Surinamese writer wins top Netherlands prize

ASTRID H ROEMER will receive the Prize for Dutch Letters 2021 in the last quarter of this year. Roemer is the first author from Suriname to receive the Prize for Dutch Literature (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren).

The prize is accompanied by 40,000 euros (approximately US$47,700). King Philippe of Belgium will present the prize to Roemer in October in Brussels, a media release said.

Roemer's win was announced by Flemish Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Jan Jambon on March 20 on behalf of the Committee of Ministers of the Language Union.

The release said the jury described Roemer's work as "unconventional, poetic and lived."

The jury, chaired by Prof Yves T’Sjoen, said, “With her novels, plays and poems, Astrid H Roemer occupies a unique position in the Dutch-language literary landscape. Her work is unconventional, poetic and lived. Roemer succeeds in connecting themes from recent major history, such as corruption, tension, guilt, colonisation and decolonisation, with small history, story on a human scale.”

Roemer, 73, made her debut in 1970 under the pseudonym Zamani with the collection of poetry Sasa: My Current Being, and has since then published novels and theatre pieces as well as poetry. Roemer’s narrative prose forms the most important part of her oeuvre, including her magnum opus: the trilogy Daring Life (1996), Looks like Love (1997) and Signed (1998). Her most recent work, Off-White, was published in 2019.

Themes such as migration, sexual orientation, racism and emancipation play a major role in her work. Characteristic of her style are the wealth of images and symbolism and the experimentation with different style forms and story structures, the release said.

In 2016 Roemer received the PC Hooft Prize for her entire oeuvre.

The Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren is the most prestigious literary prize in the Dutch language area and distinguishes authors of important literary works originally written in Dutch. The prize is awarded once every three years to an author whose oeuvre occupies an important place in Dutch literature. The prize is funded by the Language Union (Taalunie) and is organised alternately by Literature Flanders and the Dutch Foundation for Literature.