Writer Hedda Martens has for her short story collection By way of life won the JMA Biesheuvel Prize 2023. This was announced in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon. The jury chose the collection by Hedda Martens (1947) from a shortlist of four and awarded a prize money of 5,172 euros, which was raised entirely through crowdfunding.
By way of life consists of 69 short stories, miniatures really, with lengths usually no more than two or three pages. According to the jury, the collection is a test of “absolute mastery”. In this, the size pre-eminently determines the quality, the jury believes, because Martens “is able to cover an enormous distance again and again in the small, in the short”. The jury, which assessed 26 entries, consisted of poet Joost Baars, Dutch scholar Yra van Dijk, writer Ilse Josepha Lazaroms and critic Dieuwertje Mertens.
Also read the review of By way of life: The stories of Hedda Martens are clever, but also moody
The winning collection of short stories is the sixth book by 76-year-old Hedda Martens, who has been publishing for forty years, sometimes at long intervals, but always with a recognizable signature: she describes scenes from everyday life that, through a sharp writer’s eye and empathy, transcend the everyday. be lifted out. In 1982 Martens made his debut with the short story collection Shibboleth and Other Stories. Her work, which has not previously been awarded a literary prize, is in NRC once described as “growth on every square centimetre.” The winning bundle was in NRC moderately positively discussed: reviewer Judith Eiselin noted that Martens excels “in accurate wording and elegant summaries”, but that the stories are “indefinable” also makes it “irritating”.
Nominated debuts
The JMA Biesheuvel Prize, named after the late Maarten Biesheuvel, is the only prize in the Dutch-speaking region for collections of short stories belonging to literary fiction. This year, the prize, previously won by Hanna Bervoets, Persoon van Keulen and Maarten ‘t Hart, among others, was awarded for the eighth time. Four bundles were nominated for this year’s prize. In addition to Martens’ book, there were three literary prose debuts: Try to make heaven my home from Mischa Andriessen, Jerry can from Joep van Helden and When the deer come by Joke van Vliet. The jury thus chose the new literary voices over the collections of, for example, renowned authors Margriet de Moor (Mr and Mrs God) and Allard Schroeder (Sellinger).