Henk van Woerden

Henk van Woerden (December 6, 1947 in Leiden, The Netherlands, † 6 November 2005 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) was a Dutch- South African writer and painter.

Youth and Education

Van Woerden was born in the Netherlands. When he was nine years old, his parents wanted to emigrate to Utah, but eventually ended up in 1957 in Cape Town. After completing his school education, he began in 1964 to study art at the University of Cape Town, with a special permit because he was only 17 years old. He was like many students in constant opposition to the ruling apartheid regime refused to do military service, paid no taxes, and refused to carry a passport that identified him as a white man. As he thus de facto illegally staying in the country, he took the consequences, abandoned his studies and left South Africa in May 1968 in the direction of Amsterdam.

Career

In the following years, he traveled throughout Europe and lived mainly in Greece, especially in Crete, as well as in Amsterdam. He began writing, both in English and in Dutch, but did not publish his works. His livelihood, he played with painting. He won the 1980 Royal Award for Painting and exhibited in many European countries, including the International Triënale in Nuremberg and Biennale des Jeunes in Paris.

Only in the late 80s he turned back to the letter. The publisher Joost Nijsen read his travel diary of his first trip to South Africa for and encouraged him to write a novel about South Africa. His first book Moenie never kyk published in 1993 and won the Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize for the best debut. Together with Tikoes (1996) and Een mond vol glas (1998) it makes its South African trilogy. Een mond vol glas is a biography of Dimitri Tsafendas, the Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the South African killed in 1966. He won the 2001 Alan Paton Award, the book was adapted in 2002 by Antony Sher for the stage and filmed by the BBC in 2003. He also wrote a biography of poet Ingrid Jonker, the South African and two other novels.

Van Woerden died in 2005 in Ann Arbor, where he was a writer- in-residence at the University of Michigan.

Works

  • Moenie never kyk, 1993
  • Tikoes, 1996
  • Een mond vol glas, 1998
  • Notities van een luchtfietser, 2002
  • Ultramarijn, 2006
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