Poets

Laureate - 2026,

Anneke Brassinga

Netherlands

Biography

Anneke Brassinga (Schaarsbergen, the Netherlands, 1948) is a Dutch poet, translator, essayist, and prose writer. She studied literary translation at the University of Amsterdam and has translated works by Vladimir Nabokov, Sylvia Plath, Samuel Beckett, W. H. Auden, Hart Crane, and Ingeborg Bachmann.

Her official poetry debut was Aurora (1987). Since then, she has published numerous collections and established herself as one of the most important and distinctive voices in contemporary Dutch poetry. Her work is renowned for its linguistic inventiveness, rich imagination, intertextuality, and exploration of nature, love, memory, and language itself.

Among her many awards are the Herman Gorter Prize, the Paul Snoek Prize, the Ida Gerhardt Poetry Prize, and the VSB Poetry Prize, as well as the prestigious Constantijn Huygens Prize (2008) and the P.C. Hooft Prize (2015), one of the highest literary honours in the Dutch-speaking world. In 2026, she received the Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings.

Her poetry has been translated into numerous languages. Critics have often described her as a “language wizard,” highlighting her ability to continually rediscover and expand the expressive possibilities of poetry.

 

 

Bibliography

Poetry

  • Aurora (1987)
  • Landgoed (1989)
  • Thule (1991)
  • Zeemeeuw in boomvork (1994)
  • Huisraad (1998)
  • Verschiet (2001)
  • Timiditeiten (2003)
  • Wachtwoorden. Verzamelde herziene gedichten, 1987-2003. (2005)(with cd)
    • Wachtwoorden. Verzamelde herziene gedichten, 1987-2015. (2015)
  • IJsgang (2006)
  • Ontij (2010)
  • Het wederkerige (2014)
  • Verborgen tuinen (2019)

Prose

  • Hartsvanger (1993)
  • Hapschaar (1998, 2018) – short stories
  • Het zere been (2002) – essays
  • Tussen vijf en twaalf (2005) – letters
  • Bloeiend puin (2008) – essays
  • as co-author: Het zere been: essays & diversen (2015)
  • Grondstoffen (2015) – essays

Awards

  • 2015: P.C. Hooft Award for her poetry
  • 2008:Constantijn Huygens Prize for her overall oeuvre
  • 2005:Anna Bijns Prize for Timiditeiten
  • 2002:VSB Poetry Award for Verschiet
  • 2002:Ida Gerhardt Poëzieprijs for Verschiet
  • 2001:ECI Prize
  • 2001:Paul Snoek Prize for Huisraad
  • 1990:Herman Gorter Prize for Landgoed
  • 1985:Trevanian Poetry Prize

 

Poems