a literary feast of compelling fiction, poetry slam, short stories and discussions, following the State of European Literature at De Balie. Last year’s State of European Literature was delivered by Philipp Blom.

N.B. All contributions will be in Dutch and subtitled in English.

About the speakers

Nelleke Noordervliet is one of the most renowned Dutch authors of today. She has written an impressive oeuvre, comprising novels and essays, for which she received amongst other awards the Constantijn Huygensprijs. Her most recent novel is De val van Thomas G. (Atlas Contact). She is a columnist for Dutch daily Trouw and radio program OVT.

Eva Meijer is a Dutch philosopher and writer. She published ten books, her work has been translated into 18 languages. Her philosophical work focusses on language (including silence) and social justice, and gives special attention to the political voices of animals. In september 2017 she obtained her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam with the dissertation Political Animal Voices. Her most recent book is Vuurduin. Aantekeningen bij een wereld die verdwijnt, an essay she wrote in the context of the Dutch Philosophy Month.

Andries Hiskes is a PhD candidate at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. He researches literature and art in which affective responses (such as fear, admiration, or disgust) to bodies considered disabled or deformed are represented. Furthermore, he is a senior lecturer at the department of Nursing, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where he teaches narrative medicine, participatory health care and disability studies.

Seger Kersbergen is a PhD candidate at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. His research focusses on the Cape Verdean community in Rotterdam and its historical relations with different city spaces. Particularly, he studies the role of music in ‘producing’ diaspora experience and creating images of Rotterdam’s city life.

Margot Dijkgraaf (moderator) is a literature critic, author, interviewer and ‘ambassador of French literature in the Netherlands’ and vice versa. She was director of the Centre Français du livre at Maison Descartes, director of SPUI25 and intendant literature at the Dutch embassy in Paris. Amongst her publications are Franstalige literatuur van nu (2003), Spiegelbeeld en schaduwspel. Het oeuvre van Hella S. Haasse (2014) and Lezen in Frankrijk. Een literaire tour de France (2018); and Zij namen het woord. Rebelse schrijfsters in de Franse letteren (Atlas Contact). Recently she published  Met Parijse pen. Literaire omzwervingen (Uitgeverij Boom), a collaboration with photographer Bart Koetsier. She is the laureat of the Gouden Ganzenveer 2021.

Guido Snel (moderator) is a writer, translator, and assistant professor of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Most recently he published Huis voor het hiernamaals (2016, stories), and De mirreberg (2018, novel). Forthcoming in January 2022 is Negen Steden, city stories, a journey from Vienna to Istanbul. His work is published by De Arbeiderspers.