Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
	Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer in 2016
Born	17 January 1968; Rijswijk, Netherlands
Occupation	Writer
Language	Dutch
Years active	1998–present

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (born 17 January 1968) is a Dutch poet, novelist, polemicist and classical scholar. He was born in Rijswijk, Netherlands, and studied, lived and worked in Leiden, and he moved permanently to Genoa, Italy, in 2008.

Biography

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer was born on 17 January 1968 in Rijswijk in the Netherlands.

He made his début in 1998 with a collection entitled Of the Square Man, containing of fifty-odd highly individualistic poems. This debut won him the 1999 C. Buddingh’ poetry prize.

As well as a poet, Pfeijffer was for some time a Greek scholar on the staff of Leiden University. He wrote a dissertation on the poetry of Pindar and published a history of classical literature for the general reader. Regarding his own poetry he has outspoken views, not just in his oft-quoted programmatic opening poem "Farewell Dinner," in which he dismisses the hermetic Hans Faverey and calls for "butter-baked images / and bulimic verse". Pfeijffer's poetic polemics leave no room for doubt as to what kind of poetry he prefers. He feels akin to Lucebert, and he abhors the paper verse of introverted hermetics and meek-hearted dreamers ("stumble, stiff romantic, mumble on"). Poetry should have life, and preferably, in Lucebert’s words, "life in full".

Pfeijffer (2015)

Pfeijffer at the signing of Grand Hotel Europa (2019)

Thus Pfeijffer, the "gleaner of contrivances," quotes not only Pindar and Ezra Pound, Horace and Lucebert, Sophocles, Derek Walcott, Herman Gorter, Hans Faverey, Martinus Nijhoff and Gerard Reve, but comic book characters as well. He not only writes about the political martyr Ken Saro Wiwa, but also about C&A sweaters and Fiat Croma, barcodes, canned beer, butt-tight and garamond ten-point italic. The poet neither lacks humor or self-mockery, nor seriousness for that matter, witness his hotly tender love poems: "and though I sang and gave over my loins / and you failed to scorch my senses / I should be useless white on white."

Awards and honors

C. Buddingh' Prize (1999) for Of the Square Man
Anton Wachter Prize (2002) for Rupert
Seghers-Literatuurprijs Gerard Walschap-Londerzeel (2003) for Rupert
Libris Prize (2014) for La Superba
Inktaap (2015) for La Superba
Jan Campert Prize (2015) for Idyllen
VSB Poetry Prize (2016) for Idyllen
Awater Poetry Prize (2016) for Idyllen

Works

Poetry

Van de vierkante man, 1998
Het glimpen van de welkwiek, 2001
Dolores. Elegieën, 2002
In de naam van de hond. De grote gedichten, 2005
De man van vele manieren. Verzamelde gedichten 1998–2008 (collected poems)
Idyllen, 2015
Giro Giro Tondo, een obsessie, 2015

Prose

De antieken. Een literatuurgeschiedenis (literary history), 2000
Rupert. Een bekentenis (novel), 2002
Het geheim van het vermoorde geneuzel (essays), 2003
Het grote baggerboek (novel), 2004
Het ware leven. Een roman (novel), 2006
De eeuw van mijn dochter (theatre), 2007
Second Life. Verhalen en reportages uit een tweede leven (essay), 2007
Malpensa (theatre), 2008
De filosofie van de heuvel. Op de fiets naar Rome (travel literature, with Gelya Bogyatishcheva), 2009
Harde feiten. Honderd romans (short fiction), 2010
De Griekse mythen (mythological compendium), 2010
La Superba (novel), 2013
Brieven uit Genua (letters), 2016
Grand Hotel Europa (novel), 2018

English translations

Rupert: A Confession, 2009 (translated by Michele Hutchison, Rochester, Open Letter, 2009) ISBN 1-934824-09-7
La Superba, (translated by Michele Hutchinson, Dallas, TX, Deep Vellum Publishing, 2016)

gollark: Also random audio ads while you're driving.

gollark: ... then why mark that box?

gollark: Although in my experience people call lots of things "addictions" when they just mean "I really like doing this".

gollark: Wait, wouldn't it being an addiction be a reason *not* to do it?

gollark: I think he's in Australia or something. They might have stricter laws, like the UK, about guns and such.

External links

Official website
"Ilja Pfeijffer, aka Ilja Pfeiffer, the most important poet from the Netherlands", satirical website
Quite comprehensive bibliography (same website as above)

Articles

Article on I.L. Pfeijffer at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (in Dutch)

Online poems (with translations)

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