Reveal: 'Nieuw gedicht, nieuw bericht'

Ever since 1988, Poetry International and the municipality of Rotterdam have been making sure that poetry can be found in every corner of the city, by placing lines of poems on every garbage truck. If you’re from Rotterdam, you undoubtedly have your own favorites. This project is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year! To recognize this anniversary, we will reveal a new truck with a line of poetry by none other than Neeltje Maria Min. The poet will be present and read the chosen poem for the audience. The director of Poetry International, Diana Chin-A-Fat, will be there on behalf of the organization to say a few words about this special project.  

Neeltje Maria Min is a Dutch poet. 

After first choosing to publish her poetry under the pseudonym Sophie Perk, she first published some of her poems under her own name in literary magazines De Gids and Maatstaf at the age of 19. Two years later, her debut poetry collection Voor wie ik liefheb wil ik heten (1966) was published. The poems in her debut beautifully depict the realities of love and death and the relationship between parent and child. The book was a great success that took the Dutch literary scene by storm. Nonetheless, her second publication, the poetry book Een vrouw bezoeken appeared an astounding 19 years later in 1985. In Een vrouw bezoeken the romanticism of her earlier work makes way for fierce irony, although her work is still oft-autobiographical and visits the same themes of relationships between family members and the experience of love and grief. Since then, Neeltje Maria Min has published five more poetry books, with her fifth publication Kindsbeen (1995) standing out particularly.