Main reading - Astrid H. Roemer

During this festival edition, Poetry International welcomes an author with a unique voice: Astrid H. Roemer. As the first Surinamese writer to receive the Prize for Dutch Literature, she has left an indelible mark on Dutch-language literature. Her work is bold, poetic, and often thought-provoking. 

In this special reading, hosted by Jelle van Riet, Roemer will present a selection of her poetry. Her verses, steeped in history, identity, and social themes, continue to echo long after they are heard.

Let yourself be carried away by the captivating poetry of a literary giant!

Astrid H. Roemer

Astrid H. Roemer is a Surinamese poet, novelist, and playwright. 

In 1970 Roemer published her first book of poetry Sasa: mijn actuele zijn, under the pseudonym Zamani. At the time, she was active in the Black Panther movement, and she chose this Swahili pseudonym to place emphasis on her African heritage. Her first novel, Neem mij terug Suriname (1974), about the displacement of a Surinamese person in the Netherlands, was of unprecedented success in Suriname. In total, Astrid Roemer has published seven poetry collections, nine novels, an autobiography, an anthology as well as several novellas, plays, and collections of poems and short stories. 

Roemer’s work is described as unconventional, poetic and lived through. She combines political messages with literary experiment and is exceptionally skillful at infusing personal and human stories with the complexities of a colonial past while commenting sharply on current public debates. To her, works such as Roemers drieling; romantrilogie (2001) are an effort to (re)define and relive her identity as a Surinamese-Dutch woman. 

Astrid H. Roemer has been awarded two of the most prestigious Dutch language literary prizes; the P.C Hooft Prize (2016) and the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (2021). In both cases, she is the first Surinamese author to receive these prizes. In 2025, the English translation by Lucy Scott of Over de gekte van een vrouw, On a Woman’s Madness (2023), was nominated for the International Booker Prize.