C. Buddingh'-Prize - Poetry Debut Collection of the Year
Buddingh' Reading Club 2025
Meet the Newest Voices in Dutch-Language Poetry!
In honor of the C. Buddingh’ Prize, Poetry International hosts the Buddingh’ Reading Club each year—a series of four inspiring workshops where you’ll get to know the most promising debut poets of the year.
Each week, one nominated poet takes center stage—and joins the conversation! This is a unique opportunity to discuss their work, writing process, and the future of poetry. The sessions are online, in Dutch, and led by poet Ingmar Heytze.
Sign up, discover new poetry, and meet the nominees in person!
Wie schrijft het beste Nederlandstalige poëziedebuut van het jaar
C. Buddingh'-Prize 2024
Since 1988, Poetry International has awarded the best Dutch-language poetry debut of the year with the C. BUDDINGH'-PRIJS VOOR NIEUWE NEDERLANDSTALIGE POËZIE. With the award, Poetry International draws more attention to talented new voices in Dutch-language poetry. And with success! For now well-known poets such as Joke van Leeuwen, Tonnus Oosterhoff, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer and Anna Enquist or - more recently - Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and Radna Fabias, the C. Buddingh' Prize was the first important trophy on their wall. In 2024, Sytse Jansma won the 'Buddingh' with Rozige Maanvissen published by Atlas Contact.
Sytse Jansma is the winner of the C. Buddingh' Prize 2024 with his collection Rozige Maanvissen
Poetry International awards the C. Buddingh' Prize 2024 to Rozige Maanvissen by Sytse Jansma (publisher Atlas Contact) as was announced on the radio 1 program Een uur cultuur. "This collection is electrified, you can sense from everything that these poems had to be break out", said the jury consisting of Joost Oomen (chairman), Lisette Ma Neza and Toef Jaeger. 'A bundle that leaves you with a lump in your throat, without getting sticky'.
The C. Buddingh' Prize honors the best Dutch-language poetry debut of the year and is awarded by Poetry International since 1988. The prize carries a sum of 1,500 euros. Next to Rozige Maanvissen, De maan schijnt feller in de Metaverse by Merel van Slobbe, De richting is richting omleiding by Bob Vanden Broeck and Indolente by Dewi de Nijs Bik were nominated.
The jury on Rozige Maanvissen:
'In Rozige Maanvissen wordt een persoonlijk lijden, het plotseling verliezen van een geliefde, verheven tot grootse poëzie. Daar streven natuurlijk meer dichters naar, maar het bijzondere van deze bundel is dat de gehele poëtische trukendoos open wordt gegooid, een trukendoos die de dichter goed kent en uitmuntend weet in te zetten, maar dat de authenticiteit en rauwheid van het verdriet dwars door al
die trucs heen schijnt. Je gelooft de dichter wanneer hij, bijna wanhopig soms, alles wat taal kan zijn tot een reddingsboei probeert te maken.'
Sytse Jansma lives in Harlingen and is a poet and visual artist. He published two collections of poetry in Frisian and his work appears in literary magazines such as De Revisor, de Moanne and Ensafh. With his poetry he often seeks cross-overs with other art forms: music, theater and visual arts.
Buddingh' Talent at Poetry International Festival
On Saturday, June 8th, Sytse Jansma appeared at the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam together with the three nominees Merel van Slobbe, Bob Vanden Broeck and Dewi de Nijs Bik in the interdisciplinary showcase Buddingh' Talent, in which the four created new work together with musician Cedric Vermue.
2023: 'Mythen en stoplichten' poetry debut collection of the year
36th C. Buddingh'-Prize goes to Alara Adilow
Photo's: Rosa Quist
Poetry International's C. Buddingh' Prize 2023 has been won by Alara Adilow, for her poetry debut 'Mythen en stoplichten', published by Prometheus. Adilow was awarded the annual prize for the best Dutch-language poetry debut during the festive closing program of the 53rd Poetry International Festival. The jury praised 'Mythen en stoplichten' as "a collection about identity, such as you rarely come across at the moment. Twenty-six poetry debuts were submitted for the 36th C. Buddingh' Prize. Besides Alara Adilow, the debut collections of Laura Broekhuysen ('We capals'), Babeth Fonchie Fotchind ('Plooi') and Astrid Haerens ('Oerhert') stood a chance of winning the prize. The jury included poet Sasja Janssen, poetry critic and teacher Janita Monna and slam poet Seckou Ouologuem.
'Do you believe in angels, Alara?'
The jury was deeply impressed by the four nominated poetry debuts, but fell like a log for 'Mythen en stoplichten': 'A collection that creates a universe that proliferates, shrinks, dies and reinvents itself. A fabulous debut, in which every poem is full of beautiful lines,' the jury said.
From the jury report:
"'Mythen en stoplichten' by Alara Adilow (b. 1988) takes the reader on an overwhelming, penetrating and transformative journey, through the underworld to the mortal world, into the heavens above. She daringly opens all registers of language and shows in surprising and sensitive images what the lyrical self experiences and undergoes. (...) It is precisely through the grotesque, coarse, lyrical, precisely through myths, superstition, religion, but also through images from her youth that Adilow is able to relate to her queerness, the struggle with her transition, religion, the break with her mother, her desires, sexual fantasies, drugs, without losing sight of her surroundings for even a moment. The beauty is in the many contrasts, nicely captured in the title. The desperation, surrender and guts move. A collection about identity, such as you rarely come across them at the moment." Read the full jury report (in Dutch) here.
The New Voices of 2022 / 2023
Among the debut poets this year, there were almost twice as many women as men: seventeen to nine. The jury calls that a hopeful development. The newest generation of poets is close to the pulsing of time. We read about gender, non-binarity, queerness, climate, social media and the Internet: poetry as a stage for life-long struggles. What is striking here is that young poets have a preference for the prose poem, although the choice for this is not always enforced by the content. The jury could only nominate four collections. The jury therefore had special mentions for the collections Het nodige breken by Sara Eelen, Honger, heteronormativity en het universum by Lies Gallez and Laatste foto van de vrede by Jan-Paul Rosenberg.
About the C. Buddingh' Prize
Since 1988, Poetry International has annually awarded the best Dutch-language poetry debut with the C. Buddingh' Prize. With this Poetry International asks for extra attention for talented new voices in Dutch-language poetry. For many a poet of repute, the C. Buddingh' Prize was the first important prize won. Joke van Leeuwen, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Anna Enquist, or more recently Lieke Marsman, Ellen Deckwitz, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and Radna Fabias are among the laureates. In 2022, the C. Buddingh' Prize went to Maxime Garcia Diaz, for her collection Het is warm in de hivemind (De Bezige Bij).
De winnaar van de C. Buddingh'-prijs 2021
C. Buddingh'-winnaar 2020 Jens Meijen vanaf de Lijnbaanflats
Over C. Buddingh'
C. Buddingh' (Dordrecht, 1918) is een minor poet. Hij was geen vernieuwer maar een meeloper. Geen grootheid maar een beschouwer, en een grappenmaker. Dat lijkt misschien een onvriendelijke karakteristiek maar het is iets wat Buddingh' zelf heel goed wist – sterker nog, zelf schreef hij de woorden 'het is niet zo erg, daaruit put ik mijn kracht' in een gedicht waarin hij zichzelf karakteriseert als 'het neefje dat ook mee uit logeren mocht'. Zijn oeuvre volgt de sporen van de literatuurgeschiedenis op de voet, en bij elke nieuwe stroming mocht hij toch minstens een keer uit logeren.
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