Joke van Vliet has won the BNG Literature Award 2025 for her book Niets is echt gebeurd (Nothing Really Happened). The award was presented on 26 February by jury chairman Pieter Jeroense at the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam. The jury described the book as a “stylistically gifted, psychologically layered and accurate novel in which the tension is greatly heightened”.
Van Vliet is the 21st winner of this prestigious award, but the first without the age limit that used to apply. As the jury eloquently put it, this is because 'age discrimination is simply no longer appropriate in this day and age. Writers regularly make their debut at an older age, which means that their literary careers also get off the ground later in life.'
Nothing Really Happened invites us to grope in the dark alongside blind artist Daan den Dolen. Daan has withdrawn into her flat and lives in the belief that she could be arrested at any moment. Van Vliet sketches her world with great precision, in which Daan wanders through both rooms and memories. 'Remembering is looking back through a magnifying glass,“ she muses, 'certain moments highlighted and studied closely, while other parts remain unseen.” Looking and seeing – or rather not seeing – become key concepts. What happened to her mother, her father? What happened to the Child?
In this novel, Van Vliet builds on the themes from her 2022 short story collection “Wanneer de herten komen” (When the deer come). This was praised for its whimsical, almost surreal imagery, was shortlisted for the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize and was named 'the best debut of the year' in Trouw.
Read the full jury report here.
The readers' jury, consisting of BNG employees, chose Coco Schrijber as this year's winner with her book Het gezoem van bijna alles (The Buzzing of Almost Everything).
As the winner of the readers' jury prize, Coco will be able to stay at the Roland Holsthuis in Bergen for a month.
Floris de Jonge, chair of the readers' jury, said during the award ceremony: 'The book that moved us most is a story that fits in with the times. With gripping storylines, unexpected twists and turns, and suspense right up to the end. A book that makes the contemporary search for meaning tangible and questions us about the choices we make in our own lives.'