Ted van Lieshout


Ted van Lieshout is a Dutch poet and writer of children's literature. He has won numerous awards for his work.

Early life

Van Lieshout was born in 1955 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Van Lieshout studied Beeldende Kunsten en Vormgeving between 1975 and 1980 at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Until 1990 he was part-time teacher at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. After graduating van Lieshout made drawings for the newspaper NRC Handelsblad as well as magazines such as Avenue and Blauw Geruite Kiel, the youth magazine of Vrij Nederland. He also contributed to the television shows Het Klokhuis and Sesamstraat. He became a full-time writer in 1990.

Career

In 1995, he won the Gouden Griffel award for his book Begin een torentje van niks. This was the first time this award was given for a work of poetry.
Van Lieshout won the Zilveren Zoen for his book Gebr. He also won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1999 for the German translation of the book, Bruder, by Mirjam Pressler. The book has been translated into numerous languages.
In 2001, he won the Nienke van Hichtum-prijs for his book Zeer kleine liefde. In 2009, he won the Theo Thijssen-prijs for his entire oeuvre. In 2012, he won the Woutertje Pieterse Prijs for his book Driedeling paard. Van Lieshout was also nominated for this award in 2016 and 2018 for respectively the books Rond vierkant vierkant rond and Onder mijn matras de erwt. He also received the Zilveren Griffel award for this book.
Van Lieshout's children's books have been illustrated by various illustrators, including Sieb Posthuma, Annemarie van Haeringen, Daan Remmerts de Vries and Sylvia Weve. Van Lieshout also illustrated many of his books himself.

Awards