Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (born 17 January 1968) is a Dutch poet, novelist, polemicist and classical scholar. He was born in Rijswijk, Netherlands, and studied, lived and worked in Leiden, and he moved permanently to Genoa, Italy, in 2008.

Biography Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer was born on 17 January 1968 in Rijswijk in the Netherlands.

He made his début in 1998 with a collection entitled Of the Square Man, containing fifty-odd highly individualistic poems. This debut won him the 1999 C. Buddingh’ poetry prize.

As well as a poet, Pfeijffer was for some time a Greek scholar on the staff of Leiden University. He wrote a dissertation on the poetry of Pindar and published a history of classical literature for the general reader. Regarding his own poetry he has outspoken views, not just in his oft-quoted programmatic opening poem "Farewell Dinner," in which he dismisses the hermetic Hans Faverey and calls for "butter-baked images / and bulimic verse". Pfeijffer's poetic polemics leave no room for doubt as to what kind of poetry he prefers. He feels akin to Lucebert, and he abhors the paper verse of introverted hermetics and meek-hearted dreamers ("stumble, stiff romantic, mumble on"). Poetry should have life, and preferably, in Lucebert’s words, "life in full".

Pfeijffer at the Nacht van de Poëzie 2015 (Dutch Poetry Night event). Pfeijffer signing his novel Grand Hotel Europa at Eindhoven (2019). Photo by Pfeiffer of the courtyard of Palazzo Doria Tursi, Via Garibaldi 9, Genoa (2016). The Hogewoerd address where Pfeijffer lived as a classics student in Leiden (2023).

Thus Pfeijffer, the "gleaner of contrivances," quotes not only Pindar and Ezra Pound, Horace and Lucebert, Sophocles, Derek Walcott, Herman Gorter, Hans Faverey, Martinus Nijhoff and Gerard Reve, but comic book characters as well. He not only writes about the political martyr Ken Saro Wiwa, but also about C&A sweaters and Fiat Croma, barcodes, canned beer, butt-tight and garamond ten-point italic. The poet neither lacks humor or self-mockery, nor seriousness for that matter, witness his hotly tender love poems: "and though I sang and gave over my loins / and you failed to scorch my senses / I should be useless white on white."

Awards and honors 1999: C. Buddingh' Prize (1999) for Of the Square Man 2002: (2002) for Rupert 2003: (or Seghers Literatuurprijs) (2003) for Rupert 2005: over 2004 2014: Tzumprijs voor de beste literaire zin over 2013 2014: Libris Prize for La Superba 2015: for La Superba 2015: Jan Campert Prize for Idyllen 2015: Awater Poëzieprijs for Idyllen 2015: for Gelukszoekers and Idyllen ant the colums in NRC Next. 2015: VSB Poetry Prize for Idyllen 2015: Awater Poëzieprijs for Idyllen 2016: VSB Poetry Prize for Idyllen 2016: Proza prize from the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature for La Superba 2017: Toneelschrijfprijs for De advocaat 2024: De Boon for Fiction and non-fiction for Alkibiades

Works

Poetry Van de vierkante man, 1998 Het glimpen van de welkwiek, 2001 Dolores. Elegieën, 2002 In de naam van de hond. De grote gedichten, 2005 De man van vele manieren. Verzamelde gedichten 1998–2008 (collected poems) Idyllen, 2015 Giro Giro Tondo, een obsessie, 2015

Prose De antieken. Een literatuurgeschiedenis (literary history), 2000 Rupert. Een bekentenis (novel), 2002 Het geheim van het vermoorde geneuzel (essays), 2003 Het grote baggerboek (novel), 2004 Het ware leven. Een roman (novel), 2006 De eeuw van mijn dochter (theatre), 2007 Second Life. Verhalen en reportages uit een tweede leven (essay), 2007 Malpensa (theatre), 2008 De filosofie van de heuvel. Op de fiets naar Rome (travel literature, with Gelya Bogyatishcheva), 2009 Harde feiten. Honderd romans (short fiction), 2010 De Griekse mythen (mythological compendium), 2010 La Superba (novel), 2013 Brieven uit Genua (letters), 2016 Grand Hotel Europa (novel), 2018 Monterosso mon amour (novella), 2022 Alkibiades (novel), 2023 Absolute Democratie (essays), 2026

English translations Rupert: A Confession, 2009 (translated by Michele Hutchison, Rochester, Open Letter, 2009) La Superba, (translated by Michele Hutchison, Dallas, TX, Deep Vellum Publishing, 2016) Grand Hotel Europa, (translated by Michele Hutchison, New York, Picador, 2022)