Astrid Roemer

Astrid Heligonda Roemer (, 27 April 1947 – 8 January 2026) was a Surinamese-Dutch writer and teacher. The Dutch-language author published novels, novellas, drama, poetry and radio plays. In 2016 she won the P. C. Hooft Award, the most important literary prize in the Netherlands and Belgium. Roemer was the first Surinamese author to win this award. She was also the first Surinamese author to win the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, which she was awarded in 2021. She attended the city's Kweekschool (Surinaams Pedagogisch Instituut or SPI), a teaching college. In 1965, she was discovered as a poet at that college. Roemer travelled to the Netherlands the following year, and spent the next few years traveling back and forth between Suriname and the Netherlands (she also lived in The Hague) until the 1970s. She began publishing in Suriname in the early 1970s, Kerseborn looked for Roemer on the Scottish island of Skye but finally found her in a Belgian monastery. Roemer did not show up for the premiere but sent a text message urging people to love one another.

Career In 1970 in Suriname, Roemer published her first book of poetry, Sasa mijn actuele zijn. Four years later, she published her first novel, Neem mij terug Suriname (Take Me Back Suriname). Her breakthrough novel once she moved to the Netherlands was the fragmentary novel Over de gekte van een vrouw ("On the madness of a woman"), This novel established her as a feminist writer and made her a role model for lesbians. and the political strife that followed: A military dictatorship

Awards Roemer won the P. C. Hooft Award for 2016 over the favored candidate, Arnon Grunberg, The jury's nomination states: "With her novels, plays and poems Astrid H. Roemer occupies a unique position in the Dutch literary landscape. Her work is unconventional, poetic and lived through. Roemer succeeds in connecting themes from recent national history, such as corruption, tension, guilt, colonization and decolonization, with small history, the story on a human scale."

In September 2023, the English translation of On a Woman's Madness, by Lucy Scott (published by Two Lines Press), was longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature. In 2025, it was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. The gap between the original-language publication of this work in 1982 and its International Booker longlisting in 2025 is 43 years, the longest in the award's history.

Publications English translations A Name for Love. Novel. Translated by Rita Gircour. Amsterdam: In de Knipscheer (courtesy ed.), 1994. . The Order of the Day. A novella. Translated by Rita Gircour, with an introduction by Michiel van Kempen. Amsterdam: In de Knipscheer (courtesy ed.), 1994. . On a Woman's Madness. Translated by Lucy Scott. San Francisco, CA: Two Lines Press, 2023. . Off-White. Translated by Scott and David McKay. San Francisco, CA: Two Lines Press, 2024. .

In Dutch The works of Roemer based on her Digital Library for Dutch Literature profile:

1970: Sasa mijn actuele zijn (Sasa my present being) 1974: Neem mij terug, Suriname (Take me back, Suriname) 1975: De wereld heeft gezicht verloren (The world has lost face) 1982: Over de gekte van een vrouw (On the madness of a woman) 1983: Nergens ergens (Nowhere somewhere) 1985: En wat dan nog?! (And so what?!) 1985: Noordzee Blues (North Sea Blues) 1987: Levenslang gedicht (Lifelong poem) 1987: Waarom zou je huilen mijn lieve, lieve... (Why would you cry my dear, dear...) 1987: Wat heet anders (What is so different) 1988: De achtentwintigste dag (The twenty-eighth day) 1988: De orde van de dag (The order of the day) 1988: Het spoor van de jakhals (The trace of the jackall) 1989: Alles wat gelukkig maakt (All that makes happy) 1989: Oost West Holland Best (East West Holland Best) 1990: Een naam voor de liefde (A name for love) 1991: Dichter bij mij schreeuw ik (Closer to me I'll scream) 1993: Niets wat pijn doet (Nothing that hurts) 1996: Gewaagd leven (Daring life) 1997: Lijken op liefde (Looks like love) 1997: Suriname (Suriname) 1998: Was getekend (Signed) 2001: 'Miauw' ('Meow') 2004: Zolang ik leef ben ik niet dood (As long as I live I'm not dead) 2019: Gebroken wit (Off-White) 2023: DealersDochter