Guest of the ilb 2003, 2004
Hagar Peeters was born in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, in 1972. She studied Philosophy, General Literature
Studies and Cultural History in Utrecht. In her dissertation she
documented the development of Dutch penal systems through the biography
of the notorious criminal Gerrit de Stotteraar, who was as notorious
for the large number of burglaries he committed as for his
jailbreaks. For this scholarly work, which also reads as an
exciting novel, Peeters soon received two important distinctions: first
the renowned prize for scholarly texts, the Nationale Scriptieprijs,
and then, following the publication of the work under the title 'Gerrit
de Stotteraar – Biographie van een boef' (2002; Engl: Gerrit de
Stotteraar – biography of a criminal), the Utrecht booksellers’ award
2002. After completing her studies she worked as an editor for
the newspaper 'Historisch Nieuwsblad' and as a PR consultant for a
non-profit organisation. During her adolescence she discovered
her love of poetry. Her first appearance as a 'performing poet'
was in a youth centre in front of an extremely critical audience, whose
attention she had to fight for. Through this experience she
developed a flair for knowing which poems worked best performed on
stage, and which were fit for poetry collections. The balance
between content and presentation is therefore very important to
Peeters. Some poems function through their "flow", that is:
through clipped rhymes and distinct rhythms of speech, as raps.
At other times she performs with a guitarist, in an interplay between
music and language. Although the title of her first poetry
collection is called 'Genoeg gedicht over de liefde vandaag' (1999;
Engl: I’ve had enough Poems about Love for One Day), her poems are
largely about the possibility and impossibility of love, about
expectations and disappointments. She prefers to address
situations in life and love whose particular tragedy lies in the fact
that they are nearly perfect, but remain just a pinch away from
perfection. She succeeds in confronting serious themes with a
carefree, ironic ease. "Dancing arises from beautiful ways
of walking, singing from beautiful ways of speeking. Poetry is
the art of expressing as purely as possible beautiful thoughts and the
amazement at the inscrutability of being." From her book,
'Koffers Zeelucht' (2003; Engl: A Suitcase of Sea Air), the poem
'Droombeeld' was awarded the Gedichtendagprijzen 2004 as one of the
best Dutch poems of 2003. Her most recent collection of poetry, „Zo
dichtbij te zijn geweest“ was published in 2006. Hagar Peeters lives in
Amsterdam.
© international literature festival berlin | 
