“It continues to distribute the scarcity, but with the new scheme we are now focusing more on broadening and less on high subsidies,” says Romkje De Bildt, director of the Nederlands Letterenfonds. The fund, which is responsible for subsidies to writers and translators, will adjust the grant grant. That is the first time since Halbe Zijlstra, the VVD State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science, in 2012. After that adjustment, it became impossible for writers to see the Literature Fund as the main source of income. Now there is another adjustment, at a time when the sales of Dutch novels are declining and a quarter of book sales go to English -language books. Established authors are going to hand in a little more to make room for debutants.
Every year the fund has more than 6 million euros to be distributed among writers and translators. For writers and image makers there is more than 3.8 million euros to be distributed, for translators more than 2.1 million. For almost no literary writer in the Netherlands it is possible to live on the sales income of a book, for literary translators it is impossible to make ends meet only the word rate and the fees of publishers. The question is what you then use: maintaining and protecting what is, or innovation, hoping to give the letters a boost.
The Letterenfonds now seems to focus on innovation. From January 1, 2026, debutants can also apply for a subsidy, and that also applies to makers of image stories and illustrators of children’s books. In addition, more attention is paid to applicants from the Caribbean or work in Papiamento, where not, as in the Netherlands, is not essential; Even when a library or literary festival is concerned about the editors and promotion of a work, a project can be subsidy. Money will also be available for mentor, coaching or participation in workshops for both writers and translators, and a better connection with the festival circuit is being sought.
Seriously serve
Now it is still the case that author and translators are awarded to the publication of a title at a renowned publishing house. For example, there was a starter subsidy for a second or third title, in which writers of a second book received a fixed subsidy amount of 15,000 euros and for a third book there was a project subsidy available to 33,000 euros. An established author could receive a subsidy between 12,000 and 33,000 euros per title. From 2026, a writer can no longer apply for a subsidy for two projects at the same time. Now that the pot to be distributed remains the same, but more applicants have a chance, it will probably be mainly at the expense of support to established authors.
In the report, the Letterenfonds indicates developments as follows: “The most important assessment criterion remains literary quality, with more emphasis on recent work. In addition, weighs what the project adds to the diversity of the Dutch -language literary offer – in both literary, cultural and social sense.” With a less successful book, the subsidy does not go down, as was the case before, but there is no longer any subsidy. According to the fund, that does not mean that taking risks is punished. “In the assessment of the project plan, we pay attention to the degree of renewal within our own oeuvre and within Dutch literature as a whole,” De Bildt explains.
“We have opted for the broader serving from start to the end because writing is a profession that you have to learn. The old scheme was more awaiting what came to the surface, now we are involved as a fund earlier. We hope that this scheme will be more room for diversity and other voices,” De Bildt explains. She notes that the majority will still go to experienced writers, but that newcomers now get more opportunities. “It is always looking for a balance between innovation and conservation. An oeuvre previously weighed relatively heavy, now that is less considered. That can have disadvantages on an individual level, but the advantage is that you give more room to new names, they were difficult.”
Translations
It will be a challenge to take a good look at whether a debut should receive a subsidy, because an application is different from writing a good novel, but we are looking at earlier work by the applicant, such as fragments of the book or publications to be written in magazines. In addition, there must be a contract with a publishing house outside the Caribbean.
For literary translators, things are also changing. Translators in the Caribbean can now also request project fairs, and here too the emphasis is on more options for inflow and flow. If requirement the publishers are stated that the name of the translator will now be on the cover of the book, to increase the visibility of the translators as a professional group. Despite that need for more visibility, the three translation prices that the fund issued annually are abolished. “But there is a new translation price,” De Bildt adds: “The translation talent price.”
Writer Arnon Grunberg finds the new regulation a good idea, he says by e -mail: “With regard to the new subsidy schemes. Excellent. Older and established writers can be happy that they are not killed by someone like Stalin. Everything else has been taken along, or a little less. Some flexibility is the only effective survival strategy.”