marwin vos

marwin vos lives and works in Amsterdam. Her latest book, wilde dood, was awarded The Dutch Grote Poëzieprijs in 2023. The poems in wilde dood explore the politics of loss, destruction and mourning. The pain and grief of deep loss want to exist in the world and want to be addressed. The author tries to find answers to big and painful questions, "Why is it so hard to find words for death and suicide? What if you are inconsolable? What if loss ushers in even more loss? What does loss mean in a world focused on winning and gain? Whose death is remembered and whose death is forgotten? Living environments and histories are destroyed, animals and other life forms are obliterated. Why is this reality allowed to be erased? What does that do to the meaning we attach to life and death, to justice?"

Her work creates a conceptual and social space in which what is ignored can become real: as the author herself states, "can we acknowledge that our actions lead to further destruction, death and pain, and can we look for ways to stop that?"