Gerrit Komrij

Gerrit Jan Komrij was a Dutch poet, novelist, translator, critic, polemic journalist and playwright. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s writing poetry that sharply contrasted with the freeform poetry of his contemporaries. He acquired a reputation for his prose in the late 1970s, writing acerbic essays and columns often critical of writers, television programs, and politicians. As a literary critic and especially as an anthologist he had a formative influence on Dutch literature his 1979 anthology of Dutch poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries reformed the canon, and was followed by anthologies of Dutch poetry of the 17th and 18th centuries, of Afrikaans poetry, and of childrens poetry. Those anthologies and a steady stream of prose and poetry publications solidified his reputation as one of the countrys leading writers and critics he was awarded the highest literary awards including the P. C. Hooft Award , and from 2000 to 2004 he was the Dutch Dichter des Vaderlands . Komrij d

Gerrit Jan Komrij was born onMarch 1944 in the eastern Dutch town of Winterswijk, Gelderland. He soon moved to Amsterdam and began a literary career. In 1968 his first volume of poetry was published, Maagdenburgse halve bollen en andere gedichten, and in 1969 he became editor of the Bert Bakkerfounded literary magazine Maatstaf. In the seventies he also became a critic of television, literature, and architecture, wellfeared for his colorful and sarcastic language.

Source: Wikipedia