Edward van de Vendel

(Leerdam, NL, 1964) writes children's and young-adult books. After attending the Pedagogical Academy he set up his own school in Heemstede, NL, before debuting with Betrap me (Catch Me), a book of children's poetry. He's been a full-time writer since 2001, with a wide-ranging body of work including poetry, young-adult novels, plays, non-fiction, songs, and texts for picture books. Van de Vendel became famous with his cheerful Superguppie children's songs about common topics, from pale swimsuit buttocks to hamburger ghosts. He doesn't shy away from heavy topics, either. In 2008 he began his Slash series, a book series based on true stories of young people, with Gelukvinder (Fortune Seeker), about a young asylum seeker from Afghanistan fleeing the Taliban. For 2015's Het kankerkampioenschap voor Junioren (The Junior Cancer Championship), he extensively interviewed a boy who learned he had cancer at age 15. Van de Vendel's works have won the Zilveren Griffel, the Gouden Zoen, and the Woutertje Pieterse prizes.
(2015)Archive available for: Edward van de Vendel
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Writers' Fest
With: Aad Meinderts, Adriaan van Dis, Anna Woltz, Annelies Verbeke, Dick van der Harst, Edward van de Vendel, Femke Halsema, Francis Broekhuijsen, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Job Cohen, Joris Wijsmuller, Lamin Kuyateh, Michael Krüger, Rodaan Al Galidi, Typhoon
A festive event built around the presentation of the Jan Campert Prizes, the literary awards of the City of The Hague. In collaboration with the Jan Campert Foundation and the Dutch Foundation for Literature, Dutch literature is celebrated with various performances by writers, poets, and representatives of other disciplines (who honour the winners). The event is intended, in part, to highlight the state of Dutch literature. The afternoon culminates in the presentation of the Constantijn Huygens Prize for a whole body of work, which this year is awarded to Adriaan van Dis, beloved author and a great friend of the festival since day one. In Dutch