With a grin from ear to ear, singer / songwriter Bert Hadders will receive the DvhN Streektaalprijs 2022 on Sunday afternoon for his album In Someone’s Land. In the poetry and prose category, the prize goes to the Drenthe literary periodical Roet.
“I am very happy. Man, I’m all shaking. I really did not expect this.” In the cloakroom of theater De Winsinghhof in Roden, Hadders plays a check. “Yes, I have to smoke,” he grins.
Less than five minutes earlier, he received the check for 1001 euros from jury chairman Eric van Oosterhout, with which he immediately proved the wrong of ringmaster Erik Harteveld. Earlier in the afternoon, when he called the nominees in the poetry and prose category to the stage, he had warned writer Leny Hamminga: “You have already won once, so I consider the chance that you will win again small.”
The writer from Taarlo, nominated with her collection of stories The Hunzeman , did indeed miss the prize this time, but Hadders does win it for the second time. Last time he won the DVHN Streektaalprijs 2014 for The Bosbeater Tapes , together with his band De Nozems. “Now he is big enough to do it alone,” says Van Oosterhout.
‘Nice ending’
“Why didn’t I expect it? I submit something almost every year and every time I think: I’m going to win, but that didn’t happen. Then at a certain point you no longer count on it,” Hadders laughs, who feels like a real Stadjer despite his Drenthe roots. “This is a really nice end to it Someone’s land .” The winning album contains songs that previously played in music theater performances such as Roegzaand and The Weltmeister which were made in recent years under the heading Someone’s land .
Editor-in-chief Lukas Koops van literary periodical Roet had seen the DVHN Streektaalprijs 2022 coming just like Hadders. Perhaps because the editors had been rather critical of the DVHN Streektaalprijs itself? “No, not that,” Koops replies. “Being critical is also part of our role.”
Inclusive price
Last year, after the presentation of the DVHN Streektaalprijs, criticism came from the Roet editors. “She had the courage to measure our regional language prize,” said jury chairman Eric van Oosterhout. “The reason was the awarding of the prize to Roelof Keen.” The jury felt that his richly illustrated book, peppered with humour, made the regional language accessible to everyone. Meanwhile, the Roet editors wondered whether the price of this newspaper revolves around literary quality or promotion of the regional language. “That is completely unclear and it has been for years,” Van Oosterhout quoted the Roet editors.
It was precisely the issue of the Drenthe magazine in which that criticism was recorded that the editors submitted to compete for the much-criticized prize. “The most important task is to draw attention to our regional languages. On books, music, theater and podcasts in Drents, Gronings and Stellingwerfs”, Van Oosterhout clarified during his speech at the Roder theatre. “It is therefore not necessarily a literary prize, but – entirely in line with the zeitgeist – an inclusive prize. A prize that is awarded without regard to persons, age, orientation and regardless of which regional language is used.”
Forgiving
Quality is what it’s always about, continued the Emmer mayor. According to the jury, Roet itself has a high literary content, precisely because of that critical view that authors also receive when they submit stories in the hope of publication. That doesn’t always happen.
The jury of the DVHN Streektaalprijs also appreciated last year’s theme issues in which stories were published in regional languages from other parts of the Lower Saxon language area. “In doing so, the editors also showed inclusive thinking,” says Van Oosterhout, only to add not much later – just before he hands Koops the check – that the jury is “not only open-minded, but also forgiving.”
Between the two award ceremonies, the almost full theater hall in Roden enjoys performances by the band Steernvanger and poet Ria Westerhuis, both of whom were also nominated. “Disappointed? Nope,” the poetess from Drenthe responds when she stands at the bar with a cup of tea. “I already knew my bundle stray current would not win, otherwise I would not have been asked to nominate. If you have to perform, you are not the winner.”