Michiel van Kempen


Michaël Henricus Gertrudis van Kempen is a Dutch writer, art historian and literary critic. He has written novels, short stories, essays, travel literature and scenarios. He was the compiler of a huge range of anthologies of Dutch-Caribbean literature and wrote an extensive history of the literature of Suriname, in two volumes.

Biography

Van Kempen was born in Oirschot. After attending high school in Eindhoven, he studied Dutch at the University of Nijmegen; on 5 June 2002 he got his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam with the five volumed Een geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur, published in two volumes in 2003. In 1400 pages it tells the history of oral and written literatures of Suriname.
For some years Van Kempen was teaching Dutch in Nijmegen and Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam. In Suriname he also worked as a teacher in literary criticism and creative writing at the Academie voor Hoger Kunst- en Cultuuronderwijs, as well as coordinator of the Literature Section of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
From 1991 through 1995 he was coordinating the Suriname-project of the University Library of Amsterdam and from 1994 thru 1998 as a scientific researcher at the University of Amsterdam. As a lecturer and visiting professor he taught at universities around the world. As an advisor he worked for festivals, publishing houses and research fundings.
, Nobel Prize in Literature, in 2008; foto: Usha Marhé
From 1 September 2006 Van Kempen is a professor by special nomination in Dutch West-Indian literature at the University of Amsterdam.

Stray essays

Michiel van Kempen was or is editor of several magazines, including Uit de Kunst, Tegenspraak and Oso. He made special issues for the literary magazines Deus ex Machina, Preludium, De Gids en Armada. In 1986, he founded the weekly Literary Pages of De Ware Tijd, the largest newspaper of Suriname. Articles by his hand appeared in many literary magazines. His newspaper reviews were collected in De geest van Waraku. Van Kempen was co-editor of two collections of scientific essays: Tussenfiguren en Wandelaar onder de palmen.

Studies on Dutch-Caribbean literature

With photographer Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski Van Kempen published two photobooks: Woorden die diep wortelen on writers and storytellers in Suriname, and Woorden op de westenwind on Surinamese writers outside their homeland. Six essays on Albert Helman were published in Kijk vreesloos in de spiegel. His extensive history of Surinamese literature was precede by some other studies: De Surinaamse literatuur 1970-1985 and the popular Surinaamse schrijvers en dichters. Major anthologies like Spiegel van de Surinaamse poëzie, Mama Sranan; 200 jaar Surinaamse verhaalkunst en Noordoostpassanten; 400 jaar Nederlandse verhaalkunst over Suriname, de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba have greatly contributed to the knowledge of Dutch-Caribbean culture.

Awards

For his merits to Surinamese literary life Van Kempen was awarded in 1987 de Rahmān Khān-prize. In 2004, he was awarded the Flemish/Dutch ANV-Visser Neerlandia-prize. He was knighted twice: in 2005 in Suriname as Officer of the Honorary Order of the Yellow Star and in 2007 in the Netherlands as Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau. In 2009, he was awarded the Gaanman Gazon Matodja Award, the highest Maroons award.

Literary work

Van Kempen's literary work comprises two novels, several collections of short stories and two children’s books. His narratives show how people of different cultural origins are being confronted with the impossibility of essentially getting in touch with the other. In the novel Plantage Lankmoedigheid this problem is thematized in a Surinamese setting in the years of the “revolution” and repression following the coup of 1980. Several of the short stories of Landmeten do have the same décor. The novel depicts the story of the immigrants quarter Bijlmermeer of Amsterdam. In the title story of Pakistaanse nacht en andere verhalen a European couple on a journey through Pakistan sees itself confronted with a retired army colonel, who seems to keep up a hidden agenda. Het Nirwana is een lege trein is a collection of travel stories on India.

Prose

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