Writer Marion Bloem (70) has won the Constantijn Huygens Prize for her entire oeuvre, consisting of novels, stories and poems. That is what the jury of the Jan Campert foundation has on Tuesday announced in radio show Plastic. Flower writes, from Not an ordinary Indian girlthe book with which she broke through in 1983, up to her most recent work indo (2020), ‘personal, original, compelling and based on great social involvement’.
Her work often deals with the relationship between the Netherlands and Indonesia, or the former colony of the Dutch East Indies. The subtitle of indo is ‘a personal history about identity’ – she explores the Indian culture, what it consists of, what the nickname ‘Indo’ means and why it is still used. It is work that “everyone interested in the theme of identity should read,” the jury wrote. Bloem often writes autobiographically; Her good hand (2016) was about her mother and A sign of life (2018) about her sister.
Also read this double interview with Bloem and Wolffers from 2019: ‘I never found with anyone what I found with Ivan’
Bloem is “confused but happy” with her profit, she writes on Twitter, and refers to “ancestor” JC Bloem, who received the same award in 1949. She also mentions her husband, author Ivan Wolffers, who died in October. “Of course I miss my biggest fan, but know that he is enjoying something.” He had been suffering from prostate cancer since 2002. For years, both Wolffers himself and Bloem shared messages about his illness and also his choice for euthanasia via Twitter.
An amount of 12,000 euros is attached to the Constantijn Huygens Prize. Bloem will publish a new book in January next year, Girls from the villagethe third book of a triptych with Not Ordinary Indian Girl and A hundred year old girl.
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