Michaël Slory

Michaël Arnoldus Slory (4 August 1935 in Totness, Surinam – 19 December 2018 in Paramaribo, Suriname) was a Surinamese poet. He mainly wrote poetry in Sranan Tongo, and is considered one of the most important poets in Sranan Tongo. His teacher encouraged him to write not only in Dutch, but also Sranan Tongo and Spanish. While in high school, he published his first three Dutch poems in the magazine Tongoni.

In 1958, Slory moved to Amsterdam to study a course in Spanish at a private school. After graduating, he enrolled in the University of Amsterdam where he joined Vereniging Ons Suriname. His poetry can be found in the yearbooks of the time. Ons Suriname was during that period, the centre for the Surinamese nationalist movement. Slory also gained access to the Dutch literary world, and befriended authors like Harry Mulisch and Hugo Claus. with the communist publisher Pegasus. His scholarship was revoked in 1966, Slory started with Fraga mi wortoe (1970), and 20 more publications followed. Slory started to become disenchanted with the events after the independence of Suriname.

In 1985, Slory was awarded the Suriname State Price for Literature for his love poem Fresko en Efu na Kodyo. In 1993, his poem Sarka was set to music by Gerda Geertens. Even though Slory was lauded by literary critics, he always remained well below the poverty line, Slory was grateful that he received a monthly allowance from De Ware Tijd for his many contributions to DWT-Literair after retiring.

On 19 December 2018, Slory died in Paramaribo,