Cees Nooteboom wins P.C. Hooft Prize

Cees Nooteboom (born in 1933 in the Hague) has won the most important Dutch prize for literature: the P.C. Hooft Prize. According to the judges, his work is, “in terms of eloquence, scope and originality, some of the best prose to come out in the Netherlands the past fifty years.” The panel of judges consisted of Elrud Ibsch (chairman), emeritus professor in general literary studies, writers Herman Franke, Bas Heijne and Barber van de Pol and French translator Philippe Noble. Nooteboom will receive the prize, including a sum of € 60,000, on May 21st at the Literature Museum.

The past year, Nooteboom has been bombarded with prizes and significant ones, at that. For example, he won both the Hansischer Goethe Prize and the Austrian National Prize for European Literature in 2003 and just this week, the golden medal from the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.

Published: December 11, 2003 award