Babs Gons

She has been a driving force behind numerous poetry platform initiatives for decades. Since 2000, she organized Palabras in Paradiso (Amsterdam) for almost ten years. These evenings celebrated the work of young and/or emerging poets and spoken word artists. Afterward, she was involved in the founding and development of the Poetry Circle.

Gons made her debut in 2021 with her poetry collection Doe het toch maar. That same year, she wrote the Boekenweek poem and published a children's book titled Het Begint Met Een Droom. In 2022, she won De Johnny, a lifetime achievement award for performance poetry, and in 2024, she was awarded the Gouden Ganzenveer. She presents various programs and is the host of the musical-literary show Babs' Woordsalon. Gons also writes stories and articles and is a columnist. A selection of her columns for Het Parool was compiled in June 2022 under the title Alles Wat Je Liefhebt Wordt Mooi .

Gons is the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands from 2023 to 2025. The selection committee praised Gons as "one of the most compelling poets that the Netherlands currently has, with a voice full of fire, burning and warm, both on stage and on paper." "She is a poet who passionately and engagedly gives words to the issues of our time, in a society that she, with full conviction, connects with poetry."

Hardop ('Out Loud', ed.), Atlas Contact, 2019

Doe Het Toch Maar ('Do It Anyway'), Atlas Contact, 2021

Het begint met een droom - 20 heldinnen die Nederland kleur geven ('It starts with a dream'), Gottmer, 2022

Alles wat je liefhebt wordt mooi ('All that you love will be beautiful'), Atlas Contact, 2022