Ted van Lieshout (born 21 December 1955) is a Dutch poet and writer of children's literature. He has won numerous awards for his work.
Early life
Van Lieshout was born in 1955 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Van Lieshout studied Beeldende Kunsten en Vormgeving between 1975 and 1980 at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Until 1990 he was part-time teacher at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. After graduating van Lieshout made drawings for the newspaper NRC Handelsblad as well as magazines such as Avenue and Blauw Geruite Kiel, the youth magazine of Vrij Nederland. He also contributed to the television shows Het Klokhuis and Sesamstraat. He became a full-time writer in 1990.
Career
In 1995, he won the Gouden Griffel award for his book Begin een torentje van niks. This was the first time this award was given for a work of poetry.
Van Lieshout won the Zilveren Zoen for his book Gebr. He also won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1999 for the German translation of the book, Bruder, by Mirjam Pressler. The book has been translated into numerous languages.
In 2001, he won the Nienke van Hichtum-prijs for his book Zeer kleine liefde. In 2009, he won the Theo Thijssen-prijs for his entire oeuvre. In 2012, he won the Woutertje Pieterse Prijs for his book Driedeling paard. Van Lieshout was also nominated for this award in 2016 and 2018 for respectively the books Rond vierkant vierkant rond (2015) and Onder mijn matras de erwt (2017). He also received the Zilveren Griffel award for this book.
Van Lieshout was a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award twice.
Van Lieshout's children's books have been illustrated by various illustrators, including , Annemarie van Haeringen, Daan Remmerts de Vries and Sylvia Weve. Van Lieshout also illustrated many of his books himself. Since 2012 he makes picture books with Philip Hopman: the books about '', a little farmer boy.
Alongside his work for children, van Lieshout has written novels for adults that address sexual abuse. According to the theatre company Het Nationale Theater, some of these draw on his own childhood experience, at age eleven, of a relationship with an adult man. These works include Mijn meneer (2012) and Schuldig kind (2017); the latter was adapted for the stage by Het Nationale Theater in a production directed by Belle van Heerikhuizen. His 2022 novel Beitelaar follows a fifteen-year-old boy's pursuit of an older man he meets at a cemetery job; reviewing it in De Groene Amsterdammer, a critic wrote that van Lieshout continues to write fearlessly about the ambiguities of sexual abuse.
Awards
1987: Vlag en Wimpel, Van verdriet kun je grappige hoedjes vouwen 1989: Vlag en Wimpel, De allerliefste jongen van de hele wereld 1989: Zilveren Griffel, Och, ik elleboog me er wel doorheen 1991: Vlag en Wimpel, Ik ben een held 1991: Zilveren Griffel, Mijn botjes zijn bekleed met deftig vel 1994: Vlag en Wimpel, Toen oma weg was 1995: Gouden Griffel Begin een torentje van niks 1997: Zilveren Griffel, Mijn tuin, mijn tuin 1997: Zilveren Zoen, Gebr. 1999: Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, Bruder (German translation of Gebr. by Mirjam Pressler) 2001: Nienke van Hichtum-prijs, Zeer kleine liefde 2006: Zilveren Griffel, Mama! Waar heb jij het geluk gelaten? 2009: Theo Thijssen-prijs, entire oeuvre 2009: Zilveren Griffel, Spin op sokken 2010: Vlag en Wimpel, Ik wil een naam van chocola 2010: Zilveren Griffel, Hou van mij 2012: Vlag en Wimpel, Vijf draken verslagen 2012: Woutertje Pieterse Prijs, Driedelig paard 2012: Zilveren Griffel, Driedelig paard 2014: Vlag en Wimpel, Boer Boris in de sneeuw 2016: Zilveren Griffel, Rond vierkant vierkant rond 2019: Boekensleutel, Ze gaan er met je neus vandoor 2021: Zilveren Griffel, De gemene moord op Muggemietje
References
External links
Ted van Lieshout, Nederlands Letterenfonds (Dutch Foundation for Literature) Ted van Lieshout (in Dutch), Digital Library for Dutch Literature Ted van Lieshout (in Dutch), jeugdliteratuur.org