Martine Letterie, The Netherlands

Martine Letterie was born in 1958 in Amsterdam, grew up in Voorburg and now lives in the Dutch village of Vorden. After studying Dutch language and literature at Utrecht, she worked for twelve years as a teacher and a lecturer for children’s literature. Since the publication of her first children’s book in 1996, she has devoted herself to writing for children, young adults and adults.

A central theme in Martine Letterie’s literary work is the Second World War, the persecution of Jews and the Holocaust, which she introduces to children in a gentle, but in no way sugar-coated manner. Several of Letterie’s children’s books were written in cooperation with the memorial site of Westerbork, a former transit camp for Jews in the Netherlands. Her novel “Kinderen met een ster” (Children with a star), which deals with the everyday lives of Jewish children and their families while in Westerbork, was awarded the highest prize for children’s literature in the Netherlands, the Golden Griffel, and was shortlisted in 2018 for the Thea-Beckman-Prize. In her newest book “Kinderen van ver” (Children from afar), the author singles out the fate of several children to talk about what they have experienced in modern-day warzones and during their subsequent flight.

To the “Kinderen met een ster” (Children with a star) and “Kinderen van ver” (Children from afar) from Martine Letterie

The events with Martine Letterie will be moderated by Christina Tüschen.