Michaël Henricus Gertrudis (Michiel) van Kempen (born April 4, 1957) is a Dutch writer, art historian and literary critic. He has written novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s, short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

, essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s, travel literature

Travel literature

Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...

 and scenario

Scenario

A scenario is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the Commedia dell'arte it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play that was literally pinned to the back of the scenery...

s. He was the compiler of a huge range of anthologies of Dutch-Caribbean literature (Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

, Netherlands Antilles

Netherlands Antilles

The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...

) and wrote an extensive history of the literature of Suriname, in two volumes.

Biography

Van Kempen was born in Oirschot

Oirschot

Oirschot is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands. It is situated 12 km from the city of Eindhoven and 20 km from the city of Tilburg in the province Noord-Brabant...

. After attending high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 in Eindhoven, he studied Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 at the University of Nijmegen

Radboud University Nijmegen

Radboud University Nijmegen is a public university with a strong focus on research in Nijmegen, the Netherlands...

; on June 5 2002 he got his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 at the University of Amsterdam with the five volumed Een geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur (A History of Surinamese Literature), published in two volumes in 2003. In 1400 pages it tells the history of oral and written literatures of Suriname.

For some years Van Kempen was teaching Dutch in Nijmegen (1980-1982) and Paramaribo

Paramaribo

Paramaribo is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 250,000 people, more than half of Suriname's population...

, the capital of Surinam (1983-1987). In Suriname he also worked as a teacher in literary criticism

Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...

 and creative writing

Creative writing

Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...

 at the Academie voor Hoger Kunst- en Cultuuronderwijs, as well as coordinator of the Literature Section of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

From 1991 through 1995 he was coordinating the Suriname-project of the University Library of Amsterdam (resulting in the Suriname-catalogue, containing some 8000 entries) and from 1994 thru 1998 as a scientific researcher at the University of Amsterdam. As a lecturer and visiting professor

Visiting scholar

In the world of academia, a visiting scholar or visiting academic is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university, where he or she is projected to teach , lecture , or perform research on a topic the visitor is valued for...

 he taught at universities around the world. As an advisor he worked for festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

s, publishing houses

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

 and research funding

Research funding

Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of both "hard" science and technology and social science. The term often connotes funding obtained through a competitive process, in which potential research projects are evaluated and only the most...

s.
From September 1 2006 Van Kempen is a professor by special nomination in Dutch West-Indian literature at the University of Amsterdam.

Stray essays

Michiel van Kempen was or is editor of several magazines, including Uit de Kunst, Tegenspraak and Oso

Oso

-Places:* Oso, California* Oso, Ontario, a community Central Frontenac Township, Ontario, Canada* Oso, Washington, a census-designated place in Snohomish County, Washington-Other:* Oakville Symphony Orchestra* Ose * Onsala Space Observatory...

 (magazine for Surinamese studies). He made special issues for the literary magazines Deus ex Machina (1987), Preludium (1988), De Gids (1990) en Armada (1999). In 1986, he founded the weekly Literary Pages of De Ware Tijd, the largest newspaper of Suriname. Articles by his hand appeared in many literary magazines. His newspaper reviews were collected in De geest van Waraku (1993; The spirit of Waraku). Van Kempen was co-editor of two collections of scientific essays: Tussenfiguren (1988, Writers in between) en Wandelaar onder de palmen (2004, Walker under the palm trees).

Studies on Dutch-Caribbean literature

With photographer Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski

Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski

Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski is a Dutch photographic artist. Beginning as a student, he has traveled all over the world in search of picturesque locations for his autonomous-conceptual photographs of special people or situations for his social-documentary projects...

 Van Kempen published two photobook

Photobook

A photo-book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. The most critically acclaimed photo-books celebrate the creative work of an individual photographer, but can also result from the collaboration between a photographer and a writer, an...

s: Woorden die diep wortelen (1992; also published in English as Deep-rooted words) on writers and storytellers in Suriname, and Woorden op de westenwind (1994; Words on the West Wind) on Surinamese writers outside their homeland. Six essays on Albert Helman were published in Kijk vreesloos in de spiegel (1998, Look fearless in the mirror). His extensive history of Surinamese literature was precede by some other studies: De Surinaamse literatuur 1970-1985 (1987, Surinamese literature 1970-1985) and the popular Surinaamse schrijvers en dichters (1989, Surinames writes and poets). Major anthologies like Spiegel van de Surinaamse poëzie (1985, Mirror of the Surinamese poetry), Mama Sranan; 200 jaar Surinaamse verhaalkunst (1999, Mama Suriname, 200 years Surinamese narrative) en Noordoostpassanten; 400 jaar Nederlandse verhaalkunst over Suriname, de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba (2005, North-east passers-by; 400 years narrative on Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba) have greatly contributed to the knowledge of Dutch-Caribbean culture.

Awards

For his merits to Surinamese literary life Van Kempen was awarded in 1987 de Rahmān Khān-prize. In 2004, he was awarded the Flemish/Dutch ANV-Visser Neerlandia-prize. He was knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

ed twice: in 2005 in Suriname as Officer of the Honorary Order of the Yellow Star

Honorary Order of the Yellow Star

The Honorary Order of the Yellow Star is the highest state decoration of the Republic of Suriname. The Order was instituted in 1975 at the independence of Suriname and replaced the Dutch Order of the Netherlands Lion. It is awarded to individuals for their meritorious service to the Surinamese...

 and in 2007 in the Netherlands as Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau

Order of Orange-Nassau

The Order of Orange-Nassau is a military and civil order of the Netherlands which was created on 4 April 1892 by the Queen regent Emma of the Netherlands, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina. The Order is a chivalry order open to "everyone who have earned special merits for...

. In 2009, he was awarded the Gaanman Gazon Matodja Award, the highest Maroons award

Maroon (people)

Maroons were runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements together...

.

Literary work

Van Kempen's literary work comprises two novels, several collections of short stories and two children’s books. His narratives show how people of different cultural origins are being confronted with the impossibility of essentially getting in touch with the other. In the novel Plantage Lankmoedigheid (1997; Plantation Indulgence) this problem is thematized in a Surinamese setting in the years of the “revolution” and repression following the coup of 1980. Several of the short stories of Landmeten (1992, Land surveying) do have the same décor. The novel Vluchtwegen (2006, Escape routes) depicts the story of the immigrants quarter Bijlmermeer

Bijlmermeer

The Bijlmermeer or colloquially Bijlmer is one of the neighbourhoods that form the Amsterdam Zuidoost borough of Amsterdam, Netherlands. To many people, the Bijlmer designation is used to refer to Amsterdam Zuidoost and Diemen Zuid as a pars pro toto...

 of Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. In the title story of Pakistaanse nacht en andere verhalen (2002, Pakistan night and other stories) a European couple on a journey through Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 sees itself confronted with a retired army colonel, who seems to keep up a hidden agenda. Het Nirwana is een lege trein (1990, The Nirwana is an empty train) is a collection of travel stories on India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Prose

• Windstreken. De Volksboekwinkel, Amsterdam 1992. (short stories)
• Bijlmer, oh Bijlmer! Wilfred du Bois & Margriet Walinga, Amsterdam 1993. (short stories)
• Ik ben Nalini en ik ben een buitenbeentje. Kennedy Stichting, Paramaribo 1993.(short story)
• Plantage Lankmoedigheid; roman. In de Knipscheer, Haarlem 1997. (novel)
• Het Nirwana is een lege trein: reisverhalen over India. In de Knipscheer, Amsterdam 2000. (travel story)
• Pakistaanse nacht en andere verhalen. In de Knipscheer, Haarlem 2002. (short stories)
• Vluchtwegen; roman. De Geus, Breda 2006. (novel)

Prose under pseudonym

• Mani Sapotille, Het tweede gezicht. De Volksboekwinkel, Paramaribo 1985. (youth literature)
• Winston Leeflang, Landmeten. In de Knipscheer, Amsterdam 1992. (short stories)
• Winston Leeflang, Heer Slaapslurf. Lees Mee, Paramaribo 1993. (children’s book)

Literary criticism

• De knuppel in het doksenhok. De Volksboekwinkel, Paramaribo 1987. (essay)
• De Surinaamse Literatuur 1970-1985, een documentatie. De Volksboekwinkel, Paramaribo 1987.
• Surinaamse schrijvers en dichters. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1989.
• Woorden die diep wortelen. Fotografie: Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski
  Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski
  Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski is a Dutch photographic artist. Beginning as a student, he has traveled all over the world in search of picturesque locations for his autonomous-conceptual photographs of special people or situations for his social-documentary projects...
  
  . Teksten: Michiel van Kempen. Voetnoot, Amsterdam 1992. (English translation: Deep-rooted words. Photography: Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski. Texts: Michiel van Kempen. Translation: Sam Garrett. Voetnoot, Amsterdam 1992.)
• De geest van Waraku; kritieken over Surinaamse literatuur. Zuid, Haarlem/Brussel 1993. (literary reviews)
• Woorden op de westenwind. Fotografie: Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski. Teksten: Michiel van Kempen. In de Knipscheer, Amsterdam 1994.
• Suriname verbeeld. Amsterdam: Vrienden van de Universiteitsbibliotheek, 1995. (essay)
• Suriname-Catalogus van de Universiteitsbibliotheek van Amsterdam. Samengesteld door Kees van Doorne en Michiel van Kempen. Universiteitsbibliotheek van Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1995.
• Kijk vreesloos in de spiegel; Albert Helman 1903-1996. In de Knipscheer, Haarlem 1998. (essays)
• Tussenfiguren; schrijvers tussen de culturen. Edited with Elisabeth Leijnse. Het Spinhuis, Amsterdam 1998; aangevulde herdruk 2001. (essays)
• Tussen droom en werkelijkheid: een keuze uit de literaire pagina van de Ware Tijd. Okopipi, Paramaribo 2001. (essays, with others)
• Wandelaar onder de palmen; opstellen over koloniale en postkoloniale literatuur en cultuur; opgedragen aan Bert Paasman. Edited with Piet Verkruijsse and Adrienne Zuiderweg. KITLV
  KITLV
  The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies at Leiden was founded in 1851. Its objective is the advancement of the study of the anthropology, linguistics, social sciences, and history of Southeast Asia, the Pacific Area, and the Caribbean. Special emphasis is laid on...
  
  , Leiden 2004. (Boekerij 'Oost en West'.)
• Een geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur. Okopipi, Paramaribo 2002. (Ph.D.-thesis; 5 vols.)
• Een geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur. De Geus, Breda 2003. (commercial edition of the Ph.D.-thesis in 2 vols.)
• Welcome to the Caribbean, darling! De toeristenblik in teksten uit de (voormalige) Nederlandse West. Vossiuspers UvA, Amsterdam 2007. (inaugural lecture)

Essays

• Cityscapes + birdmen. Photography Jacquie Maria Wessels. Text Michiel van Kempen. Voetnoot, Antwerpen 2010.

Anthologies

• Helias achterna. Dekker & Van de Vegt, Nijmegen 1984. (history of the literature in Nijmegen, edited with Margreet Janssen Reinen)
• Nieuwe Surinaamse Verhalen. De Volksboekwinkel, Paramaribo 1986.
• Verhalen van Surinaamse schrijvers. De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1989.
• Hoor die tori! Surinaamse vertellingen. In de Knipscheer, Amsterdam 1990.
• Ander geluid. Nederlandstalige literatuur uit Suriname. Ed. Jos de Roo in cooperation with Michiel van Kempen and F. Steegh. Coördinaat Minderheden Studies Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Leiden 1991.
• Michaël Slory, Ik zal zingen om de zon te laten opkomen. In de Knipscheer, Amsterdam 1991.
• Het Verhaal Aarde. Bridges Books/Novib, Den Haag/Amsterdam 1992.
• Sirito. Vertellingen van Surinaamse bodem. Kennedy-stichting, Paramaribo 1993.
• Privé Domein van de Surinaamse letteren; Het Surinaamse literatuurbedrijf in egodocumenten en verspreide teksten. Surinaams Museum, Paramaribo 1993.
• Albert Helman, Adyosi/Afscheid. Stichting IBS, Nijmegen 1994. (text edition)
• Spiegel van de Surinaamse poëzie. Bijeengebracht, van een inleiding en aantekeningen voorzien door Michiel van Kempen. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 1995.
• Eeuwig Eldorado. Boekenweekmagazine 1996. CPNB, Amsterdam 1996. (ed. with others)
• Vrijpostige kwatrijnen: een huldebundel voor Hugo Pos. In de Knipscheer, Haarlem 1998.
• Cándani, Zal ik terugkeren als je bruid. Amsterdam 1999.
• Mama Sranan: twee eeuwen Surinaamse verhaalkunst. Contact, Amsterdam 1999, herdruk 2002.
• Michaël Slory, In de straten en in de bladeren. Paramaribo 2000.
• Een geparkeerde kameel: gedichten van Kamil Aydemir e.a. Dunya, Rotterdam 2002.
• Bernardo Ashetu, Marcel en andere gedichten. Okopipi, Paramaribo 2002.
• Het dolpension van de hemel. Dunya Poëzieprijs 2002. Bekroonde gedichten en ander werk van de prijswinnaars. Martijn Benders [e.a.]. Bèta Imaginations/Stichting Dunya, Rotterdam 2003. (Dromologya 12.)
• Septentrion, 33 (2004), no. 1, 1er trimestre. (introduction and texts)
• Literatuur & maatschappij. [Special issue of] Oso, tijdschrift voor Surinamistiek, 23 (2004), nr. 1, mei. (ed. with Peter Meel)
• Noordoostpassanten; 400 jaar Nederlandse verhaalkunst over Suriname, de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba. Samengesteld, ingeleid en van aantekeningen voorzien door Michiel van Kempen en Wim Rutgers. Contact, Amsterdam 2005.
• Shrinivási 80 Jubileumbundel. Ed. by Michiel van Kempen & Effendi N. Ketwaru. Paramaribo 2006.
• Voor mij ben je hier; verhalen van de jongste generatie Surinaamse schrijvers. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 2010.

Translations

• Jit Narain, Waar Ben Je Daar/Báte huwán tu kahán. SSN, Paramaribo 1987. (introduction)
• Kardi Kartowidjojo, Kèhèng. Afd. Cultuurstudies Ministerie van Onderwijs, Paramaribo 1988. (with Johan Sarmo and Hein Vruggink)
• Kamala Sukul, Wandana. 's-Gravenhage 1989.
• Cándani, Ghunghru tut gail/ De rinkelband is gebroken. NBLC/ De Volksboekwinkel, 's-Gravenhage/Paramaribo 1990.

Theatre

• De telefoon (1992).
• Burenruzies (1994).
• De eer van het lintje (1994, staged by Felix Burleson).
• Maatpak (staged by Felix Burleson, Rotterdam, February 2003)

Scenarios

• Brokopondo, verhalen van een verdronken land. (dir. by John Albert Jansen, broadcast VARA
  VARA (broadcaster)
  The Omroepvereniging VARA is a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system, founded in 1925 as the Vereeniging van Arbeiders Radio Amateurs...
  
  , 1994).
• En nu de droom over is... De dichter Michaël Slory. (dir. by John Albert Jansen, broadcast by VARA
  VARA (broadcaster)
  The Omroepvereniging VARA is a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system, founded in 1925 as the Vereeniging van Arbeiders Radio Amateurs...
  
  , 1996).
• Shrinivási: verlangen niet en eindelijk geen verdriet (dir. by Ram Soekhoe and Elles Tukker, OHM, 2001). (cooperation)
• Wie Eegie Sanie (dir. by John Albert Jansen, NPS
  Nederlandse Omroep Stichting
  The Nederlandse Omroep Stichting , English: Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation, is one of the broadcasters in the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system...
  
  , 2004). (cooperation)

On-line texts

• Complete text of Een geschiedenis van de Surinaamse literatuur (Ph.D.-thesis, Dutch)