Literaire Studentenvereniging Flanor

As you might know, Dutch author Nina Polak is coming to Flanor to be interviewed. Her latest novel, Buitenleven, just came out a few weeks ago but she is known for a lot more than that. The board decided to do some online research and give you a summary of what we found so that you already know a little something about her for the interview tonight!

Before becoming a published author, Nina Polak studied at the university of Amsterdam and also in New York, doing Literary Studies and Cultural Analysis. She started her publishing career as an editor for a student paper in Amsterdam called Propria Cures and also published for the cultural and literary paper, De Gids, and for De Groene Amsterdammer. From 2013 onwards, she also became the culture correspondent for De Correspondent.

Her career as a fiction writer started in 2014 with her debut novel, We zullen niet te pletter slaan. The title of this novel is actually a reference to a poem by William Wordsworth called The Mad Mother, which is certainly worth looking up if you are planning to read the book. Her debut was received very successfully and even got nominated for three literary prizes: the Anton Wachterprijs 2014, the ANV Debutantenprijs 2015, and the Opzij Literatuurprijs 2015.

A couple of years later, she published her second novel, Gebrek is een groot woord, which won the BNG Bank Literatuurprijs in 2018 and De Inktaap in 2020, the latter of which is literary prize awarded by youth. As mentioned, her latest novel, Buitenleven, was published a few weeks ago and the board is definitely a fan! Aside from novels, her fiction writing career has recently also been extended to writing plays. In 2021, her first play premiered called Een vrouw blijft thuis. 

We hope to have informed you enough about Nina Polak so you feel better prepared for the interview tonight! It starts at 20.00 in Wonderland at Forum Groningen. It will last about 1.5 hours after which you can buy her books and have them signed. When the interview is over, we will go to the Graanrepubliek for a drink. You are definitely very welcome even if you haven’t read anything by her or do not know a lot about her. Lectures and interviews of this kind can be super interesting regardless and are definitely worth attending if you have the time. You can still sign up through this website.

We hope to see you there!

Love,

The Board