Gouden Uil readers' awards for Tom Lanoye and Marita de Sterck
On 25 April, Tom Lanoye, the favourite for this year's Gouden Uil Literatuurprijs (Golden Owl Literary Award), received the readers' prize, voted for by the public, for his novel ‘Sprakeloos' (Speechless) in Antwerp. He has now won this award a record-breaking three times, having previously received it for ‘Zwarte tranen' (Black Tears) in 2000 and ‘Boze tongen' (Wicked Tongues) in 2003. Lanoye was the only Flemish writer on the shortlist for the Gouden Uil this year.
In ‘Sprakeloos', an autobiographical novel, Lanoye writes about the death of his mother, who lost the ability to speak following a stroke.
Flemish YA author Marita de Sterck was also amongst the winners; her novel ‘De hondeneters' (The Dog Eaters) received the Gouden Uil young readers' prize 2010. She won the statuette for her hard-hitting novel about the First World War and the limits of humanity, in which young epileptic Victor goes in search of his sheepdog.
Two Dutch writers walked off with the Gouden Uil literature prizes, awarded by two independent juries. Cees Nooteboom won the Gouden Uil for his ‘'s Nachts komen de vossen' (The Foxes Come at Night), a collection of short stories, while the Gouden Uil for children's literature went to Ditte Merle's non-fiction book ‘Wild verliefd' (Wildly in Love).
published on: 2010-04-26
