Antoine de Kom

Antoine Adrianus Raymondus de Kom (born 13 August 1956) is a Dutch psychiatrist, writer and poet of Surinamese descent.

Biography His grandfather was Anton de Kom, the famous Surinamese resistance fighter and anti-colonialist.

Antoine de Kom in 2012 at the first Cola Debrot Lecture. Photo: Bert Nienhuis In 1981, he made his debut under the pseudonym Raymond Sarucco with Palmen in the magazine De Gids. The poems expressed de Kom's connection to the Caribbean and his fascination for their past and present.

As a forensic psychiatrist, de Kom published Het misdadige brein: over het kwaad in onszelf (2012) in which he described fictitious conversations with historic criminals and despots. In 2014, Antoine de Kom was awarded VSB Poetry Prize for Ritmisch zonder string (2013). When asked whether de Kom considered his writings Surinamese literature, de Kom replied that he could not answer that; he is just as much an outcast as his grandfather.