Theo Thijssen Prize for Peter van Gestel
The oeuvre of Peter van Gestel has been honoured with the Theo Thijssen Prize. The jury praised him as ‘a master in keeping silent about the unutterable, although one can discover gold in the stratification of this stories’. Van Gestel became famous with his novels Mariken, published in 1997, Winterijs (Winter Ice), 2001, and Die dag aan zee (That Day by the Sea), 2003.
The Theo Thijssen Prize is one of the most important prizes in the field of children’s and juvenile literature in the Netherlands, and is awarded once every three years. This prize, consisting of a sum of 60,000 Euro, is the continuation of the State Prize for children’s and juvenile literature. Previous winners include Imme Dros, Joke van Leeuwen, and Toon Tellegen.
