Novelist Christiaan Weijts wins the BNG Prize for Literature for his Dutch novel Euforie (“Euphoria”). Christiaan Weijts was Writer-in-Residence in 2011/12. His novel was partly written in “the splendid environment of NIAS”, as Weijts himself describes his time at the institute.
Euphoria
Euforie, Weijts’ fourth novel, is about an architect, who is assigned to rebuild The Hague after a terrorist attack has taken place. The novel, of “more than 400 breathtaking pages”, impressed the jury by its richness of ideas, and sharp analyses of our modern times: “Euforie is a very contemporary story, but this rich and erudite novel simultanously sings the praises of the long lost ideal of Bildung.”
The BNG Prize for Literature is awarded annually to a young talented novelist. It consist of 15.000 euro and a sculpture by Theo van Eldik.
Writing at NIAS
“When I started working at NIAS in September 2011, I came here with a manuscript-in-progress that had the working-title Augustusplein and counted 39.000 words. At the moment of leaving the working-title has changed in what will probably be the real title: Euforie (‘Euphoria’). The word-counter says it contains 86.000 words,” Christiaan Weijts writes at the end of five months at NIAS. “The book definitely benefitted from being written in the stimulating and multi-disciplined environment of NIAS. One would grant it every book to be written in institutes like this one.”
About Writer-in-Residence Fellowship
The Writer-in-Residence programme is a joint venture between NIAS and the Dutch Foundation for Literature (‘Nederlands Letterenfonds’) in Amsterdam. The position of Writer-in-Residence is intended for fiction and non-fiction writers who would benefit from an extended period in an international community of scholars. Previous Writers-in-Residence have included Tommy Wieringa, Joyce Hackett, David van Reybrouck and David Mitchell.