Lieke Marsman

Member of the Young Poets Society 2012

Though she is still studying philosophy in Amsterdam, the young and talented Lieke Marsman is already editor of the Dutch magazine Met Andere Zinnen (In other sentences). At the age of seventeen she won the poetry contest "Doe Maar Dicht Maar”. Just one year later, her poems were published in the literary journal Tirade. After this publication, Arjan Peters, literary critic of newspaper de Volkskrant, declared her a child prodigy. Two years later, in 2009, Marsman was published in the anthology Ik ben een bijl (I’m an axe); she was the youngest writer included in the book.

With her first poetry collection Wat ik mijzelf graag voorhoud (2010) she captured the hearts of the Dutch literary criticism. The reviews were raving about her style: thirty-five fresh narrative poems, free-form and variable length, in which philosophy and language compete for primacy, while keeping clarity in language and image. Marsman was awarded the Lucy B and CW van der Hoogt Prize, the Liegend Konijn Debut Prize 2011 and the C, Buddingh’ Prize 2011. Her debut was translated in French, English and German.

Marsman herself believes that her debut summarises her view and opinion on poetry. Her poems essentially handle the issue of making this more beautiful than they are; how to make even unattractive things shine by the way they are portrayed.

Her interests are not limited to writing poetry alone. Marsman also translates poems by yet unknown American poets on her website and recently published her first story, Mimicri / Mommy cries in the online journal hard//hoofd.

This year Lieke Marsman is a member of the Young Poets Society 2012.