photo © private
* 31.12.1958, Delfzijl, Netherlands
lives in: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Anne Vegter is a versatile poet and writer. In 1989 she made her debut with the children’s book The Lady and the Rhinoceros, which was promptly awarded the Woutertje Pieterse Prize, an important prize for new Dutch literature for children. Her first poetry collection, It Sprang (1991), showed that a poet of stature had risen. Several more children’s books and poetry collections followed, as well as a collection of erotic stories and several plays. In every genre the fact that she is first and foremost a poet glimmers through. In 2013 she was appointed Poet Laureate for the Netherlands.
Anne Vegter writes whimsical poetry that has often been called surrealistic and dreamlike, disturbing and puzzling in equal measure. All of these qualifications are made in a positive sense, however. Some critics find the mystery and unpredictability of Vegter’s poetry too much, but most praise the sense of adventure and surprise that accompany it. Her latest collection is called Big Data (2019), which was awarded the Ida Gerhardt Prize in 2022. Her work has been translated into various languages, and in 2020 a collection of her poems appeared in English translation (Island Mountain Glacier, translation Astrid Alben, Prototype Press). Since 2021, she is the city poet of Rotterdam.