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Elmar Kuiper
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professional I had been taught to numb another with stuff that tamed the soul and was allowed to lock the door of the seclusion room I was trusting and held a serious conversation with a boy who had a passion for Nirvana I let him be when he dulled himself with blowing and put duct tape on the sockets I had been taught to leave another alone like the woman who couldn’t sit still for a moment, who, unfashionable and scrawny like a greyhound smeared crap all over her face I was a professional and had my confidentiality, didn’t gossip about the veteran with Afghanistan inside his head, who, outside of society’s sight, declared his fatwa and fired bullets at me I did not feel responsibility when another man in the time out room looked around like a wild cat and called out: o Father in heaven, in your hands I place my soul Translation: Sanne Greijdanus From: Stienkeal, Bornmeer, 2018 humanwolf I saw him on the top floor of a white store he stocked mourning and asked a high price for grief I shadowed him in the late light in a dim gleam I saw his ashen silhouette he was licking the paws of an animal gravely and determined he crept inside the night forest the wailing tore through the old pines my knees were trembling I approached the sound and opened my eyes wide in front of me stood a humanwolf he wanted to trade his gray fur for a red costume pine needles stuck like thumbtacks in the skin of the poor beast I saw him on the bottom floor of a black store he cried: help me dear sir! I squeezed my eyes shut and saw how Death portrayed him Translation: Sanne Greijdanus From: Stienkeal, Bornmeer, 2018 |
Elmar Kuiper (1969) is a multi-talent. He is active as a writer of poetry and drama. He is also a visual artist, performer, filmmaker and he participates in the improvisation collective Tsjinlûd. He is also songwriter and singer of the darkwave band; Tigers fan Greonterp. Kuiper wrote five Frisian-language bundles: Hertbyt, Ut namme fan mysels, Granytglimkes, Hiemsiik and Stienkeal (Bornmeer). His Dutch-language poems were bundled in: Hechtzwaluwen (Augustus) and Ruimtedier (Atlas Contact). There also appeared a bilingual bundle under the name: Roep de rottweiler op! / Rop de rotweiler op! (BnM).
Both Kuipers Frisian and Dutch poetry were nominated for the best debut, respectively for the Fedde Schurerpriis and the Cees Buddingh 'prize. Hiemsiik was nominated for the Piter Jelles prize and Ruimtedier for the JC Bloemprijs. From the jury report: In Ruimtedier Elmar Kuiper shows, even more than in his debut, to be equipped with an astonishing sense of sound and rhythm, inventive rhyme, and striking imagery; and to have a rich associative ability. It is also exciting that his 'singing' register often clashes with a harder, rougher idiom, sometimes pronounced parlando or slang. In the spring of 2017 appeared at Edition Virgines; da scharwenzeln spottvögel mit der schwerkraft, in the series Lyrik-Edition Niederlande 2, a selection from Kuiper's six regular collections (translation Stefan Wieczorek). His work is translated in different languages. Kuiper appears at several international festivals, like Poetry International, Stanza festival and Lisboa. Filmmaker Pim Zwier made a documentary about him: https://vimeo.com/20170538 |
