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Flanders and The Netherlands are guests of honour

Frankfurt Book Fair 2016

October 13, 2016
With Flanders and the Netherlands appearing as Guests of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2016, Dutch language literature finds new grounds in the German literary landscape. More than 250 titles translated from Dutch to German in a mix of genres to include novels and short stories, books for children and teenagers, non-fiction, poetry, plays and graphic novels are published this year.
A large selection of writers and poets will present itself at the Book Fair with readings and interviews and the  anthology “Polderpoesie. Junge Lyrik aus Flandern und den Niederlanden”, edited by Stefan Wieczorek and Christoph Wenzel, a bilingual presentation of 21 poets born between 1973 and 1988 will be launched.

Dutch poets Rodaan Al Galidi, Rozalie Hirs, Tsead Bruinja and Anneke Brassinga have their first book in German translation published on the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair. They will be there during the fair, as well as their colleagues Erik Lindner, Thomas Möhlmann, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer Charlotte Van den Broeck, Leonard Nolens, Ruth Lasters, Miriam Van hee and Peter Verhelst. Together they represent the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of Dutch language poetry with it’s remarkable variety of poetic styles and taste for the new, not in the least as a result of the strong performative tradition, a keen eye for the actual and the eagerness among poets to experiment with cross-media approaches of language and poetics.

MÜLL & POESIE

Since 1988 Poetry International and Stadsbeheer Rotterdam, the organisation responsible for processing waste and garbage in the city of Rotterdam, carry the project ‘Het gedicht is een bericht” (the poem is a message), which features the presentation of lines of poetry on the sides of garbage trucks. This enthusiastically received and much appreciated intiative gets its German offspring in Frankfurt starting this Book Fair. With MÜLL & POESIE Frankfurt will establish itself as the second city in the world that combines the collection of waste with the spreading of poetic lines. Lines from the work of Anneke Brassinga, K. Michel, Mustafa Stitou, Maud Vanhauwaert, Els Moors, Charlotte Van den Broeck, Paul Bogaert, Rodaan Al Galidi en Tsead Bruinja will be the first to roam the city of Frankfurt, accompanied by lines of their German colleagues Jan Wagner, Daniela Seel, Nora Gomringer, Michael Speier, Farhad Showgi and Oswald Egger.
© Jan Baeke
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
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VDM
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