Lisa Weeda
(Rotterdam, 1989) is a Dutch-Ukrainian autthor, literary programmer, theatre maker and VR-director. Her chapbook De benen van Petrovski (Petrovski's Legs), a literary account of her trip to the Ukraine, where her grandmother comes from, was published in 2016. Her debut novel Aleksandra was published in 2021. In it, her grandmother is the hub of the story. She sends main character Lisa to the Donbas to search for her uncle Kolja. The novel encompasses in a maelstrom of dreams and nightmares both the history of a country and a family. In 2024 she published Dans dans revolutie, a novel in which she battles westsplaining, the helplessness towards the Russian-Ukrainian war and labour migration in Europe in four almost magical storylines.
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Archive available for: Lisa Weeda
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Book of My Life: Lisa Weeda in conversation with Charlotte Remarque
Writers tell us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Charlotte Remarque.
Lisa Weeda chose as her favorite Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, a 2022 novel of speculative fiction by fanatasy novelist Rebecca F. Kuang, who was born in China and raised in the USA. Thematically similar to The Poppy War, Kuang's first book series, the book criticizes British imperialism, capitalism, and the complicity of academia in perpetuating and enabling them. Babel is set in an alternative-reality 1830s England in which Britain's global economic and colonial supremacy are fueled by the use of magical silver bars. Their power comes from capturing what is "lost in translation" between words in different languages that have similar, but not identical, meanings.
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Writing in Times of War
Timothy Snyder, renowned American historian specialising in the history of Central and Central Europe, opens Writing in Times of War with a mini-lecture on the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Writers Andrei Kurkov, Timothy Snyder and Lisa Weeda then explore in conversation with Eva Hartog, using their own work and the work of their fellow writers, what it means to write about and in times of war. Is language adequate, does language offer comfort and is language the best medium to tell the world about the situation in a war zone? Is fiction sometimes necessary to describe the facts?
Timothy Snyder is an internationally leading historian specialising in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Holocaust. The professor of History at Yale University has published influential studies such as Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz (1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (2003); Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist's Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (2005); The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (2008); Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), Thinking the Twentieth Century (with Tony Judt, 2012); Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015); On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017); and The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018) and the highly topical On Freedom (2024).
Andrei Kurkov is a Ukrainian writer famous for the mix of harsh realism and absurdist humour in his novels and non fiction books. He was born in Leningrad, grows up in Kyiv and writes in Russian and Ukrainian. His works have been translated in 37 languages and were published in 65 countries. He is a respected commentator on the situation in his country. In The President's Last Love, Kurkov employs humour and cynicism to describe how a boy manages to work his way up to become the most powerful man in the country. Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev, his eyewitness account of political unrest in the Ukraine, was published in 2014. Dairy of an Invasion (2022) and Our daily war (2024) are collections of Kurkov's writings and broadcasts as well as a remarkable record of a brilliant writer at the forefront of a 21st-century war. In 2024, he published The Silver Bone, the first part of The Kyiv Mysteries, his series of crime novels in historical settings. The second part The Stolen Heart will be published in 2025; the third part The Public Sauna Case is in development.
LIsa Weeda writes prose, plays and non-fiction. Her chapbook De benen van Petrovski (Petrovski's Legs), a literary account of her trip to the Ukraine, where her grandmother comes from and a large part of her family still lives, was published in 2016. Her debut novel Aleksandra was published in 2021. In it, her grandmother is the hub of the story. She sends main character Lisa to the Donbas to search for her uncle Kolja. The novel, grimly topical due to the war in Ukraine, encompasses in a maelstrom of dreams and nightmares both the history of a country and a family. Weeda has published work in De Revisor, Tirade, Das Magazin, De Titaan and De Optimist. In 2024 she published her novel Dans dans revolutie (Dance, dance, revolution).
Eva Hartog is a Dutch-Russian journalist who worked in Russia for ten years. Hartog studied Political Philosophy at the Leiden University. She was the editor-in-chief of the English-language newspaper The Moscow Times from 2017 to 2019. As a correspondent for publications such as De Groene Amsterdammer, she lived and worked in Moscow until her visa was not renewed in 2023. Now, she is a journalist for Politico where she publishes about Russia and about autocratic tendencies across the globe.
Writing in Times of War is curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Ilonka Reintjens.
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Literary Focus: Ukraine
With: Aleksandr Skorobogatov, Floris Akkerman, Franka Hummels, Geert Jan Hahn, Lisa Weeda, Oleg Lysenko, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Simone Peek, Stanislav Aseyev, Tanja Maljartschuk
More than a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we took stock with authors Stanislav Aseyev (Ukraine), Tanja Maljartschuk (Austria), Sasha Marianna Salzmann (Germany) and Aleksandr Skorobogatov (Belgium). Journalists Franka Hummels and Simone Peek talked to them about the role of writing and poetry in times of war. Virtuoso accordionist Oleg Lysenko played some musical contributions.
Writer Lisa Weeda, compiler of the programme, opened Literary Focus: Ukraine from 19:30 in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui with a conversation with journalists Floris Akkerman and Geert Jan Hahn. Based on books about Ukraine, they talked about their impressions. Hahn reports for Dutch media on Eastern Europe. Among other things, Akkerman is editor-in-chief and reporter at NRC on the war in Ukraine. They have been presenting BNR Perestrojkast, their podcast on current topics from Eastern and Central Europe, since 2019.
The programme continued in Zaal 1 with a first performance by accordionist Oleg Lysenko playing two movements from Victor Vlasov's suite Five Views on Gulag State. In collaboration with writers' organisation PEN Netherlands, an empty chair was visible on stage symbolising journalists who cannot speak out or publish because they have been imprisoned.
Franka Hummels then spoke with writers Sasha Marianna Salzmann and Aleksandr Skorobogatov, both of whom also read from their work. Simone Peek talked to writers Tanja Malyartschuk and Stanislav Aseyev. Malyartschuk also recited from her work. Aseyev requested Nina Targan Mouravi, who translated his book The Torture Camp on Paradise Street from Russian into Dutch,to recite an excerpt from it.
Accordionist Oleg Lysenko then performed two more movements from Vlasov's suite. The programme will conclude with the short film Monument for murdered writers and journalists 2022, a project by Theatre of Wrong Decisions, Committee To Project Journalists and writers' organisation PEN International.
How do you report on an invasion that is not yet over? What can fiction and poetry mean for a nation whose sovereignty is threatened?
Long a blind spot in our Western European minds, Ukraine is now in the full spotlight. At lightning speed, we learn all kinds of things about the country. What do authors who have known, described or travelled the area all their lives actually say about Ukraine? What does literature and poetry add to the story about Ukraine and the surrounding countries?
Bookstore De Vries van Stockum was present in the lobby with a stand offering books by participating authors of this programme, among others — including signing opportunities!
Literary Focus: Ukraine was developed by writer Lisa Weeda, who wrote a portrait of her Ukrainian family in her debut novel Aleksandra.
Day ticket: also visit the afternoon programme The World According to Cusk featuring Rachel Cusk!
Literary Focus: Ukraine was preceded Sunday 12 March from 14:30 hours in Theater aan het Spui by the, also English spoken, festival programme The World According to Cusk (with top author Rachel Cusk).
A reduced price day ticket for both festival programmes on 12 March was available. -
Julia Armfield and Nikki Dekker in conversation with Lisa Weeda
With: Julia Armfield, Lisa Weeda, Nikki Dekker
Summer 2022 two beautiful and strong debut novels were published: Julia Armfield's Our Wives Under the Sea ('the year's most terrifying love story' says AnOther Mag) and Nikki Dekker's diepdiepblauw. Both books describe mysterious sea creatures and the complexities of queer relationships between young women. diepdiepblauw is shortlisted for the Bronzen Uil (Bronze Owl) 2022 for best Dutch-language debut.
Writers Unlimited brought together these two talented young authors with a fascination for oceans and queerness! Lisa Weeda interviewed them in Writers Series on Thursday evening 24 November 2022 in Zaal 3, The Hague about, among other things, the attraction of the sea and about writing lesbian or bisexual love stories.
Where does these young authors' interest in marine life come from, and why do they express this fascination in a wonderful combination of narrative fiction, nature book and essay?
Writer and radio producer Nikki Dekker (1989) released her debut novel diepdiepblauw (Deep Deep Blue) in Summer 2022, a powerful debut novel about identity, shell collecting, growing up and bisexual infatuation, interspersed with fiction and facts about life underwater. In Dutch weekly news magazine De Groene Amsterdammer, when asked what the most enjoyable moment was while writing her novel, she replied: 'For the chapter on dolphins, I watched the documentary The Dolphin House. In it, Margaret Howe tries to teach dolphins to talk with their blowhole. You see her sitting at the edge of the pool, wearing black lipstick so that her own mouth looks like a blowhole, shouting words at that dolphin. That's just absurd.'
British author Julia Armfield (1990) published in 2022 her debut novel Our Wives Under the Sea. In the book, a deep-sea explorer gets stuck in a submarine at the bottom of the sea for longer than planned and returns "changed" to her wife.
The book has been all over Booktok, TikTok and Instagram for a while now, surprising (especially young) readers with its plot and genre: 'queer horror' and 'gothic' are terms that often come up.Last year, Lisa Weeda, author and literary programme maker, published her debut novel Aleksandra, an impressive family story set in her grandmother's motherland, Ukraine. Aleksandra and diepdiepblauw are both shortlisted for the 2022 Bronzen Uil Award. In 2018, she was moderator of the Winternachten festival conversations with writers Nino Haratischwili and Alain Mabanckou.
The Bronzen Uil Award 2022, the prize for the best Dutch-language Debut will be handed out 10 December 2022.
This Writers Series programme is in English.Book sale and signing in the foyer of Zaal 3: De Vries Van Stockum Boeken
Programme curated by: Joëlle Koorneef (Writers Unlimited).Writers Series: Julia Armfield and Nikki Dekker in conversation with Lisa Weeda
Thursday 24 November 2022, 20:30-22:00 hours
Zaal 3, De Constant Rebecqueplein 20A, Den Haag -
Postponed: Eastern Europe and beyond
With: Lisa Weeda, Nino Haratischwili, Sophie Derkzen
Postponed due to measures against the coronavirus. We are exploring the possibility of presenting the program online or at a later point in time. We will inform you by our newsletter and social media.
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The Georgian-Ukrainian Connection: talking about family, roots and defining moments in history with the Hamburg-based Georgian writer Nino Haratischwili and Dutch-Ukrainian writer Lisa Weeda. Haratischwili had her breakthrough in 2014 with The Eight Life, in her latest novel The Cat and the General, she writes about the Chechen wars. In 2016 Petrovsky's Legs by Lisa Weeda was released, the literary reflection of two trips she made to and through Ukraine. Last year Weeda directed the VR production ROZSYPNE about the war zone in Ukraine. English spoken.Moderator: Sophie Derkzen
Program curated by Ilonka Reintjens (Writers Unlimited)
Books for sale courtesy of De Vries Van Stockum Books -
Books Unlimited: Nino Haratischwili and Alain Mabanckou
A unique opportunity to meet two international literary stars and hear about their books, which have recently become available in the Netherlands. Lisa Weeda, writer and professor at ArtEZ School for the Arts, goes one on one for a half hour each with Nino Haratischwili (Germany/Georgia) and Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo) about their motivation to write, the source of their characters, and the worldwide success of their books.
Haratischwili had an international breakthrough in 2014 with The Eighth Life (for Brilka). In this award-winning, 1300-page epic, the Hamburg-based Georgian writer tells the story of the fictitious Georgian Jasji family.
The lastest book by Congolese novelist Mabanckou is Petit Piment, translated into English in 2017 with the title Black Moses. It humorously describes the life of a boy who escapes the strict regime of an orphanage to move to the coastal city of Pointe-Noire, where he lives among thieves and whores.
