Writer Astrid Roemer (78) died in Paramaribo, won the PC Hooft Prize and the Prize of Dutch Literature

Writer Astrid Roemer has died at the age of 78 in her hometown of Paramaribo. Surinamese media report this Star News and Waterfront Friday and will be confirmed through her publishing company, Prometheus. The Surinamese native was considered one of the most successful authors in the Dutch language area. Her best-known novels are About the madness of a woman and the trilogy that consists of Bold living (1996), Look like love (1997) and Was signed (1999). In those novels, which Roemer refers to as “triplets”, true events in Suriname under the Bouterse regime are incorporated. Decolonization was a leading theme in those books.

Themes such as racism, emancipation, the history of Suriname and migration characterized Roemer’s work. She moved from Suriname to the Netherlands when she was nineteen and then lived in both countries. She made her debut in 1970 under the pseudonym Zamani with the poetry collection Sasa; my current line. In 2016, Roemer won the PC Hooft Prize for her prose. The jury praised her novels at the time because they are “at the same time sharp and relevant interventions in the public debate and complex literary representations of the history of Suriname.” In the period after the PC Hooft Prize, Roemer published, among other things Love in times of need (2016), Olga and her three-quarter measures (2017) and Off-white (2019).

In addition to poetry and novels, she also wrote plays and essays. In 2021, Roemer won the Prize for Dutch Literature. Belgian King Philippe was to present her with a festive ceremony, but the organization of the triennial prize canceled the ceremony due to Roemer’s support for the then-living, convicted ex-president of Suriname, Desi Bouterse. Roemer said on her Facebook page, where she often expressed fiercely, that the Surinamese community desperately needed Bouterse to become more self-aware and that he will eventually get a statue one day. “Thanks Man,” Roemer wrote on Facebook.

Roemer looked back on that controversy to NRC: “Such an action by diaspora Surinamese, intended to deny me what makes me happy, affects me mentally.”

Prometheus emphasizes in a Facebook post about her death that Roemer’s work was also internationally recognized. The English translation of About the madness of a woman, On a Woman’s Madnessmade the longlist for the International Booker Prize 2025. “Astrid Roemer leaves behind a literary legacy that is of lasting significance for Dutch literature, the Caribbean and Suriname,” writes Prometheus. “Her work will continue to be greatly appreciated, read, studied and discussed both nationally and internationally.”

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