Tash Aw, Budgie, Kamel Daoud, Urszula Honek, Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, Eduardo Halfon, Michel Nieva, Paul Gorman, David Szalay, Joris Vermassen, Yasmin Zaher, Jordan Thomas, Éric Chacour, Chigozie Obioma, Justin Torres, Ben Okri, Ahmed Alnaouq, Dana Besaiso, Ali Abusheikh, Basman Aldirawi, Iman Inshasi, Raji Al Jaru, Xizir with Lara Taveirne & Jiri Taihuttu, Nisrine Mbarki Ben Ayad, Dick Brongers, Lieselot Mariën, Sarah Arnolds, Thijs Hoekstra, De Situatie with Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Sophie Straat & Dario Goldbach, Cees van den Boom, Ray Fuego, Mira Feticu, De Toegift, Leyla McCalla, CEBIL - Mashid Mohadjerin & Jan De Vroede, Quinton Barnes and the Black Noise Ensemble, Ghadr, Haley Heynderickx, Pem, Future Husband, Nyk de Vries, Wolfert Brederode & Mischa Andriessen, Jan Wester, Emma Zuiderveen, Mira Aluç, Selin Öztekin, Puck Füsers, Twan Vet, Roan Kasanmonadi, Sophia Blyden, Lin-An Phoa, DJ SEREYNA, Robin Kramer, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Aya Sabi, Joanna Elmy, Marek Torčík, Veerle De Caestecker, Aida González Rossi, Marie Jadot, Sanne van den Bosch, Kieran Van Overwaele, Daniela Gentile, Lysanne Aarsman, Ed Oner, Melissa Castrillon, Matt Goodfellow, Manuel Marsol, Andrea Antinori, Chris Judge, Xavier Salomo, Colas Gutman, Emma Norry, Irene Solà, Adri Boon, Mabe Fratti
Crossing Border is the Netherlands’ leading international literature and music festival.
The 33rd edition takes place from 5 to 9 November 2025 at the Koninklijke Schouwburg and other iconic venues across The Hague, including an authentic Spiegeltent, set up especially for the event.
The festival’s mission is to connect and inspire through imaginative storytelling and artistic expression. It brings together acclaimed international authors for exclusive appearances, introduces exciting new literary voices to Dutch audiences, and showcases alternative music acts in intimate, unexpected live settings.
FESTIVAL LOCATIONS
Koninklijke Schouwburg
Korte Voorhout 3
Spiegeltent
Lange Voorhout 74 (in front of Escher in Het Paleis)
BorderKitchen Kerkstraat 11
Theater Dakota
Zuidlarenstraat 57
Theater De Vaillant
Hobbemastraat 120
This year’s programme features over 120 writers and artists with many exclusive events and special projects created uniquely for Crossing Border.
POP-UP: OTHER WORLD BOOKSHOP
The Other World Bookshop is located in the foyer of the Royal Theatre.
Books by all featured authors will be available for purchase, and authors will sign books after their appearances.
Wednesday November 5
We Are Not Numbers: Voices of Gaza's Youth
20:00
Olga Tokarczuk
20:15 Spiegeltent
Thursday November 6
Anouar Brahem Quartet - After the Last Sky
20:00 - 21:30 Koninklijke Schouwburg
You’ll Have to Scream LOUDER – a showcase of Dutch-language talent
19:00 - 22:00 Spiegeltent
Friday November 7
Festival evening
18:00 -23:30 Koninklijke Schouwburg & Spiegeltent
Saturday November 8
Festival evening
18:00 -23:30 Koninklijke Schouwburg & Spiegeltent
Crossing Border Kids
Theater Dakota
11:00 - 16:00
Day programme
10:45 - 16:00 Various locations
Crossing Border NXT – 16+ readers
12:45 - 14:15 Spiegeltent
European Literature Prize Award Ceremony
16:30 - 17:30 Spiegeltent
Sunday November 9
Crossing Border Kids
11:00 - 16:00
Theater De Vaillant Alkibiades
20:00 Koninklijke Schouwburg
“Light streams out of this collection – it etches the angles and curves of Palestinian humanity", famous journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates said about this valuable anthology. Just like Coates, five contributors to We Are Not Numbers will be guests at this year’s edition of Crossing Border, opening the festival on Wednesday 5 November.
We Are Not Numbers was founded in 2014 to give voice to the youth of Gaza. In this recently published collection, vital, urgent and full of heart, spanning over ten years to the present moment, we gain an unparalleled insight into the past, as well as the current and next generation of Palestinian leaders, artists, scientists and
November 5 > 20:15 > Spiegeltent
scholars and imagine where we might go from here.
These are the stories of 59 young people from Gaza, born under Israeli occupation and blockade. They are people who have endured unspeakable struggles and losses, who keep fighting to be recognised not as numbers, but as human beings with hopes, dreams and lives worth living.
November 5 > 20:00
years after
poet Mahmoud Darwish, which asks “Where should the birds fly, after the last sky?” Graceful chamber pieces for oud, cello, piano and bass subtly address the metaphysical question and its broad resonances in a troubled time. While drawing upon the traditional modes of Arab music, Brahem has consistently sought to engage with the wider world, too, and found inspiration in many sources from different cultures.
It is in this spirit of openness that, to bring this project – both intimate and universal – to life, Anouar Brahem gathered an international and intergenerational quartet. Centered around his oud are the refined piano of British musician Django Bates, the powerfully lyrical cello of Anja Lechner, and – especially for this tour – the fluid yet earthy double bass of the great Norwegian master Mats Eilertsen
November 6 > 20:00 > Koninklijke Schouwburg
Dana Besaiso Basman Aldirawi
Iman Inshasi
Ali Abusheikh
Raji Al Jaru
Ahmed Alnaouq
Four contributing authors and founding editor Ahmed Alnaouq will share their stories.
With: Dana Besaiso, Basman Aldirawi, Iman Inshasi, Ali Abusheikh and musician Raji Al Jaru Moderator: Ahmed Alnaouq
Eight
Blue Maqams, Anouar Brahem returns with a new poignant project, titled after a line of verse by Palestinian
Olga Tokarczuk (1962) is the most prominent Polish author of her generation. She has received the Nike, Poland's most prestigious literary award, more than once and won the Man Booker International Prize for Bieguni (2007, Flights). She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018, and in 2024 she won the European Literature Prize together with translator Karol Lesman for Empusion, the Dutch translation of her novel Empuzjon (2022).
With You'll have to scream LOUDER, Crossing Border brings another full-length program of fresh literary voices. The event is Dutch-spoken and will take place in the Spiegeltent located at the Lange Voorhout. Writers, poets and musicians who have just released their first work or are about to break through will share their stories. Poets and moderators Sophia Blyden and Lin An Phoa host the evening.
With Sprokkelaars, Mira Aluç wrote a poignant debut about people on the margins of society and their struggle to get out of it. With an expertise as an environmentalist, Emma Zuiderveen takes an interesting turn in De rest is naakt, a debut about what losing control over your screen
usage can look like. Jan Wester connects philosophy with sculpture art. His novel Koeman, the retelling of a classic myth, was published just recently. Robin Kramer also debuted this year, with his collection of short stories Achtertuinen, in which recurring characters defy adulthood.
Twan Vet presents poems from Troostpogingen that just hit the right mark; he also writes for cabaret and theater. Puck Füsers explores the boundaries of poetry and takes you through her new work. Roan Kasanmonadi made a remarkable journey from dancer to psychiatrist in training, his collection Vuurbloem deals with gaming, millennials and contemporary boredom – for this, he was nominated for the C. Buddingh Poetry Prize. Selin Öztekin uses spoken
word to talk about living between two cultures. DJ SEREYNA won the national Kunstbende competition when she was seventeen and has an unerring sense of what moves an audience. Future Husband brings compelling synthpop from their recently released album Confused Kids.
These are the makers of tomorrow. Hungry, sharp and ready to show what they have in them. In the intimate setting of the Spiegeltent, you'll get to discover them before the whole of the Netherlands does.
November 6 > 19:00 > Spiegeltent
Puck Füsers
Emma Zuiderveen is a scientist, poet, and writer. She studied chemistry and recently completed her PhD in environmental science. Her debut novel De rest is naakt was published earlier this year by Uitgeverij Prometheus. In her poetry, she translates technical language about climate and the environment into a sensory and literary form, and with presentations on trout, she seeks to gain sympathy for the animal.
Jan Wester (1995) is a writer and sculptor. He studied philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and Image and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. His visual artwork was featured at LekArt 2021 and OBJECT Rotterdam. His debut novel Koeman (Uitgeverij Pluim) is just out.
Puck Füsers writes poetry, essays, poetic prose, and other texts that resemble poetry. She also enjoys collaborating with other disciplines, such as audio, film, and dance. Her texts have been published in Kluger Hans, Hard//hoofd, and Notulen van het Onzichtbare. In addition to her writing, Puck is pursuing a research master's in Comparative Literary Studies at Utrecht University. Her new chapbook will be published in late November 2025 by Wintertuin.
Selin Öztekin
Selin Öztekin (1999) is a spoken word artist from Rotterdam.
a psychiatrist and previously studied Contemporary Dance at the Fontys Dance Academy. He made his literary debut in September 2024 with the poetry collection Vuurbloem, published by Lebowski Publishers, in which he writes about being a millennial, the desire to escape the world, and video games. The collection earned him a nomination for the C. Buddingh’ Prize. In 2024, he was one of the Paris residents selected by deBuren and one of the winners of De Situatie. For the past few months, he has been an editor at the literary magazine De Revisor.
Future Husband
Mira Aluç (1993) studied visual art and philosophy. She has published essays and short stories. Her debut novel Sprokkelaars was released by Uitgeverij Atlas Contact. In this deeply human novel, Mira Aluç raises fundamental questions about identity, social inequality, and work. Which experiences shape you, and can you ever truly leave them behind? Above all, with Sprokkelaars, she paints a vivid and tender portrait of people in a twilight world.
Robin Kramer (1990) is a writer. His short stories have appeared in Tirade, De Revisor, and Kluger Hans. He has also published essays and poems. His debut, Achtertuinen, was published this year by Uitgeverij Oevers. The book explores various short stories with recurring characters, each being confronted with their newfound adulthood. Themes surrounding loneliness, friendship, family and unwanted distance take centre in the book.
She sees poetry as a space where identity, memory, and imagination intersect. What started as an attempt to navigate between two cultures has evolved into an artistic practice in which words move between whisper and call, between knowing and searching. In 2017, she was a finalist for Jonge Dichter des Vaderlands. She has participated in two seasons of Poetry Circle 010, where she deepened her voice through performance and collective creation. Whether she is performing on a festival stage or in an intimate setting, Selin uses words to make space for stories that are often left unspoken.
Roan Kasanmonadi
Roan
Kasanmonadi (1995) is a Rotterdambased poet and spoken word artist. He works as a physician in training to become
Nothing truly ends or begins inside Future Husband’s cinematic synthesis of synth-pop, neo-soul and indie rock. The group, made up entirely of songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, is spearheaded by Adura Sulaiman alongside Kike Zwagerman, Ivar Otten, Gino Buragevic, and Twan de Roo. They project a tasteful canvas of tension-and-release in melody, texture and voice. Their music has carved out space at festivals like Best Kept Secret and Noorderslag, and has taken them across borders, including standout performances throughout Europe and the UK. 2024 saw Future Husband play 45 shows, self-release Terra under their own label, and make waves at Eurosonic Noorderslag. Now, they’re head over heels in their biggest year yet. With the last pre-album single, The Party, having dropped in March and their full-length debut Confused Kids published in May, the band is stepping into a new era. Their headline tour is bringing the heartfelt heat of their live show to venues across the Netherlands.
The Chronicles is our residency programme for young Dutch and international writers and translators. Luckily for us, this residency involves a lot of work: during the project, the authors will write several stories in their mother tongue, including Dutch, Bulgarian, Spanish
and Czech this year. Next, the translators will take over and will translate the texts into Dutch, Italian and French, resulting in a total of fifty stories. Multilingual at its core, the project ensures that a close-knit group is formed in which the artists can exchange ideas, while at the same
Veerle De Caestecker & Marie Jadot
Veerle De Caestecker (1998) is a writer, thinker and self-proclaimed façade gardener. In the Slow Writing Lab 2024, she worked on a polyphonic story about ecological mourning. She loves theatre, poetry and words she picks up from the street. Throughout her work, she wonders how we can learn to listen to people, animals and things that are generally less well listened to today. During the festival, her work will be translated into French by Marie Jadot.
Marie Jadot (1995) studied Germanic Languages and Literatures at UNamur, KU Leuven and ULiège, where she is currently finalising a PhD on the musical dimension in contemporary Dutch war literature. As a Teaching Assistant in Dutch Studies she uses teaching methods ranging from lectures to theatre evenings and from tongue twisters to language walks. She has (co-)organised workshops on literary translation with, among others, Anna Enquist, Ronelda S. Kamfer, Antjie Krog, Georges Lory and Alfred Schaffer. As part of a FrenchItalian project with Franco Paris, she recently translated a selection of poems by the Dutch author and artist Armando. During the festival, she will work with Veerle’s stories.
Marek Torčík & Lysanne Aarsman
Marek Torčík (1993) is a poet, novelist, and journalist from Přerov, now based in Prague. His poetry collection Rhizomy was published in 2016. Memory Burn (2023), his debut novel, has received critical acclaim – Magnesia Litera, Best Novel (2024), the Jiří Orten Prize (2024) and the Susanna Roth Award (2024). The book is translated in 27 languages. Irma Pieper’s translation into Dutch, Brandend geheugen, will be published this year at De Arbeiderspers. During the festival, Marek’s stories will be translated into Dutch by Lysanne Aarsman.
Lysanne Aarsman is a literary translator who specializes in translating from Czech into Dutch. She has a bachelor's degree in
time the many languages themselves become a subject of discussion.
During the festival, we’re letting this whole bunch of writers and translators roam freely, processing their experiences in the group and at the festival in their stories, write and
think about new musical and literary discoveries and about their collaborations. Crossing Border thus becomes a playground for experimentation: what kind of texts emerge when their creators find themselves in a creative pressure cooker? What does it mean to share this experience and
Slavic Studies and a master's degree in Translation Studies, both from the University of Amsterdam. She’s currently participating in the third cycle of CELA, a talent development project for the new generation of European literary voices, and taking a professionalisation course through the ELV (expertise centre for literary translation). In addition to translating, she works in the library. During the festival, she will translate Marek’s stories into Dutch.
Jan Wester &
Daniela Gentile
Jan Wester (1995) is a writer and sculptor. He studied philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and Image and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. His visual artwork was featured at LekArt 2021 and OBJECT Rotterdam. His debut novel Koeman recently got published at Uitgeverij Pluim. During the festival, his work will be translated into Italian by Daniela Gentile.
Daniela Gentile studied Translation and Conference Interpreting from English, German and Dutch into Italian at the University of Trieste. She has been based in the Nuremberg metropolitan region in Germany for nearly a decade, where she built her career as a translator and interpreter.
Her first literary translations were Joke van Leeuwen’s children's philosophy book Dát bedoel ik, zei de zalm and Frenk Meeuwsen’s graphic novel Zen zonder meester, to be published by the end of 2025. During the festival, she’ll translate Jan’s stories into Italian.
Aida González Rossi & Sanne van den Bosch
Aida González Rossi (Tenerife, 1995) is a writer and journalist specializing in Gender Studies. She has published the poetry collections Deseo y la tierra (Cartonera Island, 2018) and Pueblo yo (Libero Editorial, 2020), as well as the novel Leche condensada (Caballo de Troya, 2023).
exhaustion with a whole group? Will writing about their double role as artist and audience bridge a gap between people joining the festivals as guests and people performing at the festival?
On the last evening, there will be a joint reading with all participants of
The Chronicles. Make sure to check our website to read their stories, especially written and translated for the occasion!
Chronicles Live: November 8 > Koninklijke Schouwburg
She has also contributed to many anthologies such as Esto es un cuerpo. Culo (2023), Flores y ruina (2024), and (h)amor bi(y)bollo (2025). She is a columnist for El Día and La Provincia. In 2025, she is in charge of Merendero, the Young Writers’ Lab at La Casa Encendida. During the festival, her work will be translated into Dutch by Sanne van den Bosch. Sanne van den Bosch is a Spanish and English translator. After having studied History in Leiden and living in Madrid for a couple of months to immerse herself into the Spanish language and culture, she went for her master’s degree in Literary Translation at Utrecht University. She has translated books by Javier Castillo and articles for National Geographic Historia and she also works as a freelance editor for several publishers, which she finds very useful when translating (but also the other way around), and as a bookseller at Boekhandel Veenendaal in Amersfoort. For Crossing Border, she will translate Aida’s stories into Dutch.
Joanna Elmy & Kieran Van Overwaele
Joanna Elmy is a Bulgarian-born writer and journalist, named one of Bulgaria’s most prominent young literary voices. Her debut novel, Born of Guilt, is being translated into over fifteen languages, including Dutch: Schuldig geboren will be published this year at De Bezige Bij, translated by Hellen Kooijman.
Joanna is a columnist for Deutsche Welle and her literary criticism and essays have appeared in papers like The Literary Journal, VIJ Magazine and Capital Weekly. She lives between the US and Bulgaria, where she is the founder of a project aiming to modernize the Bulgarian literary canon and to improve access to literature and literary knowledge. During the festival, her work will be translated by Kieran Van Overwaele.
Kieran Van Overwaele (2001) is a Slavicist and literary translator. He graduated in East European Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, where he discovered his love for literary translation. He translated various Bulgarian literary texts in collaboration with Hellen Kooijman, and in 2023 he was a guest at the House for Literature and Translation in Sofia.
Besides his work with Bulgarian literature, Kieran dabbles in writing poetry and has also translated Russian literature and literary texts from the former Yugoslavia. During the festival, he will translate Joanna’s stories into Dutch.
Nisrine Mbarki Ben Ayad (Tilburg, 1977) is a versatile writer, poet, curator, columnist and translator. She writes poetry, theatre texts and short stories. As a literary translator, she translates poetry from Arabic into Dutch. She has published five translations. You can find her poems and columns in literary magazines such as De Gids, Poëziekrant, De Revisor, Tirade and Het Liegend Konijn. In 2021, she published her poetry debut, Oeverloos. At Crossing Border she will present her debut novel Kookpunt.
Haley Heynderickx
Indie folk singer/songwriter Haley Heynderickx draws from a wide array of influences, citing her religious Philipino-American upbringing, the folk music of the 1960s and ’70s, jazz radio, and the idiosyncratic acoustic guitar styles of Leo Kottke and John Fahey. Seed Of A Seed, her long-awaited follow-up to I Need To Start A Garden (2018), marks a shift inward – where the debut was about self-actualization and soul excavation, Seed of a Seed is about protecting that growth. With its lush arrangements and spiritual undertones, the album deepens her signature sound while embracing vulnerability, quiet power, and gentle resilience. With sold out shows and unforgettable performances at festivals across the world including Green Man, End Of The Road, Roskilde.
Annahstasia
"My career has been a lesson in patience," says Annahstasia (US), having cultivated her musical language between blazes of intimacy and independence across different lives, locations, and iterations, loves lost and gained, expectations evaded and recreated. The rising troubadour's proximity to love – for and from others, in society at large, and deeply within herself – guides the spirit of her soulful, poetic folk songcraft. Love is the elemental constant, alongside her distinctly resonant voice, shading the singer-songwriter's music since her earliest self-taught recordings, back when a 17-year-old Annahstasia Enuke was discovered and propelled into the pressures of an industry that nearly stifled her greatest strengths. Artistic resilience, gratitude, and dedication to process have yielded Tether, Annahstasia's full-length debut on art-forward indie label drink sum wtr.
Sandro Veronesi (Italy) became a beloved literary figure and bestselling author worldwide with novels such as The Force of the Past, Quiet Chaos and The Hummingbird. Over the years, he has won several major awards. He is one of only two writers to have won the Premio Strega, Italy’s most prestigious literary prize, twice. Zwarte september tells the story of twelve-year-old Gigio Bellandi during the summer of 1972, on the northwestern coast of Tuscany. He discovers music, books, and love, but his innocence is brutally shattered by a tragic event. Around Gigio, victims and perpetrators blend into unforgettable Veronesi characters: his father, the water rat; his mother, the lioness; his brave little sister; and the two most crucial figures in his sudden coming-of-age: his mysterious uncle Giotti, and Astel Raimondi, the girl with braids “black as black onyx”, who leaves the indelible mark of love on him.
Fresh from supporting the likes of Bess Atwell, Honeyglaze and Jacob
Half a century later, Gigio reflects on his life. In Black September, Sandro Veronesi captures, like only he can, the power and loss of love, and the human capacity to overcome grief and move forward. But Zwarte september is also a novel about the evocative power of words (mouflon mouflon mouflon mouflon mouflon) and the seductive, life-saving force of language. Zwarte september is Sandro Veronesi at the height of his powers. The book has been translated into Dutch by Welmoet Hillen.
Out of thin air, at the beginning of 2023, De Toegift suddenly emerges. Starting in Zeeland, the melancholic sounds of their debut album blow across the mainland of the Netherlands and Belgium with gale force winds.
From the very first notes, the band is praised in the press; according to 3voor12, De Toegift delivered the best show at Noorderslag 2023, and their debut album received a five-star review in Trouw. With distinctive lyrics and a fresh blend of indie, folk, and jazz, De Toegift is a welcome addition to the current wave of Dutchlanguage artists.
Now joined by a violinist and flutist, De Toegift continues to experiment, which is also evident on their remix EP De vormen voelen vreemd, for which the band collaborated with artists such as Lucky Fonz III and gladde paling.
Alon, Pem is a musician, songwriter, and gardener, who is rapidly gaining recognition for her EP cloud work (2024) and follow up single “Ellipsis”. Mesmerising audiences with her captivating live performances and rare vocal style, Pem invites audiences to navigate a labyrinth of emotions, finding solace in shared experiences.
William Kentridge (Johannesburg, 1955) is one of the most influential artists of our time. His work ranges from charcoal, pencil and ink drawings to playful installations about history and politics, and is exhibited in museums worldwide. He has directed numerous productions combining drawing, theatre, film and music, often in collaboration with other artists.
In A Natural History of the Studio, Kentridge speaks passionately about his way of working. It all starts with creative procrastination: drinking tea, tidying up and making a list of the “lesser good ideas”. Sometimes, after many laps around the worktable, something emerges that is worth pursuing. This is how his spectacular works come to be, such as the moving shadow processions in Amsterdam, Rome, Cape Town and New York.
The stories about Kentridge’s family background are equally compelling: how his grandfather came to Johannesburg from Lithuania, still called
“Kantorovich” at the time, and how his father fought against apartheid as a judge. How William made his first attempts to combine art and politics in an imaginative way and how that ultimately led to his studio in Johannesburg with more than twenty employees.
A Natural History of the Studio (translated into Dutch by Anna Helmers-Dieleman) is not only a must-read for admirers of Kentridge’s art, but also a unique book about the creative process and the role of the artist.
mostly known for
She teaches Black Creativity at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
In We, the kindling, her debut novel, the author weaves together the lives of three women in their late twenties: Miriam, Helen, and Maggie, who all carry the physical and emotional weight of their teenage years, when they were trained as child soldiers in Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army. In lyrical yet unflinching prose, Otoniya J. Okot Bitek brings together their past and present: the rhythm of life before the war, the circumstances of their abduction, and the perilous journey home. Refusing to sensationalize cruelty and tragedy, the novel highlights strength, courage, and the unbreakable bonds between those who survive instead. Translation into Dutch: Robert Dorsman.
In 2025, Toronto-based Tamara Lindeman and her project The Weather Station returned with a new album, Humanhood. It was written during one of the most difficult periods of Lindeman’s life and rendered with a rock band with improvisational chops just as she began to recover by reckoning with a complicated truth: Sometimes, life simply tries to dismantle us, no matter how good everything may seem, and we must accept that in order to survive.
Working through this crisis, Lindeman wrote from within the confusion of the experience to create the songs that would ultimately become Humanhood, a narrative album that, listened to front to back, transcribes the journey from dissociation back towards connection. And as it turns out, Humanhood might just be the most arresting album Lindeman has ever made as The Weather Station.
Xizir X Crossing Border Festival
Xizir, the monthly interview programme with Hizir Cengiz, is a guest show at Crossing Border! Once a month, Hizir invites people he is curious about for what they do or create. The fascinating one-on-one conversations usually take place in Zaal 3 (Het Nationale Theater), but we can look forward to a special episode of Xizir, with no fewer than two fascinating guests: Flemish novelist Lara Taveirne and versatile musician Jiri Taihuttu.
Lara Taveirne debuted in 2014 with the novel De kinderen van Calais about two teenagers who go missing. She then wrote Pluto and Wolf (longlisted for the Libris Literature Prize 2025), among others. More than ten years later, she has rewritten her debut novel into a completely new work: Meisjes van Krijt. Taveirne did this because she had become a different writer, her ideas had changed, her view of love evolved. On Xizir, she’ll talk about Meisjes van Krijt.
Musician Jiri Taihuttu was a celebrated flamenco guitarist. He then went on to compose film music, for which he received a Gouden Kalf award. Later, he was part of the rap group ANBU. As a solo hip-hop artist, he has several hits to his name. Taihuttu has now left rapping behind. Earlier this year, he founded the band De Nachtwacht. Taihuttu says that his hunger for development drives him. How much courage does it take to rediscover yourself?
Cengiz is an editor for the television programme Zomer-
and a summer columnist for
Hizir
gasten
Volkskrant Magazine.
Otoniya J. Okot Bitek (Canada/Uganda) is a writer
her award-winning poetry.
Born in Hamburg, Germany to Turkish parents, Derya Yıldırım grew up influenced by her family’s Anatolian background and the myriads of cultures in the city. Derya’s musical roots started at home playing folk music with family members. Her father pushed her to learn various instruments, beginning with the bağlama, a seven stringed Turkish lute. Then she picked up the guitar, piano, and saxophone.
Although she is a multi-instrumentalist, Derya always felt drawn to the sound of the bağlama –“there’s just something very magical about it”. With her band Grup Şimşek’s forthcoming album Yarın Yoksa, which translates to “If There’s No Tomorrow”, Derya continues her journey revitalizing Anatolian folk music and instrumentation by infusing timeless melodies with a modern psychedelic flair. Ten years ago, while participating in a community theater project, Derya met French musicians Graham Mushnik and Antonin Voyant from Catapulte Records and formed the band Grup Şimşek with Helen Wells, a drummer from Cape Town, South Africa joining in 2021. While the band is truly international, they eschew the term ‘world music’, preferring instead ‘outernational’ which they say suggests a sound that’s more inclusive or “beyond borders.” DY&GS embody what defines
Anatolian folk music – “You need a groove and a melody, and everything around it is free.” It’s this ethos that guides the band’s songwriting and the way they take on Anatolian folk standards. “I believe the melodies shouldn't be changed because we are responsible to preserve music in the correct way. Our versions respect the roots. It’s the same lyrics and melody, but it has a different soul maybe.”
While it’s easy to think of folk music as a music of the past, she insists it’s just as important today. “Some of these poems were written hundreds of years ago but they’re still relevant. This music is so important because it remains the voice of the people, the minority, and the oppressed.”
After self-producing multiple albums, they signed with New York’s Big Crown Records in 2024 and teamed up with Grammy winning producer Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) for Yarın Yoksa. The new album embodies their balance of preservation and innovation across nine original compositions and three traditional folk songs. It is a record that will enchant any listener regardless of language barrier with Derya’s passion and authenticity front and center and music too moving to deny. Yarın Yoksa is sure to captivate the hearts and minds of all those who hear it, and just wait till you experience them playing it live ...
sentenced to a long prison term during the Nuremberg Trials in 1945 – one of the reasons Benedict chose to change
His parents divorced early and were unable to care for their children, leading Benedict to be sent from one Catholic boarding school to another. He found no peace or stability anywhere. The only thing that kept him going was writing, which he began at the age of seven. As an adult, he went from publisher to publisher with his manuscripts, enduring rejection, ridicule, poverty, and loneliness – until his debut novel caught the attention of the Zurich-based publishing house Diogenes. The rest is history.
De verhalen in ons is a personal journey from his childhood to his first publications. Drawing on his own life and work as well as that of other wellknown authors, Benedict Wells explores the power of writing. A wise and moving book about the magic of literature and the importance of perseverance, no matter what life throws at you. And an inspiring guide for anyone who writes, or dreams of doing so.
Benedict Wells moved to Berlin after finishing high school to fully dedicate himself to writing. His international breakthrough came with The End of Loneliness (2017). The book was also a great success in the Netherlands, as were his subsequent novels, including Hard Land (2021) and Dromer (2022). At the festival, he will discuss his new book, De verhalen in ons, translated into Dutch by Gerda Baardman.
Justin Torres (New York, 1980) won the National Book Award in the United States and the Prix des Inrockuptibles in France for Blackouts (2023). He wrote one other novel, We the Animals (2011), which was made into a film and appeared on numerous bestseller lists. He is a professor of English at UCLA.
In Blackouts, Justin Torres blends fiction with scientific research, dream worlds with original photographic material. He shows how queer people from different generations have had to fight for their
place in history and demonstrates the devastating and enlightening power of stories. It’s a plea to install counter-narratives to rectify lies and erasures in history, to unfilter muffled and distorted voices.
The book has been translated into Dutch by Gerbrand Bakker and will be released just in time for the festival. Anyone who might already want to have a look at Justin’s work before that time, can read his debut novel Wij, de wilden (translated by Nicolette Hoekmeijer).
How the desire to become a writer became an escape from a lonely childhood.
The life story of bestselling author Benedict Wells reads
like one of his own characters. His grandfather was
his last name.
Antjie Krog is one of South Africa’s most celebrated authors. At the age of seventeen, she made her debut with the poetry collection Daughter of Jephthah, the beginning of a versatile and much-awarded body of work. Her perspective on and portrayal of South Africa and femininity resonates with audiences around the
At the festival, Antjie Krog will discuss her debut novel Blood’s Inner Rhyme (translated into Dutch by Robert Dorsman). It tells the story of the relationship between mother and daughter and is believed to be Krog’s most personal and at the same time most universal book to date. More deeply than ever, Krog feels connected to the woman who gave her life, and to her roots. Nevertheless, mother and daughter, both writers, sometimes seem as different as night and day. In touching exchanges of letters, the two challenge each other to understand one another’s circumstances and worlds. And so it becomes clear that the history of their motherland may well be the most defining factor in their lives.
11:00 > Spiegeltent
A passionate lover of poetry – he translated work by none other than Syrian poet Adonis –, an essayist and now a serious autobiographical writer: in his candid book Thuis, Ahmed Aboutaleb (1961) looks back on his extraordinary life and political career.
Aboutaleb was born in Beni Sidel, Morocco, and moved from the Rif Mountains to a working-class neighbourhood in The Hague at the age of fifteen. He quickly learned the language and already knew at an early age that he didn't just want to be part of the society he joined, but he wanted to make a difference. His hard work and social commitment led him to journalism, and he then embarked on a soaring journey through politics: alderman in Amsterdam, State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment for the PvdA, and from 2009 to 2024 mayor of Rotterdam. Thuis offers an honest and revealing look at his life and career, with unique photos from the author’s private archive.
15:00 > Spiegeltent
Chigozie Obioma
Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria. His novels The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were shortlisted for The Booker Prize. His novels have been translated into more than 29 languages. The Road to the Country (2024) is his most recent book.
It is set in Nigeria in the late 1960s and tells the epic story of Kunle, a shy, bookish student haunted by long-held guilt who must go to war to free himself. When his younger brother disappears as the country explodes in civil war, Kunle must set out on an impossible rescue mission. His search for his brother becomes a journey of atonement that will see him conscripted into the breakaway Biafran army and forced to fight a war he hardly understands, all while navigating the prophecies of a local Seer, who marks Kunle as an abami eda – one who will die and return to life.
13:00 > BorderKitchen, Kerkstraat 11
David Szalay
David Szalay is a HungarianEnglish writer. Previously published works include All That Man Is, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Turbulence.
In Flesh (translated into Dutch by Auke Leistra), the life of Hungarian István begins in an apartment complex in the 1980s and takes him through the trenches of Iraq, the back rooms of London nightclubs, and the marble halls of the super-rich. Time and again, he finds himself at a crossroads, never choosing a direction himself. From young lover to soldier, from bouncer to bodyguard, from husband to widower, Flesh is the portrait of a man propelled through life, powerless against his desires, his past, and the randomness that shapes him.
democratic and peaceful Russia
Yulia Navalnaya (Moscow, 1976), economist, political activist and widow of Alexei Navalny, will join the festival with her late husband’s memoir Patriot, first and foremost to engage as many people as possible in the conversation about how to facilitate democratic change in Russia. This fight for a free and democratic country was at the core of Alexei’s and Yulia’s work together. After Alexei gave his life for this endeavor, Yulia announced that she would continue his work.
“I don’t have a ready answer on how to achieve this, but I know it will be a long and difficult journey. How best to proceed? What kind of reforms does
our country need? A group of independent Russian academics, politicians, and opinion leaders focused on these questions. I invite all who dream of a peaceful, free, and happy future for Russia to join this discussion as well.” – Yulia Navalnaya She is the Chair of the International Anti-Corruption Foundation Advisory Board as well as the Human Rights Foundation.
Aleksei Navalny (1976–2024) was an internationally renowned Russian anti-corruption activist, opposition leader and political prisoner. Among other distinctions, he was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the European Union's annual human rights prize.
Navalny began writing his memoir Patriot (translated into Dutch by Frans Reusink) shortly after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020. It is the full story of his life: his youth, his call to activism, his marriage and family, his commitment to challenging a world superpower determined to silence him, and his total conviction that change cannot be resisted – and will come. In vivid, pageturning detail, including neverbefore-seen correspondence from prison, Navalny recounts, among other things, his political career, the many attempts on his life, and the lives of the people closest to him, and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime.
and
for
13:00 > Koninklijke Schouwburg
15:00 > BorderKitchen, Kerkstraat 11
world.
Written with the passion, wit, candor,
bravery
which he was justly acclaimed, Patriot is Navalny’s final letter to the world: a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.
How magical to be able to recognise yourself in stories and feel that you are not in this alone. We are growing up in extraordinary – sometimes rather strange – times. Due to the rapid rise of technology, we are actually living in two worlds at once: online and offline. Meanwhile, major issues such as war, climate change, polarisation, racism, mental health and loneliness can no longer be ignored. Crossing Border NXT does not shy away from these topics but also emphasises that positivity is needed to find a way forward. Sharing books and stories in a community can offer comfort, hope and inspiration in a world full of challenges.
During Crossing Border NXT, we will speak live with Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Before the coffee gets cold) about the value of small, everyday moments and the question: What would you return to if you only had time left for one cup of coffee?
Writer Aya Sabi (Zo zingt de pijn, Half leven) takes us on her journey to transform intergenerational pain into consolation. Together, we explore how imaginative energy can help us feel safe again.
12:45 > Spiegeltent
Want to know more about our guests?
, author of the global bestseller Before the Coffee Gets Cold, writes about the beauty of things that pass. He shows that the most valuable moments are hidden in everyday life. The story takes place in a small café in Tokyo, where guests can do something extraordinary: travel back in time. His books explore themes such as grief, love, the fear of being forgotten, compassion and much more. Before the Coffee Gets Cold was followed by four more books in the same series, and the sixth volume is currently being translated into English.
During NXT, we will be talking live with Kawaguchi about his work and stories. So ... suppose you could go back to one moment in your past –but you only had one cup of coffee's worth of time – where would you go?
About the book
Ik gaf je ogen en je keek in de duisternis
(I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness)
Hidden among the cliffs of the Catalan mountains, a place where wolf hunters, criminals, and deserters cross paths, the Clavell farmhouse clings stubbornly to the earth. Inside, the elderly Bernadeta lies on her deathbed and the women of her family gather to say their farewells. The spirits of the women who have already passed away also assemble in the old farmhouse, forming a vivid and diverse company. The matriarch, Joana, wishes to welcome Bernadeta on the other side, and so the women of different generations prepare an elaborate feast.
The story unfolds over a single day while spanning more than four centuries. It intertwines legends and folklore, raising questions about memory and forgetting: which stories are preserved and which are lost, whose voices are heard and believed, and what myths shape the way we understand the world today?
Get a tiny preview of the jury report:
„Ik gaf je ogen en je keek in de duisternis is a generous novel in which life is celebrated and cursed in grand style. Misery and ecstasy, love and hate, cruelty and humour, the angel and the devil: everything and everyone fights each other until only death can follow. Solà's language is wild, her composition tight, her women downright unforgettable. And it is thanks to the richness of Adri Boon's translation that we can experience this novel in all its wildness and generosity."
Jury members: writer Niña Weijers (chair), booksellers Annette Breithaupt (Boekhandel Van der Velde) and Maartje van Tessel (Boekhandel Bijleveld), journalist and essayist Jan Postma, and Karol Lesman, translator of last year's winning book (Empusion by Olga Tokarczuk).
16:30 > Spiegeltent
SPUI25,
De
Imagination is a healing process, writer Aya Sabi told NRC Handelsblad last year. ‘It teaches you to feel safer by imagining other versions of yourself.’ Her latest book, Zo zingt de pijn, explores whether intergenerational pain can be transformed into intergenerational comfort. A poetic, healing quest, from the head and into the body, for safety in the present moment.
Because if countless generations of traumatic memories are stuck inside us, then surely there are also multiple generations of comfort in our bodies. Can we move from trauma to comfort? And if so, how do we do that?
About the author
Irene Solà (Malla, 1990) is a poet and novelist. Her previous book, Ik zing en de berg danst (When I Sing, Mountains Dance), spent two years on the Catalan bestseller list, after winning, among others, the Premio Anagrama and the European Union Prize for Literature. The book was also selected as one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews and The Guardian.
Her latest novel Ik gaf je ogen en je keek in de duisternis has been translated worldwide and was awarded the Premi Lletra d’Or, the prize for the best book in the Catalan language. Trouw named it one of the best books of 2024.
About the translator
Adri Boon (Amsterdam, 1961) studied Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Amsterdam. During his studies, he developed an interest in literary translation, and he has since translated works from Catalan, Portuguese, and Spanish. He has lived for extended periods in Barcelona, Lisbon, and Madrid to immerse himself in the languages and cultures. His translations range from classical authors such as Eça de Queiroz, Galdós, and Josep Pla to contemporary writers including Clarice Lispector, Irene Solà, and Irene Vallejo. Boon has received the European Literature Prize twice: in 2022, he was awarded the prize for his translation of the Nocilla trilogy by the Spanish author Agustín
Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Fernández Mallo.
During the Kids’ programme of Crossing Border, you’ll have the opportunity to meet a varied line-up of authors and illustrators of children’s literature as well as their creations.
On two days, they’ll showcase the best artistic and literary quality in books intended for pre-readers (0-4), early readers (4-8) and middle-grade (8-12). In addition, there will be a couple of activities for teenagers.
You can expect hands-on workshops, interviews on the
Melissa Castrillon (COL) is an author and illustrator living in Cambridge, England. Her first authored and illustrated picture book was Mighty Min, based on herself as a child: small but determined, and spending her days amongst the English countryside, climbing trees much too tall to climb. Since graduating, she has illustrated more than 15 picture books, written 3 and designed and illustrated more than 25 book covers for readers of all ages, including Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
Melissa is inspired by bright and bold colour palettes, inventive compositions and unusual patterns and page design. She also takes much inspiration from nature and loves visiting Colombia to feed her love of botanicals and colour and crafts.
In 2019, her second authored book The Balcony was awarded the prestigious Gold medal by the Society of illustrators in New York. At Crossing Border Kids, she will present her books Mighty Min and Can You Keep a Secret?, followed by a creative workshop.
creative and artistic process behind the stories and of course story time (reading aloud) with the authors themselves.
All workshops will take place in Dutch and in the mother tongue of the author or illustrator – Spanish, English, Arabic, French or Italian. As sharing languages and stories is what connects us all, weaving a spiderweb of stories together with our children can be a seed for compassion,
Born in Paris in 1972, Colas Gutman (FR) is an actor and author. He writes his novels in exactly the same position he took as a young boy doing his homework: stretched out on his bed or perhaps sitting in a chair, using a comic as his desk pad. His first work Rex, My Turtle was published in 2006 and won the Mille Page. In 2012 he won the prestigious “Prix Sorcières” in the Early readers category.
Gutman explores childhood and adolescence in his work with all of the lightness, angst, surrealism, and weirdness of those periods. In 2013, he invented the hilarious and endearing character Dumpster Dog (Chien Pourri). The series has been a smashing success in France since the moment of its inception, and has spawned an animated series and a lot of fabulous Dumpster Dog notecards and dishrags, of course.
kindness and understanding in the world. And what better place to do so than with this selection of artists passionate about their work?
Visit Crossing Border Kids at two different locations: Saturday November 8 > Theater Dakota Sunday November 9 > Theater de Vaillant
Ed Oner (1994) is a Moroccan street artist and illustrator who has made a name for himself in the international street art scene with his impressive murals and unique style blending street art, illustration and figurative elements. Passionate about drawing since childhood, he captures everyday life through sketching and visual storytelling. He often combines traditional Moroccan and Arabic elements with modern graffiti techniques. His recent work focuses on large-scale "stamp murals", combining portraiture and typography. Whether on walls or paper, Ed Oner’s work reflects a strong connection to people, places, and the poetry of daily life. With his colorful, dynamic and often complex designs, he has established himself as a defining figure in the Moroccan and international street art scene.
For Ediciones Ekaré, he has illustrated Looking for Ahmed (text: Jesús Ballaz) which narrates the story of young Said, who arrives in a big city looking for his older brother, whom he hasn’t seen or spoken to in a long time. As he tries to make a living, sleeping on the streets, making friends, and taking small gigs, he discovers a beautiful mural on the side of the road that makes him think of home and all things behind. A breathtaking story about reunion.
Ages 4+
Melissa Castrillon
(Machtige Min, Kun jij een geheim bewaren – Boycott) (ENGLISH/NL)
There are organizations for people who grieve, for alcoholics and other kinds of addicts. But if you’ve been devastated by the love of your life walking out on you, where the hell do you go?
In his latest novel Madam Sosostris & the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Nigerian-born poet and cultural activist Ben Okri invites all those who have been burned by love to join an unconventional party, hosted by Viv on the 20th anniversary of the day her first husband left her. She successfully ropes in her reluctant second husband, Alan, and their friends Beatrice and Stephen. When she meets the famed fortuneteller Madame Sosostris, last seen in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and rumored to be the secret to success of 5 prime ministers, she believes she’s found the perfect act to headline her masquerade.
In a sacred wood in the south of France, the partygoers disguise themselves and wait eagerly for the great clairvoyant. But the night soon goes awry, in a comically revealing way that causes the couples to question their relationships and the direction of their lives.
Ben Okri is the author of thirteen novels, including The Famished Road, which won the Booker Prize and forms the first part of a trilogy. He has also published collections of poetry, short stories, plays and essays. His work has been translated into more than 27 languages. He was awarded an OBE in 2001 and a Knighthood in 2023. His most recent works include his environmental fable for all ages Every Leaf a Hallelujah and his collection of stories, essays and poems about climate change, Tiger Work.
What Art Does examines the function of fictional worlds – such as pop songs, detective novels, soap operas, shoe tassels and the hidden language of haircuts – and suggests a new theory of art. It is a chance to understand
Brian Eno's first new book in twenty-nine years, written in collaboration with Dutch artist and novelist Bette Adriaanse.
Brian Eno is an artist. He was born in Suffolk and studied art at Ipswich and Winchester art colleges. After art school, he joined the band Roxy Music and over the next five decades, he continued to make music with others including Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Laurie Anderson, James, David Byrne, Coldplay, David Bowie, Grace Jones, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd and Fred Again.
Brian’s visual art has been shown internationally in over 200 venues. He is involved in activist work, such as the climate charity Earth Percent and HardArt, both of which he co-founded, and Stop The War coalition. Brian often lectures, trying to answer the question: What does art do?
Tash Aw grew up in Kuala Lumpur and now lives in France. He has written several novels, two of which were nominated for the Man Booker Prize. His most recent books are We, the Survivors and Strangers on a Pier. During Crossing Border, he will discuss his latest novel The South (translated into Dutch by Paul van der Lecq).
Young Jay travels with his family to the estate in the south of Malaysia that his late grandfather left behind. The orchards have fallen into disrepair and the fields have dried up, yet his father sends him out to work the land, together with Chuan, the overseer’s son. In the stifling heat, love blossoms between Jay and Chuan, but the legacy of the estate weighs heavily on the entire family. Jay’s mother, Sui Ching, is forced to confront what she has sacrificed for her husband and children. The South is a testament to Tash Aw’s mastery, unfolding as an intimate novel about love, legacy and regret in a rapidly changing world.
Somewhere between pure improv, organised chaos, minimal composition, astonishment and a dose of DIY aesthetics lies the world of Cebil. It’s a poetic & cosmic universe, exploring “discreet music” whilst wandering on the edges of the Cat People soundtrack and Brian Eno’s more experimental output, carried by visuals into a living installation of sorts.
Jan De Vroede weaves homemade instruments, old tape loops, broken synths, dusty beat boxes and the occasional doom guitar squall into a tapestry that nestles itself firmly around the solitary voice of Mashid Mohadjerin, whose captivating parlando dictates attention to
how art is made by all of us. How it creates communities, opens our worlds, and can transform us. Curious and playful, richly illustrated, full of ideas and life, it is an inspiring call to imagine a different future.
Bette A. is an artist, born in Amsterdam. As a child she liked to write plays and her primary school teachers allowed her to practise them in the gymnasium. She studied Image and Language at the Rietveld Art Academy of Amsterdam. After doing a Master in Creative Writing at Oxford University, she started writing in both English and Dutch and published her novels Rus Like Everyone Else (written by Bette in both English and Dutch: Post voor Rus Ordelman) and What’s Mine (Wat Van Mij Is). Aside from writing novels, Bette creates short stories and drawings and teaches in art schools. In 2019, Bette co-founded TRQSE –a network of artists and scientists who work together on social projects. Through this network, Bette met Brian. They started collaborating on social projects and talking about art. Their conversations led to working together on What Art Does, assembling the ideas Brian has developed during his working life and turning them into a book.
both the visuals and the topics of social injustice, resilience and resistance that are prominently there in her solo visual art. Unpredictability is embedded in the duo’s diverse output – roles are swapped, improv takes over, no two sets are ever the same.
The visuals are videocollages combining moving image, photo and animation, allowing various interpretations. The duo takes you on a journey through movement, transition and unexpected compositions.
Mashid Mohadjerin (PhD) is a visual artist, her work is shown internationally and has received multiple awards. In recent years, Mohadjerin’s research-based
work has expanded towards multi-media installations containing video work, sound, text, collages and performance. Through these media, she continues to explore multiperspectivity and alternative forms of narration.
Sound artist and composer Jan De Vroede has a broad artistic practice that explores the boundaries between music and visual art. He focuses on creative collaboration, improvisation and experimentation, teaches at the École Nationale d’Art (Paris), and is an internationally sought-after producer with multiple awards and two golden records. His solo album JAAN was released this year on World Of Echo.
Born in New York City to Haitian emigrants and activists, Leyla McCalla finds inspiration from her past and present – her music vibrates with three centuries of history and influences from around the globe. McCalla possesses a stunning mastery of the cello, tenor banjo and guitar and, as a multilingual singer and songwriter, has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience.
In addition to her solo work, McCalla is a founding member of Our Native Daughters and alumna of Grammy award-winning Black string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops.
McCalla’s new album and fifth studio recording, Sun Without the Heat, is playful and full of joy while holding the pain and tension of transformation. Throughout the album, McCalla achieves a balance of heaviness and light with melodies and rhythms derived from various forms of Afro-diasporic music including Afrobeat, Ethiopian modalities, Brazilian Tropicalismo, and American folk and blues.
Joris Vermassen (Belgium) is a graphic novelist and visual artist. His work is characterized by a blend of humor, tragedy, and social engagement. Under the pseudonym Fritz Van den Heuvel, he debuted in the 1990s with absurd comics in Humo and De Groene Amsterdammer. He has written scripts for radio and television and was a pioneer in the comedy scene. In 2014, he published the award-winning graphic novel Het Zotte Geweld. Its recent sequel is titled SoldaatHovenier: A Love Between Heaven and Hell.
Alois, a Flemish gardener, bids farewell to his beloved Clothilde in 1914 to go fight the enemy. A quiet tale set in a stunning corner of France, that tells of people scarred physically and mentally, of loneliness and friendship, and of the healing power of nature and art.
In the spirit of George Orwell, Ta-Nehisi Coates examines how reality is both revealed and distorted through stories, whether in reportage, fiction, mythmaking, or silence. In his striking new book The Message (De boodschap, translated into Dutch by Adiëlle Westercappel and Fannah Palmer), he traces the power of
narrative across three conflict zones. In Dakar, Senegal, he finds himself inhabiting two worlds at once: the modern African city and the haunted landscape of his imagination. In Columbia, South Carolina, where his own books are banned, he confronts the enduring myths America tells about itself. And in Palestine, he witnesses with
searing clarity the tragedy that unfolds when competing stories collide with lived reality.
Coates is the author of several acclaimed books, including Between the World and Me, which won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He currently serves as the Sterling Brown Endowed Chair in English at Howard University.
Quinton Barnes is a relentlessly ambitious Montreal-based artist exploring the edges of Canada's music scene. Since 2018, he's built a unique sound, writing, rapping, singing, producing, mixing, and mastering his own work across a prolific discography. For his new album Black Noise, Barnes took an assuredly different approach than with his past work, resulting in a release that, while in staunch keeping with his radically
innovate methods of expression, presents a bold sonic evolution and showcases the talents and efforts of a diverse collective of Montreal-based artists and musicians in collaboration.
Black Noise with its enigmatic approach to genre fusion and collaboration represents something undeniably new not only in Barnes’ rapidly developing oeuvre, but in the canons of hip-hop and experimental music.
Urszula Honek (Poland) writes both prose and poetry and has received numerous awards for her work. She’ll join the festival presenting her debut, the beautiful short story collection White Nights (Witte nachten), just recently published in Dutch (translation: Charlotte Pothuizen). In White Nights, Honek writes with an incredibly rich palette of language, color,
and style about the longing, sorrowful, and loving people of a sleepy village at the foot of the Polish Beskids. Set in a remote, hilly forest landscape, she gives voice to these lives through thirteen interconnected stories. Life in the village is marked by nameless fears rooted in the past, but also by friendship, empathy, and a deep connection to all living things.
Atoui play with chaos. Built on group improvisation, surges of coruscating electronics and distortion meld with vocals that, while stemming from a background in classical Arabic singing, seek to reroute tradition.
The album, whose title imperfectly translates to 'Treachery', began on a residency in Switzerland while the trio were touring Europe. It was later finished in their home city of Beirut. The five tracks are built on vibrant circuits of guitar and modular synthesis, the former often acting as a trigger for the latter’s volatile output.
Ghadr is the first release under the name Chamoun/Sahyoun/ Atoui, but the trio’s connection is deeply rooted in earlier collaborations. On Ghadr, these histories form something new.
Lieselot Mariën’s daring novel Als de dieren is a poetic attempt to find the words for and some meaning in an experience that is in defiance of both. “I've never come home since. I wander and I roam. I have no name. I can smell the animals. They are everywhere in this town. They know everything. I can hear them.”
In Kuren, Thijs Hoekstra finds a radically different, unsentimental way to write about childhood cancer. A moving and absurd comedy, written from the trenches of adolescence.
Sarah Arnolds’ collection of short stories Het gore lef explores lying in all its facets: when the truth is too painful or too boring, they are the easy way out –anyone can do it. The hard part is stopping.
On Ghadr, Sandy Chamoun, Anthony Sahyoun and Jad
Lieselot Mariën, Thijs Hoekstra & Sarah Arnolds in conversation with Kees 't Hart
Budgie Paul Gorman
Budgie was born as Peter Edward Clarke in 1957 in the Northwest of England and studied Fine Art before taking a sabbatical in 1977 to join a band or two. Budgie is known internationally for his unique style of drumming on The Slits' debut album Cut (1979), and as writer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, with both Siouxsie And The Banshees and The Creatures. He lives in Berlin, Germany with his wife, two children, three cats, and a Giant Schnauzer. At the festival, Budgie will present his recently published memoir The Absence: Memoirs of a Banshee Drummer.
Growing up in working class St Helens in the 1960s, Peter Clarke lost his mum as a young boy and it’s her ‘absence’ that haunts the pages of this book. Disenchanted with art school in Liverpool, Peter became Budgie and befriended the likes of Jayne Casey, Holly Johnson, Pete Burns, Bill Drummond and other luminaries of the legendary Eric’s Club, before taking off for London and the big city heat of punk. The beating heart of this painfully honest and frank account of a life often sabotaged by substance abuse and alcohol is his long-term position as Siouxsie and The Banshees’ drummer and co-writer alongside ex-lover Siouxsie Sioux. For the first time the story of this most exalted and mysterious of bands has been told by one who survived inside the belly of the beast.
Paul Gorman is a writer, curator and cultural commentator. His books include Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall Of The Music Press, The Look: Adventures in Rock & Pop Fashion, Straight with Boy George and Nine Lives with Goldie. At Crossing Border, he will talk about his new book Granny Takes a Trip.
Granny Takes A Trip was more than just a shop and a fashion brand; it was the original rock and roll clothes boutique, the template for all that followed. What started as an odd retail venture/art installation in a depressed part of London known as World's End, became an international byword for glam decadence in Manhattan and Hollywood, combining flamboyant style and all manner of countercultural activity to attract everyone from Pattie Boyd, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg to Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, The Beatles, and Lou Reed.
Beautifully illustrated with archival images of the shop and the clothes themselves, this book concludes with a never-seen-before 48-page tour through the Rolling Stones' wild wardrobe of sartorial delights tailored and sold in the shop.
Eduardo Halfon (Guatemala) was born in 1971 and currently lives in Berlin. He has published eighteen books, and his work has been translated into more than fifteen languages. In 2018, he received the National Prize for Literature of Guatemala. His new book Tarantula (translated into Dutch by Marijke Arijs) weaves together past and present,
reality and fiction, as it tells the story of two young brothers in 1984 who return to Guatemala to attend a youth camp for Jewish children in a forest on the high plains. Their parents, exiled to the United States, have sent them there so they won’t forget their roots. One morning, the camp reveals itself to be a far more sinister place than the children had imagined – each of them will have to find their own way to survive. The mystery of this childhood episode only unravels many years later, through chance encounters. One of them in Berlin with a former head instructor from the camp – a man who once carried a snake in his pocket and a giant tarantula on his arm.
Jordan Thomas (US) is an anthropologist and former Los Padres hotshot wildland firefighter. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The Drift. In his first book When It All Burns (translated into Dutch by Hans Kloos), he recounts a single, brutal sixmonth fire season with the Los Padres Hotshots – the special
forces of America’s firefighters. Thomas viscerally renders his crew’s attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanity’s symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a war – and what can be done to change it back.
Thomas weaves ecology and the history of Indigenous peoples’ oppression, federal forestry, and the growth of the fire industrial complex into a riveting narrative about a new phase in the climate crisis. It’s an immersive story of community in the most perilous of circumstances, told with humor, humility, and affection.
The young Algerian woman Aube did not live through the war of independence – but she is not allowed to forget it. The civil war of the 1990s, which she did experience, she is expected to forget. Yet the trauma of that war is etched into her body, damaged vocal cords have left her unable to speak. She can only tell her story to her unborn daughter. But can you give life when yours was nearly taken away? In a country where laws exist to punish anyone who speaks of the civil war, Aube decides to return to her native village – where it all began, and where the dead might finally give her an answer.
Kamel Daoud (Algeria) is a journalist for Le Quotidien d’Oran, one of Algeria’s leading Frenchlanguage newspapers. His articles are published worldwide, including in Le Monde and The New York Times. Houris (translated into Dutch by Jan Pieter van der Sterre and Reintje Ghoos) is his most recent novel and won the prestigious French Prix Goncourt in 2024.
Ray Fuego, born in 1996, grew up in AmsterdamZuidoost.
In 2013, he co-founded the SMIB collective, which has become a cornerstone of his creative path. Over the years, Fuego has continually reinvented himself, performing with various rap formations and fronting the rock/punk band Ploegendienst.
He is the embodiment of his sound: versatile, raw, reckless, daring, and stylish. Beyond music, he is committed to a range of social projects. Through VPRO Club Lees, he inspires young people to read and to think critically. Recently, his poetry debut Bolo di entropia was published.
Michel Nieva (Argentina) was born in 1988. He has published several novels, poetry collections and essays, lives in New York and teaches Latin American literature at NYU. Dengue Boy is his first novel to be translated into English (by Rahul Bery). Dengue Boy draws on manga, body horror, and gaucho-punk science fiction to tell a delirious, frenetic, singular story about the ravages of capitalism and what hope might exist, if any, for revenge and rebirth. After the last Antarctic icecaps melt, landscapes are radically transformed and diseases mutate and spread with unprecedented speed. Then, there’s “virofinance” exchange – a market for corporations to profit from pandemics and global suffering. It’s in this grim near future of 2272, where words such as “winter” and “cold” have no meaning, the Dengue Child grows.
Zaher is a Palestinian journalist and writer born in Jerusalem. Her first novel The Coin is the account of a young woman’s unraveling as she teaches at a New York City middle school, gets caught up in a scheme reselling Birkin bags, and strives to gain control over her body and mind. Her ideal self and the ideal life remain just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory, and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness, and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness, and the narrator unravels spectacularly.
Yasmin
In this edition of De Situatie, writer Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer and singer Sophie Straat meet on stage for a spirited exchange between poetry and protest, style and stance, beauty and confrontation.
What happens when two disciplines, generations and styles meet in a conversation that addresses highly important issues viewed through the lens of their own work?
What is the value of style, rhetoric and theatrical exaggeration, especially now that reality itself feels so grotesque? How do you say something controversial
BETWEEN PROSE AND PROTEST:
without becoming moralistic? And what do we expect from artists today: to be witnesses, activists or entertainers?
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, poet, playwright and novelist, sketches a Europe in decline that clings to its own reflection. With rhetorical power, irony and layered sentences, he exposes how nostalgia and self-image perpetuate each other.
Sophie Straat takes a different tone. She mixes tearjerkers, punk and satire into fierce social criticism.
Protest singer Sophie Straat experienced a meteoric rise in her career. Her debut EP ’T Is Niet Mijn Schuld (2020) won an Edison Award, and her debut album Smartlap Is Niet Dood (2023) earned nominations for the 3FM Awards, Edisons, and the Amsterdam Prize for the Arts.
In addition to her music, Sophie is a multidisciplinary artist who also creates visual art such as photographs and films, such as the short film Mooier Als Je Lacht, which revolves around three songs from her album.
Sophie Straat is here to say something with her protest songs, with the ultimate goal of sparking change. Because the world is messed up and only getting worse – but “the revolution can no longer be stopped” (De Standaard, BE).
Sofie Decleir takes the stage in Alkibiades, Zuidpool’s gripping adaptation of Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer’s monumental novel. She embodies the brilliant, divisive Athenian general and politician who led the world’s first democracy to the brink of collapse.
This is the story of Greece’s most beautiful man, torn between boundless self-love and the suffering of his people. A tale of power, vanity and impossible choices, brought to life with urgency and force.
Her lyrics cut through sexism, class inequality and gentrification without softening the blow. What happens when these two voices collide? What can aesthetics still do in a grotesque reality? And where does the artist stand when nuance is under siege?
This evening is not about consensus or comfort. This is style as strategy, friction as form and the question of what art can do when the space for nuance is shrinking. You are not watching from the sidelines. You are right in the middle of it.
OTHER OTHERWORLDLY CROSSING BORDER OCCASIONS:
For anyone who wants to follow us all the way to Belgium: On Sunday, 9 November, the festival is setting up camp at Arenberg, Antwerp!
Also, come visit another brilliant Crossing Border event next month: J. M. Coetzee will come to The Hague on 14 October.
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (NL) is a poet, classicist, and the author of modern classics such as La Superba, Letters from Genoa and Grand Hotel Europa Alkibiades is his most ambitious novel.
De Situatie is a recurring show initiated by PIP Den Haag. The event will be hosted by writer Dario Goldbach.
