Poet and writer Maarten van de Graaff will receive the 2026 Frans Kellendonk Prize for his oeuvre. The Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde announced this on Monday. announced. Every three years, the literary prize rewards the oeuvre of a Dutch-language author who, bearing in mind writer Frans Kellendonk (1951-1990), has “an independent and original view of social or existential problems”. Previous winners include Joost de Vries, Hanna Bervoets, Maxim Februari and Dirk van Weelden.
Van der Graaff (Dirksland, 1987) was The Netherlands in pieces through 2020 NRC called “one of the leading young poets.” He debuted with with Getaway car poemsfor which he received the C. Buddingh’ Prize in 2014. For his second collection, Dead work (2015), Van der Graaff received the JC Bloem poetry prize. After that, the novels, among other things, were published Worms and angels (2017) and Under Asphalt (2023). About his most recent work, Household book of the hidden things (2025), this newspaper wrote in a review that Van der Graaff shows that Tata Steel and “even” then Prime Minister Dick Schoof can be the subject of poetry. Threat predominates in the collection, with the Netherlands symbolizing “the skewed growth of power relations at world level”.
The way in which Van der Graaff uses literary experiment for “an exploration of social themes” is striking according to the jury of the Frans Kellendonk Prize to recognize Kellendonk’s legacy. In Van der Graaff’s case, the political question is “how community is possible under contemporary neoliberal conditions of existence,” the jury writes in its report. “In his prose, Van der Graaff excels in pointed sentences that bring entire worlds to life like impressionistic paint strokes,” the jury further states. “Van der Graaff’s oeuvre is welcoming, inviting, perhaps even radically hospitable; a treat for readers to stay in.”
The prize will be awarded on October 10 in Leiden. The jury quotes the following passage from a poem in its report Dead work in which Van der Graaff describes how a person walks through Utrecht with a coat rack. The jury recognizes the profession of poet in this – which “apparently has no real use or effect”. “But precisely in that deadness there is also strength. Poetry in this poem is also a radically hospitable place. Can we form a truly hospitable community through poetry?
I walk on the street with a coat rack.
This is the work I am doing today.
Walking in the sun, on the street, with a coat rack
is good work.
Because people become happy
and make comments about my coat rack
is it okay for me to do this job?
At the end of the Lange Nieuwstraat
I feel how warm the wood has become.
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Showing that Tata Steel and even Dick Schoof can be the subject of poetry