All national newspapers will publish a full-page advertisement on Saturday in which authors and publishers express their support for writer Pim Lammers. The advertisement has been signed by at least 2,000 people from the trade, the book umbrella organization CPNB reports.
The advertisement states that the initiators find it terrible that Lammers had to withdraw as the writer of the children’s book week poem because he received numerous death threats. “The attacks followed a short story that Lammers wrote for adults in 2015. Death threats against writers are unacceptable, regardless of how you interpret their work or what you think of it. We do not find it acceptable that writers are threatened in their safety and freedom.”
The statement of support arose spontaneously from a few authors and publishers, after which the General Publishers Group (GAU) coordinated the campaign. In addition to writers, illustrators and translators, numerous organizations from the book trade have also signed the call.
The death threats followed an online frenzy on social media. Many people thought it was impossible for Lammers to write a poem for the Children’s Book Week because the author wrote a story for adults about the relationship between a teenage boy and his trainer almost ten years ago.
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