Rodaan Al Galidi and Marc Reugebrink nominated for the Gerard Walschap-Literature Prize

Rodaan Al Galidi’s Thirsty river and Marc Reugebrink’s The Big Delay are two of the nominees of this year’s Gerard Walschap-Literature Prize. The prize is meant to encourage young Dutch-speaking authors. Winner is to be announced this fall.

Earlier this year Al Galidi’s Thirsty river was the runner up for the BNG New Literature Prize. Reugebrink’s The Big Delay was the winner of the Gouden Uil Literature Prize 2008 and longlisted for the AKO Literature Prize.

The English translation of Thirsty River will be published by Aflame Books coming October. In September Meulenhoff | Manteau publishes new and exciting work by Rodaan Al Galidi, The autist and the dove.

Marc Reugebrink is working on a new novel, which is expected in 2010.

Marc Reugebrink in French: Le Grand Retard

Septentrion (revue pour les arts, lettres et culture de Flandre et des Pays-Bas) publishes a French sample translation of Marc Reugebrink’s awardwinning novel The Big Delay. Translator Charles Franken calls the novel ‘une description passionnante de la poursuite d’idéaux exaltés et de leur ruine’. Check also the Septentrion blog (in French).

The Big Delay nominated for the Ink Monkey literature prize

The awardwinning novel The big delay by Marc Reugebrink has been nominated for the Ink Monkey 2009. The jury of this unique literary prize is made up of hundreds of teenagers from Belgium and the Netherlands. Visit www.inktaap.org to learn more on this literature prize (only in Dutch).

Marc Reugebrink wins Gouden Uil

Het grote uitstel has won the Gouden Uil Literatuurprijs 2008, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the Low Countries. Reugebrinks second novel, Touchdown (2004), had already reached the 2005 longlist. With Het grote uitstel (The big delay) Reugebrink wins his first major award.

The big delay is a novel for all who are filled with nostalgia for the seventies and the eighties.

Daniël Winfried Rega is perfectly happy. In the provinces as well the Cold War is sweeping the country. Young men subscribe to permanent revolution, surrender to constant pub-going and try to change the world in the arms of a girl. The respite Rega grants himself is tragic, desperate and ecstatic. He nestles in status quo and, in the midst of bigger changes and words that become more and more expensive, he chooses a world-shattering organization. Until life overtakes him on the left.

Seldomly have the seventies and eighties been described in such an inevitable way. Het grote uitstel is a bildungsnovel about the overconfidence of youth and great principles that were turned into excuse. It takes you by surprise. Marc Reugebrink has written a beautifully composed masterpiece: humorous, vicious and full of compassion.