Award Show C. Buddingh'-Prize ft.u the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra - Host Wilfried de Jong

Since 1988, Poetry International has awarded the poet with the best Dutch-language poetry debut of the year with the C. Buddingh' Prize. Every year, the awards program during the festival is a festival of poetry with the most striking new voices in Dutch-language poetry. And how can we make the presentation of the most beautiful debutant prize in the Netherlands even more festive, and celebrate poetry even more emphatically than we already do during our festival? Exactly, by inviting an orchestra! During this presentation program, the nominees of the C. Buddingh' Prize for best poetry debut will be put in the spotlight and of course we will announce the winner. All this will be accompanied by the magnificent New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, which will provide the musical backdrop for this program to perfection and work with the poets to create a musical poetry landscape in which you can disappear for an hour.  

New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra is celebrating its 20th anniversary!
On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the NRJO is touring Rotterdam, with a special stop at the Poetry International Festival. There the orchestra will provide the award show for the C. Buddingh' Prize with musical fireworks and exciting harmonies with the sound of the most remarkable new voices in Dutch-language poetry. The orchestra likes to be inspired by (literary) texts and has previously performed with word artist Derek Otte and actor Jeroen Spitzenberger.

For the C. Buddingh'prize 2023, 26 collections were submitted, the jury consisting of poet Sasja Janssen, poetry critic Janita Monna and spoken poet Seckou Ouologuem, nominated the debut collections of Alara Adilow, Laura Broekhuysen, Babeth Fonchie Fotchind and Astrid Haerens for the 36th C. Buddingh'- Prize.

Mythen en stoplichten (Myths and Traffic Lights)
by Alara Adilow (Prometheus Publishers)

Mythen en stoplichten takes the reader on an overwhelming, penetrating and transformative journey, from the underworld to the mortal world, to even the heavens above. Adilow pulls open all registers of language. Precisely through the grotesque, crude, lyrical, precisely through myths, superstitions, religion, but also through images from her childhood, she is able to relate to her queerness, the struggle with her transition, the break with her mother, desires, sexual fantasies and drugs, without becoming navel-gazing for even a moment. A fabulous debut, where there are beautiful lines in every poem: a collection that demands rereading.

Alara Adilow (b. 1988) was part of the NORTHWORD Poetry Talent Program. She has previously published poems in De Gids, Het Liegend Konijn, De Revisor and Tirade. She is a guest writer at nY and is working on her debut novel Needle of the Sun. 

Wij capabelen (We Capables)
by Laura Broekhuysen (Publisher Querido)

Already in Laura Broekhuysen's prose was poetry. The often long, flowing verses in We Capables revolve around universal themes: the bond between mother and child, how each person carries past generations and future ones, how a life takes shape in relation to other lives. Themes for which Broekhuysen finds language that is minute, musical and tangible. In vivid poems, Broekhuysen poignantly demonstrates the power of memories while cyclical life also speaks from the composition of the collection; voices circle each other, attempting to approach each other, to together sound a chorus of new meanings. 

Laura Broekhuysen (b. 1983) is a writer and violinist living in Iceland. Her prose debut Two Left Boots was nominated for the Selexyz Debut Prize, among others. She also wrote Inclined Plane, Winter Iceland and Bottle Mail from Reykjavik. She writes for LOD muziektheater in Ghent, publishes in Terras and De Revisor and teaches violin.

Plooi (Pleat)
by Babeth Fonchie Fotchind (De Geus)

In Plooi, Babeth Fonchie Fotchind explores the word "fold" through poetic means. How to live in a culture that is foreign to you, how to find yourself after a break with family, how does your own language sound when you have to navigate between your mother tongue and your new language. Fonchie Fotchind poems in a parlando style about the clash of cultures, lesbianism, the break with her mother, abuse, a desire for children and relationship problems. But her voice, serious and understated, tender and lighthearted, ensures that the poetry never becomes top-heavy. A multicolored, beautiful collection in which language bends extremely nimble to the power of poetry.

Babeth Fonchie Fotchind (1993) is a lawyer and poet. She regularly recites at venues and festivals, has published in Kluger Hans, De Revisor, De Groene, DW B, De Gids and Elle, among others, and was house poet of Lillith Mag. She was selected for the writing residency at Huis deBuren and the Slow Writing Lab.

Oerhert
by Astrid Haerens (Publisher Atlas Contact)

With Oerhert, Astrid Haerens has written a penetrating debut about urgent themes. In the poems pain shines through, a battle is being fought. With a visible outside world, with personal and social expectations, with a body that feels as if the "limbs are held together in a long coat" and an inner world that seems to lose control. One might call these bodily poems a struggle with womanhood. Her rich, evocative sentences stand out. They demand to be read again, and again, to gain more brilliance with each reading. And with each reading, Haerens' poetry gains sharpness.

Astrid Haerens (b. 1989) holds a Master's degree in Word Art from the Conservatory of Antwerp. In September 2017, her debut novel Stadspanters was published by Polis Publishers. Other work she has published in De Revisor, De Gids, Het Liegend Konijn and Poëziekrant, among others.