Joost de Vries new guest writer at University of Groningen

Writer and essayist Joost de Vries is the new guest writer at the University of Groningen. During three public lectures and a public interview, he will explore the theme ‘To grow up, or not to grow up.’ He will also give a series of seminars for a selected group of students about growing up in literature and film, and about writing fiction.

Programme

‘After 22 years in this life / I’m writing a testament to my youth’. This is a rough translation of the lyrics written by Boudewijn de Groot in his song ‘Testament.’ Would anyone these days consider their youth to be over at the age of 22? We want to stay young for as long as possible, but why? In his lecture, Joost de Vries veers from J.D. Salinger to Mad Men, from Girls to the currently hyped ‘Young Writers’ of Dutch literature, and from Young Adult Novels to The Lost Post-War Generation. He also examines the implications it has on a culture when growing up is portrayed as an unattractive prospect – a notion that has always been supported and renounced by writers and essayists from every walk of life.

Joost de Vries

Joost de Vries (1983) made his debut in 2010 with the much-discussed novel Clausewitz, which was nominated for the Anton Wachter Prize and the Selexyz Debut Prize. His second novel, De republiek, was published in 2013. This book was nominated for several prizes, including the Libris Prize for Literature and the BNG Prize for Literature, and won the Charlotte Kohlerstipendium and the Gouden Boekenuil. In 2014, he published Vechtmemoires, a book of essays about irony in day-to-day life, the prudishness of the current generation and masculinity among Dutch writers – all seen from the literary point of view.

Joost de Vries read Journalism and History at Utrecht University. He has been an editor for the weekly publication Groene Amsterdammer since 2007, writing about literature, film and culture.

Guest Writers

The University of Groningen has appointed a guest writer every autumn since 1986. Guest writers give public lectures and organize a series of seminars. Previous guest writers at the University of Groningen include Dick Hillenius, Doeschka Meijsing, Willem Wilmink, Monica van Paemel, Willem Jan Otten, Gerrit Krol, Nelleke Noordervliet, Bernlef, Rutger Kopland, Joost Zwagerman, Thomas Rosenboom, Bas Heijne, Koos van Zomeren, Tonnus Oosterhoff, Marjolijn Februari, Esther Jansma, Kader Abdolah, Arthur Japin, Annejet van der Zijl, Hans Aarsman and Marjoleine de Vos. Unfortunately, illness prevented the Poet Laureate Anne Vegter from fulfilling her role as guest writer in 2014.

The University of Groningen and Studium Generale Groningen are responsible for appointing guest writers.

More information:

Guus Termeer, Studium Generale Groningen, telephone +31 (0)50 363 5464, a.j.m.termeer rug.nl, www.rug.nl/studium