WOLKERS, Jan

(1925– )

   Writer and artist. After his art and sculpture studies in The Hague and Amsterdam, Wolkers started writing sto ries. His first novel, Kort Amerikaans [Short American, 1962], became a Dutch best-seller. Terug naar Oegstgeest [Back to Oegstgeest, 1965] is regarded as an important novel within his extensive oeuvre, dealing with the youth in a typical Dutch Calvinist family. The decay process as a result of cancer is the main theme in his Turks fruit [Turkish De light, 1969], which was filmed by Paul Verhoeven (1938– ). In that pe riod, this book was still shocking to many people because of its explicit sex scenes. Wolkers refused prestigious literature prizes, such as the P. C. HooftPrize in 1988. Since the 1980s, he has paid much attention to his sculptures. His works of art have been easy objects to vandalism, because Wolkers often makes use of glass, for example, in the Amster dam Auschwitz monument. His short novel Zomerhitte [Summer Heath] was a book-week giveaway in 2005.

   See also Dutch language and literature.