Lieke Marsman (born 25 July 1990) is a Dutch poet. She was the Dutch Poet Laureate ( Dichter der Nederlanden) for the period 2021 to 2023.

Biography

Marsman was born in

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

and grew up in Zaltbommel and did her final school exams in 2008 at the Cambium College. After that she studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

. Her first publications were included in ''

De Gids (from Dutch: ''The Guide'') is the oldest Dutch literary periodical still published today. It was founded in 1837 by Everhardus Johannes Potgieter and Christianus Robidé van der Aa. Long regarded as the most prestigious literary periodical ...

'' and ''

Vrij Nederland ''Vrij Nederland'' (Free Netherlands) is a Dutch magazine, established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II as an underground newspaper. It has since grown into a magazine. The originally weekly turned monthly magazin ...

''. Via a blog on the website ''Tirade.nu'' she commentated and translated the work of her contemporaries. In 2010 her debut collection of poems appeared with the title 'Wat ik mijzelf graag voorhoud'' It received three literary prizes in 2011 and more than 3,000 editions were sold. Between January 2013 and March 2015 Marsman was part of the editorial team of the literary journal ''Tirade''. Her second collection ''The First Letter'' 'De eerste letter' appeared in January 2014 and treated various themes, including panic attacks''.'' In June 2017 two of her books were published at the same time: her first novel, ''The Opposite of a Person'' 'Het tegenovergestelde van een mens', which interwove poetry and essays; and ''Man with Hat'' 'Man met hoed', her collected poems and a selection of translations. In April 2018, a malignant bone tumour was discovered in her upper back; a (successful) operation was needed to remove it. As a consequence, Marsman could still move her right arm, but no longer raise it. In ''The following scan lasts 5 minutes e volgende scan duurt 5 minuten'' that appeared in September 2018, she described the process and the political context of illness. This collection was translated into English by British poet Sophie Collins, who grew up in Bergen (North-Holland). In January 2021, Marsman published the poetry collection ''In my basket'' 'In mijn mand'' In the same months she was named as Dutch Poet Laureate Dichter des Vaderlands for the period 2021 to 2023, following Tsead Bruinja. In July 2022 her right arm and shoulder were amputated - the operations on her cancer had not been able to prevent further spread of the disease. On 14 August 2022, she was a guest on the

NPO 2 NPO 2 (known as Nederland 2 until 2014) is a Dutch television channel, the sister channel of NPO 1 and NPO 3. It was established on 1 October 1964 at 20:00, initially with a 2.5-hour schedule until 22:30. NPO 2 tends to broadcast arts, culture ...

programme

Zomergasten ''Zomergasten'' ("Summer guests", an allusion to migratory birds) is a Dutch television programme broadcast each summer by public broadcaster VPRO. The programme was first aired in 1988. Each episode takes up an entire Sunday evening. It consis ...

, interviewed by Janine Abbring about her life, poetry and illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsman, Lieke Dutch poets Dutch writers Dutch women poets Dutch women writers 1990 births Living people