Leonieke Baerwaldt has won the BNG Literature Award 2024 with her book ‘Dagen als vreemde symptomen’ (Days Like Strange Symptoms). This was announced on 13rd February by jury chairman Pieter Jeroense at De Duif in Amsterdam. The jury praised Baerwaldt for her choice of a merciless, fragmented form. The style, which is not always pleasant, shows courage and originality.
Baerwaldt is the 20th winner of the BNG Literature Award. The prize is worth €15,000 and includes a sculpture by Theo van Eldik. In addition to Baerwaldt, the other nominees were Roelof ten Napel with ‘Over het zwijgen’ (On Remaining Silent, Hollands Diep) and Joost Oomen with ‘Het paradijs van slapen’ (The Paradise Of Sleep, Querido).
The jury on the winning novel: 'Leonieke Baerwaldt (1985) took Dutch literature by storm in 2022 with her fairy-tale-like collection of stories ‘Hier komen wij vandaan’ (This Is Where We Come From), in which she strikes just as unsentimental a tone, and shows just as much fearlessness as in her novel ‘Dagen als vreemde symptomen’ (Days Like Strange Symptoms).
Through brief observations, thoughts and snippets of conversations with her husband or a social worker, we are introduced to a defeated mother of a multiply disabled daughter. Just as the mythological figure Sisyphus is condemned to roll a boulder up a mountain until the end of time for mocking the gods, Baerwaldt's Sisyphus pushes an empty wheelchair up the slope towards the day centre where she has to pick up her daughter. She always returns empty-handed. What is stopping her?
Baerwaldt shows with great compassion what daily care for a multiply disabled child means: it is extremely hard, repetitive and hopeless. Form and content go hand in hand in this novel: the short rhythmic sentences, the repetitions and the blank lines underline Sisyphus' reality.’
Baerwaldt shows with great compassion what daily care for a multiply disabled child means: it is extremely hard, repetitive and hopeless.Jury BNG Literature Award
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 prizes.
This year's jury consisted of:
Previous winners of the BNG Literature Award include Merijn de Boer, Marjolijn van Heemstra, Jamal Ouariachi, Maartje Wortel, and Gustaaf Peek.
The readers' jury, consisting of BNG employees, also chose Baerwaelt as the winner from the three nominees. As a result, she will be able to stay at the Roland Holsthuis in Bergen for a month of her choice.