Daan Heerma van Voss has won the BNG Literature Award 2023 with his book “Geen vaarwel vandaag” (No Goodbye Today). This was announced by jury chairman Pieter Jeroense on Thursday 11 January in the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam.
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Heerma van Voss is the nineteenth winner of the BNG Literature Award. The award is worth 15,000 euros and includes a sculpture by Theo van Eldik.
From the jury report: 'Geen vaarwel vandaag (No Goodbye Today), a family novel with strong cultural analytical qualities, is cast in downright impressive prose, in which Heerma van Voss shows in detail how big the gap is between the lives of millennials, consisting of all kinds of details, and the actual experience of grief. Is it possible to keep something as significant as the death of a parent at a distance? Can you continue to hide? The clever thing is that he deals with such questions with dedication, but never becomes overly dramatic. He never loses sight of his characters and has thus delivered a novel that grips you from beginning to end.'
Read the full jury report here
The BNG Literature Award is a lifetime achievement award intended for Dutch-language authors aged 40 or younger who have two or more works of literary prose to their name and who have not yet made their breakthrough. They must also not have won any major literary awards.
This year, alongside Heerma van Voss, the nominees for the award were Emy Koopman with Kindertrein uit Boedapest (Ambo|Anthos) and Vincent van Meenen with OxBlixa (Das Mag).
The jury consists of four members:
The Readers' Jury, consisting of people who work at BNG, also chose Daan Heerma van Voss as the winner from the three nominees. He will be able to stay at the Roland Holsthuis in Bergen for a month of his choice.