Maarten ‘t Hart has received the P.C. Hooft Prize at home. Due to the eighty-year-old writer’s health, this happened in private.
“This is a very special day. Today is also Maarten Biesheuvel’s birthday. He always said, ‘I already have it, but you don’t yet.’ Well Maarten, I have it now too!”, says ‘t Hart in a press release. Biesheuvel, who passed away in 2020, received the literature prize in 2007.
In December, it was announced that the P.C. Hooft Prize would go to ‘t Hart this year. His good friend Mensje van Keulen already revealed that the writer was dreading “all the fuss and attention” that come with winning the prize. ‘t Hart himself no longer gives interviews.
According to the jury of the P.C. Hooft Prize, the writer has “built up an extensive and qualitatively impressive oeuvre that is critical, poignant, loving, exciting, vulnerable and witty”.