Submission window for our first Biannual Poetry Prize is open!

Jul 14

Written By Benne van der Velde

The Double Dutch Biannual Poetry Prize!

First winners in 2026, autumn edition. Next ones lauded in the spring of 2027, etc, etc.

Rules:

1 poem per person. No length requirements. No theme preference. Read our mag though, you’ll get a feel for what we tend to gravitate towards? We’re not kidding you. It helps.

Submission fee 10 euro’s. No refunds. One version, so better make it your final. Submit through Duosuma/Duotrope or the contactpage on our site (after donating 10 euro’s through here) and thank you ever so kindly!

Submission windows: for the autumn editions the 31st of august and for the spring editions march the 31st.

Prizes:

Eternal fame, for the winner of each edition a rigorous ego fondling through a dedicated feature article about their poetry + each edition’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will get their own page. We’ll select as many nominees as we deem deserving and these fine folk will get a shout out as well.

Our head judge (Autumn 2026 ed.)!

**Lucy Olsman** (she/her) is a 24 year old Dutch graduate of MA Creative Writing at UCC in Ireland, and the MA English Literature at RUG in the Netherlands. Her work has appeared in Motley Magazine, Double Dutch, Still Here, the Reprise, House of Arcanum, and, forthcoming, Abyss Literary Magazine. She is currently based in Groningen, the Netherlands, and is finishing up her novel *Little Princess*.

We can’t wait to get going with this exciting initiative! So, send us your best? Cheers.

Editorial note: we might be a magazine that likes to kid around and look like we do not take ourselves too seriously? Well, that’s because we don’t! We do however very much cherish the poetry/art published here and treat the hard work that has gone into it with the respect it deserves. You will find us putting the same care and love into organizing these contests. Pinky promise!

Back

Benne van der Velde

After thoroughly enjoying the Dutch slam poetry scene in the early and mid 2000s (with wins in 7 cities and eventually a place in the Nationals of 2012) and performances at the Lowlands-, Uitmarkt- and Parade festivals a/o, Benne successfully made the transition from the stage to paper by signing his first publishing deal in 2005. Since then 4 publishing houses (kleine Uil, Douane, Nadorst and Stanza) released volumes of his poetry. For a 5th (Passage) he co-edited an anthology of satirical/pamphlet poetry with fellow poets Daniel Dee and Alexis de Roode.

As a member of the artist movement ‘Het Ongeboren Idee’ he helped to organize (and was part of/presented) cultural lo-fi festivals, exhibitions, making a movie, monthly poetry stages in his hometown of Vlaardingen (Poezie in De Steeg), Rotterdam (De Poetsclub) and Nijmegen (Late Letteren Live) + a talent show for bands.

In 2002 and 2003 he studied ‘writing for performance’ at the vocational university of the Arts in the city of Utrecht (HKU) and as a result saw 3 of his theater plays make it to a stage. Writer Hiekelien van den Herik and he co-wrote a knight spectacle play complete with real choreographed sword fights, men in heavy plate armor and more great stuff like that. Theater-/enactment group Ridderspoor performed said play in 2004 and 2005 at Het Archeon, during De Kasteeldagen and at an Elfia-fantasy fair. He also gave numerous poetry and rap workshops at schools and other institutions. There were a lot of collabs too, for example voice-over work for a Rock Opera, a monumental art project for which he partnered up with the artist Erwin Adema and thrice alongside the R.J.S.O (The Rotterdam Youth Symphony Orchestra).

Benne has been an editor for several literary magazines (Krakatau, Renaissance and Op Ruwe Planken), at one time he and his wife owned a secondhand bookstore, he’s been the official poet laureate for his hometown of Vlaardingen and released his first and only Dutch rap-EP in 2011. In 2012 he rapped his way into the finals of Art Rocks. An EP with songs in English followed in 2021. A year later he started translating Dutch musical and lyrical classics from Dutch into English, and vice versa. Some of his short sci-fi and fantasy stories have found their way to medium related websites, magazines and anthology’s.

According to the poet himself rewriting his own poetry, lyrics and prose in English somehow feels like the next logical step in his career, a way to open up to the world at large. Which is both exhilarating and terrifying. So far several of these translations have been published in Bebarbar, Hare’s paw, Festivalforpoetry, Punt Volat, The Dewdrop, The Dillydoun Review and Months to Years a/o.

In everyday (some claim real) life he worked as an industrial tank cleaner, in pest control, on a garbage truck, driving a forklift, in a chemical waste facility, on a Ferry and 10 years as a bartender in a cannabis bar. At the time of writing this resume he can be found at home or in the hospital battling throat cancer. He’s been off the Herb since 2008, has a wife, 2 dogs, mild anxiety issues and likes to read every sci-fi and fantasy classic he can find.

www.linkedin.com/in/benne-van-der-velde-8b17a7296

The poet/lyricist and author Rob Chrispijn: ‘Benne writes sentences that stick; clean, dark and intense. This way a poem lasts!’

The poet Philip Hoorne on the website Poetry rapport: ‘There’s a genius hiding in Benne van der Velde, those are the Good Tidings of today. Amen.’

https://www.doubledutchmagazine.com