Edward van de Vendel writes Poetry Week Gift Collection 2024

March 21, 2023

With a successful eleventh edition of Poetry Week still fresh in the memory, Poëziecentrum Gent and Poetry International are already looking forward to Poetry Week 2024. Today - World Poetry Day - we are pleased to announce that Edward van de Vendel will write the Poetry Gift 2024. Poetry Week 2024 starts as always on Poetry Day, Thursday 25 January next, and runs until Wednesday 31 January 2024. During Poetry Week, you will receive the Poëziegeschenk as a gift from your bookseller when you spend €12.50 on poetry.

Edward van de Vendel (Leerdam, 1964) writes poetry, novels for children and young people, non-fiction and picture books, mainly published by Querido publishers. He was initiator of the series Querido Glow (books with LGBTQIA+ main characters for young people), Slash (children's books based on the lives of special young people) and Tijgerlezen (books for children who do not like reading or are just starting to read). He was also behind Vuurland and the online literary magazine Eurostory. In addition, Van de Vendel makes podcasts, such as Gloei and Avalanches Razen.

Van de Vendel's best-known books of poetry are Ik juich voor jou (2012, Golden Poetry Medal, drawings Wolf Erlbruch) and Wat je moet doen als je struikelt over een nijlpaard (2019, Zilveren Griffel, Golden Poetry Medal, drawings Martijn van der Linden), from which he read at the Nacht van de Poëzie, in 2016 and 2021 respectively.

For his entire oeuvre, Edward van de Vendel received the Anna Blaman Prize 2019 and his books were awarded the Gouden Zoen/Lijst (best book for young people, 4x), Zilveren Griffel (14x), the Woutertje Pieterse Prize (2x), and he was nominated five times for the international Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. His books are sold in many languages in more than twenty-five countries.

About Poetry Week and its partners

The last Thursday of January is Gedichtendag (Poetry Day) in the Netherlands and Flanders. Since 2013, Gedichtendag has also marked the start of Poëzieweek. In 2024, we celebrate Poëzieweek from Thursday 25 January to Wednesday 31 January. That week, many poetry partners in Flanders and the Netherlands join forces to bring poetry to the attention of a wide audience. For the fourth year in a row, Poetry Centre coordinates the largest annual poetry campaign in the Low Countries. Poetry International is the point of contact for the Netherlands.