Huygens Award goes to Van Maanen

The Constantijn Huygens Award has been conferred upon Willem G. van Maanen for his entire oeuvre. Van Maanen made his debut in 1953 with Droom is het leven (Dream is Life). His novels, De onrustzaaier (The Troublemaker), published in 1955, De dierenhater (The Animal Hater), published in 1960, and Het nichtje van Mozart (Mozart’s Niece), published in 1983) were honoured with important literary awards such as the Van der Hoogt Award and the Bordewijk Award. Nevertheless, he has remained rather unknown outside a small circle of admirers.

With the bestowal of the award, the Jan Campert Foundation, which presents the award, requests more attention for the work of the 83-year-old author.
In addition to the Huygens Award, the Foundation also conferred prizes on Arnon Grunberg (the F. Bordewijk Award for De asielzoeker, The Asylum Seeker), Mustafa Stitou (the Jan Campert Award for his collection Varkensroze ansichten, Pig-Pink Picture Postcards), and Frank Westerman (the Greshoff Award for essay-writing for Ingenieurs van de ziel, Engineers of the Soul).

Published: September 7, 2004 award