Book launch

Goudvissen en Beton

In March 2016 Maartje Wortel took up residency for a week at the studio of SEA Foundation. Maartje Wortel is ‘writer in residence’ of the 2016 edition of the Tilt literature Festival.

What happens when you set lose a writer in Tilburg? In the case of Maartje Wortel the city is given a sea. Is that crazy? No, it is not. At least, not for who reads “Goudvis en Beton“. At the invitation of Tilt literature festival Tilt Maartje spent almost a week in Tilburg. And so it happened that we set out on our festival days along with the city biologist and her, staring for minutes at blades of grass. Maartje immersed herself in the city and felt really at home here.

Since 2014, Tilt traditionally has a writer in residence “at home” in Tilburg, staying a SEA-Foundation’s garden bound studio. After Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer and Annelies Verbeke, author Maartje Wortel (1982) took over the baton for the 2016 edition. Just after her recently appeared book with collecte ‘controversial’ short stories “Er moet iets gebeuren“, at the brand new publishing house Das Mag.

From 16 to March 19, 2016, the city of Tilburg stands in the sign of the Tilt Festival 2016. The multi-day literature festival brings language to life with a program chock full of exciting and crossovers in the fields of literature, theater, sculpture and music. We welcome among others Remco Campert , Sanneke van Hassel and De Speld. Maartje Wortel is this year’s writer in residence and during the festival she will report on her impressions of Tilburg. In six years, Tilt Festival has become the largest literary festival in the south. Tilt passes, along with several partners at various cultural venues in the historic Willem II Street in Tilburg, bringing on authors from national stage as well as regional talent.

On Wednesday, March 16th is at the ‘Kennismakerij’ there is the reception of writer in residence Maartje Wortel. Tilburg gives her a crash course in ‘Tilburgs’, the local spoken dialect. Maartje reads from out of her new book and is being interviewed and there is music. Author Remco Campert and musician Benjamin Herman stand together on the stage of Paradox as part of the concert ParaBIEBop . Benjamin Herman plays with his quartet by Campert inspired pieces, Campert read from his own work. Tilt Festival traditionally takes place in the “Boekenweek”, (a week long promotion of ‘books’ and literature).
In style, the festival joins the national theme of this years “Boekenweek” which is Germany. On Saturday, March 19th is one of the cellar of De NWE Vorst converted into a “Deutsche Untergrund Keller”, with performances from Nick J. Swarth and several Berlin based poets.

Maartje Wortel is a Dutch writer an after high school ‘Laar en Berg’ in Laren she briefly visited the Academy for Journalism in Tilburg. In the subsequent school year, she took a course Image & Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. She has published short stories in literary magazines Passionate Magazine , De Brakke Hond and De Gids . Her writen columns appeared in NRC Next and Trouw. Maartje Wortel debuted in 2009 with the short story, ‘Dit is jouw huis’ at publishing house De Bezige Bij . In 2011, she published her first novel, ‘Half Mens’, for which she was nominated for the BNG New Literature Prize. Subject in ‘Half Mens’ is an American taxi driver who hits with his car a Dutch girl. The inspiration for the book was an article about the mental disorder BIId (body integrity identity disorder). In 2014, also appeared at De Bezige Bij the well-received novel ‘IJstijd’.

The short story Maartje Wortel as Writer in Residency wrote, about the soul and the ‘madness’ of Tilburg is launched on the 28 August 2016 entitled ‘Goudvis en Beton’.

Website of Maartje Wortel
Tilt link to book launch info