Puzzling Poetry (This addictive game helps players to understand poetry by solving puzzles)

For the poet and the reader, a poem is a kind of word puzzle. In the ‘Puzzling Poetry’ game, verses by a range of Dutch and Flemish poets make up the playing field. Players have to find the locations of words, the connections between them, and their rhythm. As they do, in a way, they rewrite the poems!

Studio Louter developed the app with the Dutch poet Lucas Hirsch in response to an open call for literary games issued by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the Creative Industries Fund NL and Gamefonds. “Playing with words unexpectedly leads to a new, focused way of reading,” the selection committee said.

Suzanne Meeuwissen, senior policy officer at the Foundation for Literature, stated that the collaboration between games and literature is ‘relevant and exciting,’ especially given the technological developments. “The literature takes place outside of the book through technology, and focuses on a new and younger (reading) audience. It also enriches the process for game developers, as the literary scenarios and storylines add a new and often times surprising layer to a game.”

‘Puzzling Poetry’ is a game in which the player is presented with deconstructed poems by Lucas Hirsch and other poets, with as end-goal the recreation of these poems. Next to the meaning of the words, the challenge is to pick up on rhythm and graphical relativity. “Playing with words leads to an unexpected, concentrated way of reading,” according to the selection committee.

In October of 2016, Puzzling Poetry got presented at Buchmesse in Frankfurt. Versions are now available in several languages, and Studio Louter has developed a special edition for children, ‘Puzzling Poetry Treasure Chest’. Download ‘Puzzling Poetry’ here: iOS 

Credits!

Content Design
Studio Louter & Lucas Hirsch

Interactive Media Production
Studio Louter

With the support of
Nederlands Letterenfonds, Stimuleringsfonds voor de Creatieve Industrie, Gamefonds, Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, De Arbeiderspers, De Bezige Bij, Polis

Poems
Lucas Hirsch
Miriam Van hee
Ruth Lasters
Remco Campert

About ‘BACKLIT’ by Liz Robbins (and how this 2025 RATTLE Chapbook Prize Winner bruised a poetry hang-up of mine)

Rattle organizes the largest and most prestigious annual chapbook poetry prize there is. Period. By quite a margin, too. Submitting a manuscript comes with a yearlong subscription to the printed zine, 4 issues in total, and included with every issue is one of those winning chapbooks. 10000+ people get a copy this way. … Yeah. Madness. I’ve entered my manuscript this and last year (duh!) and as a result read through a couple of those winners. Out of genuine interest, sure, but just as much on the lookout for what made these volumes stand out to the judges to be honest? How these poets sold themselves, and their work… So, when I read that this specific poet, Liz Robbins, interviewed several sex-workers and had based the entire volume on their stories, I felt… cheated? This wasn’t fair… You can’t do that. Not unless you’ve had to… stay afloat that way yourself. Bet SHE hadn’t. You write about what YOU know. There’s unwritten rules and all? Couldn’t possibly really feel… personal, this. I started reading the first poem and must admit I gloated. Tricks. All tricks. Too… explanatory, while not really piercing skin. Got pleasantly high on being right, then wanted to perpetuate said high so I kept on reading:

Okay. … Damn. That one did hit home. Hard. How’s there no choice at all. Not really? Family, however dysfunctional, or even destructive, is everything. And we CAN trust our family to be the first to screw us up! Surely, though, they couldn’t continue to all be this good, could they? Spoiler: they don’t. Not ALL of them, but, a bit like within a family, there’s usually a dim one, or the opposite brainiac, an over-bearing presence or one that doesn’t care enough, and when you’re particularly unlucky someone that loves any excuse to ‘toughen you up’? Usually this occurs under the guise of love, but sometimes not even that:

I believe these 2 poems alone justify the entire chapbook, and it winning said poetry prize. It’s hyper personal, and yet equally as… detached. And maybe, just in this case, the poet not going through what she writes about herself actually helped with getting to this level, I mean, the things we do for love and to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror, eh? It’s dirty work, for sure, but work that needs doing none the less. Better learn to survive! Better learn to hide those weak-spots as good as you can. As you must. For allowing yourself to come across as vulnerable is dangerous, as so many of these girls (and boys) know all too well. Hence the sarcasm. All they can do is hope that they can keep accessing those hidden parts of themselves when they’re alone. To be able to remind themselves these feelings exist at all…

I’m still of the opinion that the best poetry comes from personal experience, and like I said, there are quite a few poems in there that do miss the mark, for me at least. Those written in 3rd person, for example, miss the heart wrenching detachment I was talking about earlier, making the exceptions to this formerly unshakable rule of mine even more incredible. And me fucking jealous. Couldn’t write them like that myself if I dared to... And I don’t. For more about the other two winners of the 2025 Rattle chapbook competition, follow this link? Cheers.

Artists take risks for all of us. ARC (Artists at Risk Connection) supports at-risk artists and defends artistic freedom!

Their Mission

ARC works to protect artists and cultural workers at risk due to their creative expression, often tied to their identities or roles within their communities. By providing vital resources and support, ARC helps them navigate challenges such as persecution, censorship, harassment, threats, and violence from both state and non-state actors—whether targeted for their art or their broader impact on cultural, social, and political issues.

Founded in 2017, ARC was incubated under PEN America, the U.S. chapter of PEN International. ARC is now an independent organization, officially registered in France as an association under French law (Loi 1901) since October 2024, and as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the US since early 2025.

Who they support

Artists

ARC’s definition of “artist” is inclusive, encompassing those who work across any creative field or medium, including visual artists, musicians, cartoonists, filmmakers, performance artists, dancers, writers, and more.

Cultural workers

“Cultural workers” include those who work within the cultural or creative sectors, contributing to the production, management, or promotion of culture and the arts.

Safety guide for artists

(The Safety Guide for Artists explores topics such as defining and understanding risk, preparing for threats, fortifying digital safety, documenting persecution, finding assistance, and recovering from trauma.)

Creative expression is a universal right that artists use to entertain, relate, speak out, expose, and encourage dialogue. But when others, especially those with political, economic, or social power, feel challenged or threatened by this, they may try to harm or silence artists. ARC strives to protect and empower these at-risk artists to work securely.

Stand with Artists Under Threat!

Around the world, artists are censored, harassed, imprisoned, and attacked simply for expressing ideas or for who they are. When artists are silenced, we all lose voices essential to a freer, more just society.

Your contributions ensure artists at risk are not left to face these threats alone. It enables ARC to deliver timely, life-saving support and to strengthen the resources, networks, and infrastructure that help artists stay safe and continue their creative work. All donations provide unrestricted support for ARC’s mission and core operations.

Please donate right here! Thank you.

How I managed to blame Jim Morrison’s poetry for having to grow up

Last week I finally began to write this feature about the poetry of Jim Morrison. Mostly because I’m a magazine’s parent now and that zine needs to be spoon fed content on a regular basis to stay alive, and hopefully even thrive. Priorities, he? + I’ve always been a gigantic fan, so, loving feeder that I also am, I went online and found a (as rebelliously illegal) link to his Lost Writings part 1. Which got me all riled up, and to be honest, quite sentimental too?

Some background

In 1995 I broke up with my first girlfriend in the worst possible way. She did not see it coming, and it broke her heart. I broke her heart, not being able to explain to myself (let alone to her) why, and instead of trying to then figure that out + maybe start working through some of the shit that I’ve been carrying with me my whole life, I, like so, so many other disturbed 20-something-or-others turned to rigorous self-medicating… And poetry. Made completely new friends, who shared my lust for (often drug-fueled) self-expression and we started to submerge ourselves in any and all music, poetry and art we deemed worthy of our truly amazing powers of observation…, like binging ‘The Wall’ for weeks on end. On one of these evenings (must have been 1996) Gino introduced me to The Doors. Blew my fucking mind right then and there. We started making freak tapes, incorporating ‘An American Prayer’ into those wherever we could and must have watched the movie  more times than we did Apocalypse Now (which is saying a lot). What really got to me, though, was Jim’s poetry. The sheer… freedom of it was intoxicating, making it just as irresistible as the weed and hasjies had become. And soon after that about as necessary as well, helping me shape (and therefor look at) myself in ways I could live with...

From an interview in a 1998 issue of Barflyer magazine about our (Gino, Sander and I) very first poetry exhibition: ‘There are plans to record a cd in the style of Jim Morrison’s “An American Prayer” … Benne (who bears a resemblance to the Doors singer)…’

Skip to 25+ years later

Needless to say, it played a rather huge role during those re-formative years, and when I started putting together what I wanted to become a true tribute, a full on 12 course feast of recognition and praise I… couldn’t? I read through it wanting nothing more, unable to believe what I had just read, or rather, hadn’t, so read through it again. Scouring for the signs of brilliance that had once captivated me to no end… Still nothing. And again…  What the fuck? First all warm fuzzy from thinking about a misty but friend filled past, and now this. At which point I became real life like emotional because

I find most of it sucks balls now?

I’m not talking about the music, or the lyrics in combination with that incredible music. As a front man and performer, he was in a league of his own, true enough. Brilliant. Genius. Haunting. Haunted. Me and millions like me wanted to BE him, kidding ourselves that we could fake a fraction of the presence Jim commanded on stage. So, I tried yet AGAIN, and my hardest to like this one for example…:

… I mean, sorry, but what the fuck even IS that? And so cocky, so bloody sure of himself… Jim’s intuitive, free form associational way of writing rubs me COMPLETELY the wrong way now… Somehow. Getting riled up again…! Here’s another doozy:

Why does this infuriate me so goddamn much! Lazy! Throw your first thought on paper and call it poetry why don’t you! Or wait, this fucking one:

… Sod this.

After having to put it aside for a few days to cool off

I had a good talk with my wife yesterday. About this piece. During which I gave her every reason as to why I’m so affected by all of this? I’d come prepared this time. Newly discovered and therefor profusely bleeding generational gap, Herman van Veen albums featuring lyrics by Rob Chrispijn because craftmanship is key and me growing into that philosophy myself over the decades, and quite a few dismissals of poems of his an sich, using any and all tools I had learned studying Writing For Performance. I made my case. It was a very solid case. Showing her different articles and discussions about this very topic, why they matter and where I stand in relation to those expertly put together pieces and opinions. She listened, smiled, totally agreed (!) and then added a few thoughts to the mix herself… Conclusion: I am angry mainly because I eventually DID have to grow up? It’s resentment, is all. Pure and simple. Thanks, my love. So, there you go!

Fucker.

Going Dutchtube!, nr. 2 (Vrouwkje Tuinman reads her poem ‘Iemand die ik liever mis’/‘Someone I would rather go without’ in Dutch & English)

I’ve been scouring the internet for Dutch poetry, translated into English, to maybe showcase here for a couple of months now, and have been loving every second of it. That includes YouTube, obviously, and boys oh boys, there are some beauties out there! Plus, not unimportant, linking and then highlighting such a video here on Double Dutch magazine is A LOT easier copyright wise? So much so that we at Double Dutch magazine decided to start a whole new segment: Going Dutchtube!, for which we’ll pick one of those videos at a time and give ‘em some much deserved extra fondling. Doing this also enables us to include poets and translators we admire but who are notoriously hard to get in touch with, for example, or, again, whose poetry is a real pain in the butt to get the rights to. Win-win, eh? We sure think so. This time we’ll be linking to a reading by leading Dutch poet Vrouwkje Tuinman, after a Loose Muse show at The Farrago Poetry Cafe on Wednesday, 9th May 2012 in London. Technically a bit shaky but an excellent poem! Filmed and edited by John Paul O'Neill.

Why I’ll never come face to face with lyricist/poet/writer Rob Chrispijn!

Answer: never meet your heroes. Period. It really IS that simple. And my greatest hero this man most certainly is. Having been stoned for 15+ years, and zoning out to his brilliant lyrics being sung by Herman van Veen on most evenings during that smoke filled period in my life will do that for you. I know the albums on which they collaborated by heart. Making this a ‘feature’ article containing very few words, + me about his biggest fan ever from a respectable distance. Have been for decades now, which suits me just fine? The few times I’ve asked him if he wanted to publish a poem in a magazine I edited in the past, he’s always been nothing but friendly and willing. Even writing me a personal letter in 2002, which I still cherish. Some people I idolize, and some I just blatantly dismiss. Sue me. Idolizing this specific lyricist just makes the world a bit more beautiful? Obviously I have and (spoiler!) will use every opportunity to mention him/showcase his work here on Double Dutch, adding a few extra English language links mentioning mr. Chrispijn to the interwebs every time while doing so. Oh, and this is what made me want to write this tiny piece now:

a few days ago a friend/lover from waaaay back when sent me this pic (thank you!) from the Wintertuin festival edition 2025’s brochure. She had invited Mr. Chrispijn to my official poetry debut party in 2005, held at the the same venue. I’d forgotten that! Further reminding me about:

me reading Mr. Chrispijn’s ‘Te hooi en te gras’ at the 2006 Wintertuin festival. Full circle indeed because here’s another Spoiler for our issue nr. 2 

Cheers :)

ZOEGLOSSIA - a Community for POETS with Disabilities

About Zoeglossia

Zoeglossia is a literary organization seeking to pioneer a new, inclusive space for poets with disabilities. Much like its forbearers Canto Mundo, Kundiman, Cave Canem, and Lambda Literary, Zoeglossia strives to create an open and supportive community that welcomes and fosters creativity. Through the creation of an annual retreat, poets from all backgrounds will have the opportunity to learn and develop from prominent, established writers, who also have disabilities. These retreats, which individuals will attend over a period of three years, will promote professional development among this shared creative community.

Their vision for the retreat centers around emerging writers coming to campus for three days of intensive work. The three-day retreat will admit approximately eight poets, who will be mentored by two prominent poets with disabilities. A third writer will be responsible for delivering a keynote lecture and panel participation. All attendees—teachers and students—will present their literary writing at a series of readings open to the public. Teachers and returning poets will provide panel discussions on professional and literary issues, as well as one-on-one conferences with the emerging writers. Much like Canto Mundo, writers, once admitted will be encouraged to attend three times over the following year to earn the prestigious title of "Fellow."

Their POEM OF THE WEEK section

Throughout the year, Zoeglossia invites a poet to curate the Poem of the Week. If you would like to guest curate, have questions, or want more information about POTW, please email poemoftheweek@zoeglossia.org.

Their Board Members

Michael Davidson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. He has written extensively on poetry and poetics (The San Francisco Renaissance, Ghostlier Demarcations, Guys Like Us, On the Outskirts of Form) and more recently on disability issues: Concerto for the Left Hand (University of Michigan), Invalid Modernism (Oxford University Press), and Distressing Language: Disability and the Poetics of Error (New York University Press, 2022).  He is the editor of The Collected Poems of George Oppen and has published eight books of poetry, the most recent, Bleed Through: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House). 

Deaf, genderqueer poet Meg Day is the author of Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street, 2014), winner of the Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award. A recipient of the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship and an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, Day’s recent work can be found in Best American Poetry 2020 & The New York Times. Day teaches in the MFA Program at North Carolina State University. www.megday.com

Orchid Tierney is a poet and scholar from Aotearoa New Zealand, who now lives in Gambier, Ohio. She is the author of the collection a year of misreading the wildcats (The Operating System, 2019) and six chapbooks, including my beatrice (above/ground press, 2020) and ocean plastic (BlazeVOX Books, 2019). Her scholarship, reviews, and poetry have appeared in Jacket2, Venti, Fractured Ecologies, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Y22 Individual Artist Excellence Award. She is an assistant professor of English at Kenyon College and a senior editor at the Kenyon Review. orchidtierney.com

Donate?

Zoeglossia is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization seeking to help writers with disabilities explore and nurture their creative spirits through poetry. As a non-profit, all of our funding comes by means of grants and donations.

They are grateful for their most recent funders: Poetry Foundation ($15,000), Ford Foundation ($25,000), Amazon Literary Partners/Academy of American Poets ($5,000) and Mellon Foundation ($25,000).

If you would like to express your commitment to strengthening the voices of poets with disabilities, please consider donating via the donation button below.

About a Black Bough Open Mic session (and how that got me admiring the poet Paul Short)

On the 12th of November I finally did it. I worked up the nerve and participated in my first online open mic in the English language. Ever. Black Bough Open Mic it was called, hosted in the most friendly and professional manner possible by Matthew Smith from blackboughpoetry.com, a publisher based in Wales.

Rewriting my Dutch poetry in English is one thing, but actually reading the results of those labors out loud is quite another. For those of you who follow me and my creative endeavors more closely (thanks as always and yet again!) that might come as a surprise? But it isn’t. Not really. I Might have a history in slam poetry and hundreds of performances to my name yadah yadah etc, I never got around to sing my English songs in front of an actual audience. And around the time I could have started doing so, when the worst of that fucking pandemic had come and gone, I had found myself yet another new thing/medium/obsession to hyper focus on? Still sorry about that, Martijn (music/production/alotofpatience)! … Enfin.

 I heard some great poetry that night! Met some talented people. Felt welcome and got pleasant feedback on my work. Greatly appreciated! I can recommend joining one of their sessions. I sure intend to do so again, if I can find the time. You know what, I’ll keep you all informed about the next one, I promise.

At each of those open mic sessions the organizer/host shines a light on one poet, featuring said poet by letting them read a few more poems than the rest of the participants and highlighting his/her/their/its creative career by drawing attention to websites/bio’s etc. This evening that poet was Mr. Paul Short. And to be honest, he blew me the fuck away? So much so I reached out to him the next day, asking if he would mind if I wrote my own ‘feature’ about him. Guess what his answer was :)  I’m happy I decided to ask him because scouring his website these last few days to be able to do so (and him justice) I learned some stuff that warmed me up to him even more. Did you know, for example, that Paul is a classically trained chef (got myself a cooking diploma as well…) or that he’s a working-class poet? (Mate!)

So, there’s my real reason for this little piece (surprise!), and here goes:

The turkey’s too large,
another midnight axe job;
tin foil hysterics.

Or:

well-folded laundry
stacked high on the armchair 
– reminders you’re gone.

To start with, Paul’s written a lot of haiku’s. These 2 I consider to be his best. And yes, that’s because there’s some… friction to be found. This poet excels, at least in my not so humble opinion, in writing what is essentially positive imagery, I mean I really had to delve deeper to get to the kinds of subjects/feels we at Double Dutch magazine are generally more interested in? Which says less about him, true enough, and so, so much more about us. … Me. But hey, that’s the route we went, are sticking with, and you’ll be happy to know that to our satisfaction delving a bit deeper did NOT disappoint. His more vulnerable/rough-around-the-edges kind of poems hit all the harder for it. Here’s a good example:

Crimson Treacle

she wears a noose of silver
around her throat
St. Christopher lays flat
feigning protection

the blood on her chin
cloys like syrup
but her tongue
tastes like rust and copper

she exhales pleasure
sensually chewing
torn tendons and soft flesh
against carefully crafted teeth

arrogantly
she smirks
allowing more treacle to comfort her chin
gargling on voracious words
‘if he had a silver noose around his neck
he may have survived remained intact, but doubtful’

muscle memory
precise and purposeful
dismembers her lust
as she dismembers and disembowels

she showers
in his carotid crimson treacle
relishing the flavour and feel
as she splits sinew and bone
feeling righteous purity

the crescendo of violence
always anticlimactic
plastic wrapped bundles of body and tissue
a food parcel to sate her appetite
a bitter sense of home economics

Read the rest on his website!

It’s his first attempt at a horror poem and does not disappoint. ‘A bitter sense of home economics’ indeed. Or this one: 

Question The Campaign

Meeting Minutes for Monday 1 March between CEO & Head of Campaigns

“What’s our campaign this week?”

“Maybe – tackling food poverty?”

“That’ll raise the charity’s profile and brand, yeah?”

“We’ll use some vloggers to tell people how to eat and budget properly and create some hashtags, perhaps?”

“How about telling people to use Food banks?” 

“Do you want to spend big on this campaign?”

“No, No – I’ll just get the PR team to send some free stuff to the vloggers and buy their weeks shopping how much do you reckon that’ll cost?”

“We’ll tell the vloggers they’re ambassadors for this campaign, they’ll love that and a week’s shopping and some of that promotional fairtrade stuff lying in the warehouse, total outlay under £1000?” 

“Sounds great, can you make sure we get the social media team and the vloggers to add the JustGiving links?”

“To the food banks?”

“No to our charity, we can get Legal involved to get a disclaimer put in so we can say a percentage of donations will go to the Food bank can’t we?”

“Of course, just wanted to make sure, should I give you the metrics in a couple of weeks?”

“That’s great, so is that it?”

Read the rest on his website!

Being one of Paul’s more experimental poems, it sure ticks all MY boxes. My absolute personal favorite, however, I’ll copy paste in its entirety because it’s… allowing me in, to a point where it feels like I mustn’t make a sound, and again, hidden on a website filled with so much Christmas spirit that’s a rare find. Making me feel like I earned that, somehow. Propelling the whole experience described into just darn brilliant: 

The Armchair

Cenotaph of my loathe-quarry
lurks in the corner
ominous obelisk of misery-grey fabric
stained by stagnant-self
              arms grubbier than a plagiarist in an inkwell.

It haunts my body
memory-foam cushions twisted
around my depression
               like an alligator in death-roll.

                        If perching, it’s only for seconds
dread at comfort swallowing me whole
or falling over the feet clumsily
                                 delivering self-recrimination
that plunges me into that dark brutal chasm
                                                           - again.

The armchair is a sound-hollow
negative echoes only
so I stay silent near its plinth
                     ⁃ yet sometimes the pride in victory
my eyes hold
is loud enough to drown
                             past despair.

… Thank you, Paul. Really. Want to read more of his poetry? You can do so right here!

Paul’s certainly no stranger to getting published, like in Stymie Online Journal for example, or The Dark Poets Club, The daily Drunk, Flight Of The Dragonfly, on podcasts such as Eat The Storms and in 2021 he came third in the Black Bough Poetry’s #BBMicro2 contest. He also read his work on BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Tees, and here’s an interview with him by writer Allan Parry. Read his enthusiastic piece about a Black Bough Open Mic session from a couple of months ago under this link. Oh! And! Answer his call to submit poetry for an anthology he’s putting together? + He’s got an active presence on X, Instagram and Facebook. … So much to like…

 I saved the biggest reason that turned me from a new fan of his more… frictionous  work (at least) into a straight up admirer for last, though. I mean, a lot of us not yet famous enough poets put in the needed leg work to get noticed, to get published, and many of us become experts in getting rejected. A lot. I know I did? But that’s okay. Hurts, sure, but is part of the hustle. The grind. There are so, so many people out there shooting for the same cluster of stars… Nothing high fucking brow about that. There are a lot fewer of us who will admit to this, sure, but that’s okay too. After our first year as a free to submit to mag, we fully intend to start asking a nominal reading fee, for example. See if we can recuperate some of the costs, complement our income a bit this way, or by organizing a paid writing contest, maybe even starting our own paid open mic…? All that is totally valid. Makes sense, even. … Where was I. … Oh yeah. What I’m trying to say is that when I come across a fellow poet who’s trying to get his writing out there, applying said elbow grease, filling his website with all he has to offer, which is a lot, BUT, in addition to this then turns out to ALSO spend a lot of time highlighting other poets and their work for no discernible reason other than being a true fan of poetry in general…, that’s just fucking special. And for me more than justifies this little piece about him! Cheers.

Support persecuted and harassed writers: support the PEN Emergency Fund!

AIMS

PEN International

PEN (an abbreviation of Poets, Essayists, Novelists/Playwrights, Editors and Non- Fiction Writers) is a worldwide organization of and for writers, who feel strongly about freedom of expression and the free exchange of literature. More than 140 PEN centers exist in well over 100 countries. The main office is located in London.

PEN Emergency Fund

Based in the Netherlands, the now globally operating PEN Emergency Fund was founded by the writer A. den Doolaaard in 1971. It supports seriously persecuted writers and journalists, sometimes living in exile, with a once-only allowance that helps them (and in special cases, their families) to make ends meet when, for instance, they need to flee the country immediately or require urgent medical attention following abuse. Every year dozens of writers throughout the world are provided with aid. The fund operates in close collaboration with experienced investigators at PEN International. Its day-to-day board consists of two volunteers who, in very urgent cases, are able to transfer money even as early as the day on which the request has been made and approved. There are no costly salaries, no costly buildings and the fund’s overhead costs are low: which means that all of the money donated by you will end up going directly to these seriously threatened champions of free speech.

In 2024 the fund was able to help 82 authors in distress.

PEN Emergency cooperates with: PEN International http://www.pen-international.org/ and PEN Netherlands http://pennederland.nl/

PEN Emergency Fund is among others supported by Stichting Lira Fonds http://www.lira.nl/

More about PEN

Donate right here!

Going Dutchtube!, nr. 1 (David Colmer reads the poem 'The Disappointing Fairy' by Annie M.G. Schmidt)

I’ve been scouring the internet for Dutch poetry, translated into English, to maybe showcase here for a couple of months now, and have been loving every second of it. That includes YouTube, obviously, and boys oh boys, there are some beauties out there! Plus, not unimportant, linking and then highlighting such a video here on Double Dutch magazine is A LOT easier copyright wise? So much so that we at Double Dutch magazine decided to start a whole new segment: Going Dutchtube!, for which we’ll pick one of those videos at a time and give ‘em some much deserved extra fondling. Doing this also enables us to include poets and translators we admire but who are notoriously hard to get in touch with, for example, or, again, whose poetry is a real pain in the butt to get the rights to. Win-win, eh? We sure think so. Starting said segment off, therefore, is the esteemed writer and translator David Colmer, who’s reading his magnificent translation of De mislukte fee by the Dutch writer, poet and full on icon Annie M.G. Schmidt on the excellent channel Translators Aloud. Enjoy!

The Rattle Chapbook Prize (edition 2026)

I’ve entered mine! Like I did last year. Why, do you ask? It is the most prestigious one out there I could find. With an unmatched possible exposure. It’s like buying a lottery ticket, with virtually no chance in hells to win the jackpot, DUH, but sending your work in anyways at least allows you to dream on :) In their own words:

Rattle Chapbook Prize

We’ve always loved chapbooks for their brevity and intensity. At a few dozen pages, a great chapbook is the perfect reading experience for the 21st century—not too long, not too short: They’re the Goldilocks zone of the poetry world. So we wanted to do for chapbooks what we’ve done for poems with the Rattle Poetry Prize—provide a fair, fun, and friendly way to make the most of what they offer. The idea for this project came from our conversation with Jan Heller Levi, where she described how the Walt Whitman Award launched her career: “It was wonderful, but it was also a bad introduction to the world of poetry publishing. [Fox laughs] As if every publisher is going to send out 5,000 copies and your book will be everywhere.” Every publisher can’t do that—but Rattle can.

While most chapbook contests offer maybe $500 and 25 copies of your chapbook, we’re going to give a few poets something special. Every year, three winners will receive:

$5,000.

500 copies.

Distribution to Rattle’s 8,000+ subscribers.

In a world where a bestselling full-length poetry book means 1,000 copies sold, the winners will reach an audience more than seven times as large on the first day alone—an audience that includes hundreds of other literary magazines, presses, and well-known poets. This will be a chapbook to launch a career.

And maybe the best part is this: Every Rattle subscriber will receive a copy of each winning chapbook. Beginning in 2018, each quarterly issue of Rattle includes a bonus chapbook delivered to every subscriber, most of which being selected through this annual competition. Visit the Rattle Chapbook Series page for a full list of selections.

DEADLINE:
January 15th (11:59 p.m. EST)

Information

Code of Ethics

Winners

2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016

So. Yeah. Sure sounds jackpotty to me! Wanna have a go yourself? Let’s dream together. Here are the Guidelines.

Beauty is truth but ugliness means well (some personal thoughts about Donald Gardner’s poetry)

Just to get this out of the way: this is not a review of Mr. Gardner’s work in the broader sense. My English simply isn’t good enough to confidently convey what I think about his poetics, and my understanding of his place in the international literary landscape is woefully inadequate to do him, or it, any justice. But I strongly feel I want to do SOMETHING after reading through the volume he sent me after a very friendly back and forth during us (Onno and mine) putting together our very first issue of Double Dutch magazine, and, more specifically, Mr. Gardner’s shared little corner in it. His ‘New and Selected Poems’ struck more than one chord with me, and I really want to tell you which. 

Truth be told, though, before we decided on asking our current Dutch national poet laureate Babs Gons for a contribution I didn’t know about Mr. Gardner, or his work, at all? Only that he was the one who had translated her verse into the English language. I guess that’s one of the perks of starting a literary and art magazine, eh? Feeling richer for it already! Even if it did cost me 50 bucks. Making him the only paid contributor to our magazine so far. Money very well spent, mind you, because it warmed me up to him a bit. Fortune favors the bold, no? He asked, and I was willing to. It’s that simple. He further wrote to me how he preferred to change to informal communications between us a.s.a.p., which is highly appreciated, but by searching for more relevant information about him and slowly learning about why he’s become the cultural icon that he is, I found that addressing him in any other but a polite way since then became anything if not harder? Sorry sir! But maybe I am just old fashioned that way. Me, I don’t see anything wrong with being polite. It’s a way to show respect, nothing more. And respect his work, that I have come to do during these last few days. Here’s a first example of why:

Originally published in the volume ‘Peace Feelers’ (1969)

Apart from containing THE most beautiful sentence in all of his ‘New and Selected Poems’ (for a hint see the title of my first ever piece of this kind in English), there is a… vulnerability and confiding honesty on show here that makes the reader feel like a good acquaintance being told about this unfortunate episode the day after. Over a cup of mheh but scorching hot coffee. Out of a not so very clean mug. After reading it I almost felt lacking for not being there to help him get back on his feet and wanting to know how he managed to do so at all. This might not be a unique story telling technique, but it IS done perfectly. The same, seemingly shameless intimacy rings true in this one:

Originally  published in the volume ‘The Wolf Inside’ (2014) 

Having been published 45 years later than ‘Indirections’, ‘The unwelcome dinner foto’ proves two things (at least to me): not only does Mr. Gardner continue inviting us over, knowing full well that our (the average readers’) loyalty as someone who can be trusted with such one on ones tends to be a fickle one at best, especially when it’s called upon for decades, but also, and maybe even more impressive, that the bond suggested has now grown to a point where he doesn’t feel the need to make a lot of work of hiding the rather obvious reason he decided not to go to this reunion. A reunion he, I think, very much did WANT to go to initially. It’s just… They just HAD to put that part about the deadline and having to pay otherwise in there, didn’t they? Rubbed him the wrong way. Fuckers. And in the end he showed ‘em by not going. Which is regrettable, maybe, in hindsight, and could have been handled more… maturely, yeah…, sure! But fuck THAT, eh? … Friend?

Yes, …, sir, and thank you? Thank you very much for this little masterclass. The next one I want to mention is a poem I intend to include in our issue nr. 1, seeing as it classifies beautifully as a verse that we love to showcase: heart punching and angry, but without… explicit anger as such, if that makes any sense? In this poem my by now imaginary friend of old has gotten older still and is tired. So, so tired. Too tired to raise his voice. I imagine him calling me on the phone, completely spent, talking quietly, just wanting to hear a friendly voice for a bit and telling me:

I want to get on the first plane, since half a continent has come between us over time, bring some of my wife’s special homemade, dark roast, slow filtered, Himalayan brew and… be there for the guy?

It doesn’t matter, not one bit, if these were the actual last words the poet’s mother spoke before she died, if the poet broke a hip or just bruised it, or maybe didn’t take a dive in the shower at all. That discussion is the most boring one in all of poetry. Furthermore, I’m fully aware, believe me, that I’m projecting all kinds of intentions on mr. Gard-, Donald’s verses. It’s obvious I chose a couple that spoke specifically to my taste and preferences when it comes to style and technique. But that’s just it about being able to read such a well put together overview of one’s entire career, isn’t it? I feel allowed to. Encouraged. I feel I’ve earned it. And that’s brilliant. My specific friend from between these two covers might not be perfect, I mean he never asks about ME, ever, can be petty, obsessive, and has a tendency to contemplate himself into some severe depressions if he’s not careful, but at the same time he’s inherently good hearted, and, which is truly the most important and in every day (some claim real) life seems to get increasingly rare these days: I believe. He. Means. Well.

I’d like to end what’s becoming a wholehearted praise of his work with one of… Donald’s uncollected, early poems. I haven’t mentioned him moving to the Netherlands in 1979, and decided not to include poetry that touches on his time in this tiny country of ours, while, believe me, there are a lot of beautiful examples of those to choose from. These, however, are not what define the poet in this case, or his work. For me, that is. What DOES however, and again, highly personal in no small part, is our kinda shared… route, you might say, through Poetry? Be it on levels that couldn’t further apart in international scale and cultural importance, true, thanks a lot, but still! I pretty much started out slamming my poetry, with some Nation wide success (having studied ‘Writing for Performance’ for two years and rightfully getting kicked out of said university way too soon for being stupidly stubborn), before signing my first publishing deal in 2005. Donald too started out speaking his mind on stage, in the 60s that is, and happened to do so with contemporaries the genius likes of which included other Icons like Ginsburg and Gregory Corso. … Helps me relate even more, is all? I can picture us now, Donald, you as loud as the youthful are still very much supposed to get fortunately, up there on stage, in those 60s, roaring fire of the truly righteous in your eyes, getting into that… quintessential beat rhythm and proclaiming your fucking heart out while Allen and I, the guy you met that very night, are standing in a corner, smoking a joint and nodding, ours closed, to every emphasized syllable:

Introducing Double Dutch magazine

Hi there! Welcome to Double Dutch magazine. Thank you for visiting us, and taking the time to read this first ‘Feature’ article. We thought we’d take this opportunity to delve a bit deeper into the reasons why we started Double Dutch magazine, what we intend to add to an already crowded magazine landscape and our plans with it moving forward. The first of those reasons is simple enough…:

Keeping friendships alive

We (Onno and Benne) have known each other for about 3 decades now. In 1998 we started the artist movement ‘Het Ongeboren Idee’, together with fellow prolific creatives Gino Morelli, Sander Groen, Martijn van Dijk and  Jasper Arts, resulting in several cd’s, cultural lo-fi festivals, exhibitions, a theater show, a full blown movie, monthly poetry evenings in our hometown of Vlaardingen (Poezie in De Steeg) + a talent show for bands.

The entire Idee in 2012 with from left to right: Onno, Martijn, Benne, Gino, Jasper and Sander

‘Het Ongeboren Idee’

Our debut cd as a group from 1998, with poetry, soundscapes and music, produced by Marco de Brabander

‘Il Mostro’

An art installation by Onno and Gino at the ‘Vlaardingen container festival’ in 2006

“Please don’t read the poetry out loud”

‘A poetry exhibition by art collective Het ongeboren Idee in the center for silence (corner Veerplein/Waalstraat) during the 2007 National Poetry day in Vlaardingen’

We actually were a pretty active group for years on end, but as maturing tends to bring inevitable changes with it like some of us becoming fathers, others moving away or getting married etc, etc, a.k.a. the usual, the once very tight creative ties slowly loosened. And then loosened some more. Priorities, eh? Which is normal, I guess, but regrettable none the less… So, yeah, fuck THAT! While we might not be able to get together way as much anymore, and the last project as a complete groep was many, many years ago, the members did not stop creating individually and there have been a few solid collabs between us since then. For example, Onno and me partnered up between 2010 and 2015 by publishing a poem with accompanying art and vice versa every month for Barflyer Magazine, culminating in the volume ‘Met man en muizenis’ by publishing house Stanza in 2015, while Martijn (music/production/patience) and I (lyrics/vocals) worked on a 6 track EP together in 2020 and 2021. So yeah. And now? Now there’s Double Dutch magazine :)

‘Venus bij Maanlicht’

A still from our feature length film, shown at Het Zomerterras festival in 1999

‘CASHFLOW WINNER 1 st EDITION FARADAY’S CAGE’

‘… a competition for bands mostly from the Music scene in Vlaardingen. … organized and presented by Sander Groen, Benne van der Velde and Onno Maat from the artist movement Het Ongeboren Idee.’ 2000

Why a literary, music and art magazine?

 I’ve been a editor for 3 Dutch literary magazines in the past. Liked that a hell of a lot. Since a couple of years, not long after I started to re-write my own poetry in English, I began to send my work to English/American magazines and competitions myself. Doing so with the same intensity I tend to do everything with, and learning a lot from those experiences in the process. Enough even to come to a simple realisation: I can do that too! And so I am. And so WE are. I love poetry, Onno breaths visual art and we both know a thing or two about music first hand. Just makes sense. What helps a lot as well is that it’s all online, the editorial stuff and managing the site and what not. Great for a couple of busy gen X’ers like us!

Eliciting responses

Pssst…. These are very, very, VERY sensitive times… While some of the greatest art out there, in any form, is a shock to the system by fucking design. Covering the entire range of human emotions, from fear, jealousy, to hate, through pride into (self)loathing. Offending just for the sake of it, is just… boring, true enough, but people getting offended by sublime poetry or striking art just because of the choice of language, sensitive subject matter or the imagery (for example nudity) used should NEVER be a reason to stop providing places where you can read those kinds of art, or look at them. Or listen. So. If what we showcase offends you, good! It means our contents at least achieve what they’re supposed to: elicit a response. What kind of an emotion that might be, however, is NOT our responsibility, nor problem, and if you don’t like what you see, or hear, or read here, just… leave?

This is not the first time I’ve helped to created a safe space kinda like this. In 2007 I started a blog filled with of (in)famous and lesser known Dutch and Flemish anger/sarcastic/hate/pamphlet poetry with fellow poets Daniel Dee and Alexis de Roode, which ultimately resulted in the Anthology ‘Ik proef iets wat bedorven is.’ in 2016. Its promotion tour brought us to the Lowlands- and Woordnacht festivals, where we also mixed said poetry with music in the same vein. In short: this fight for true freedom of expression really means something to me, and I’m very glad I get to continue it in this new way!

Alexis de Roode, Daniel Dee and me with our anthology ‘Ik proef iets wat bedorven is’

“Anthology fits the current times beautifully”

An article about ‘Ik proef iets wat bedorven is’ in the national news paper Trouw from 2016 by Janita Monna

Going Dutch

Another pillar of this initiative is to showcase some of what the best Dutch poetry, lyrics and art have to offer. Great visual art shouldn’t need to get translated to be understood and felt, but storytelling through written language does. That’s why we aim to include some of the best/most beautiful Dutch lyrics, poetry and art along with their English translation (if required) in each issue. Highlighting the artists AND translators in question. Alongside stunning visual art by a range of Dutch and flemish creatives. Because we’re simply proud of our rich cultural heritage and new, contemporary examples of it. They deserve a global audience. And we can’t wait to show why. Period.

That’s it, I guess. Thank you so much, again, for visiting Double Dutch magazine! We hope you like what you see, hear and read, and if so, come back soon, submit, maybe even tip our jar and spread the word? We’d love to grow into a force to be reckoned with, and with your help we just might do exactly that. Cheers!