, Pitou’s debut album, is the exciting new chapter in the musical career of Pitou as the first track already demonstrates: a down-tempo guitar song evolves into an orchestration with harps, loops and strings. “It’s a fable,” says Pitou, “directed towards my younger self”, referring to the time she found a dead bird and imagined a huge eye in the sky shedding a tear. 

 offers a rich dish of alternative pop, inventive melodic structures, vocal layers, mesmerizing melodies and classical instruments. Pitou was born and raised in Amsterdam, but was taken on trips by her parents from early on to countries as Cameroon and India. She brought back cassettes filled with the sounds she heard there. She was also drawn to classical music at a very young age. When she was 18, she discovered pop, rock and the guitar and began to write songs. To date Pitou has released two EP’s and 

Pitou

Big Tear, Pitou’s debut album, is the exciting new chapter in the musical career of Pitou as the first track already demonstrates: a down-tempo guitar song evolves into an orchestration with harps, loops and strings. “It’s a fable,” says Pitou, “directed towards my younger self”,

Kelcey Ayer is mostly known as the co-founder indie band Local Natives. Not only was the band headliner at Crossing Border in 2010, they are also named by one reviewer as ‘one of the most intriguing and festival-friendly bands coming out of Los Angeles in the last decade’. Now Ayer is back, with his solo project with which he breaks new ground. “I feel like it was pretty hard just because no one in the band has ever done anything musically outside of Local Natives, so it was uncharted territory. It’s been equal parts exciting and anxiety-ridden for me”, he reflected in an interview in 2017 on the release of its debut album, 

 Ayer has now started the next phase of Jaws of Love with the new EP 

, in memory of his late mother and named after her. Through her memory Ayer explores depression, reconnection with his Colombian roots, and the duality of being biracial. With more new music on the way, it’s an exciting new era for Jaws of Love!

Jaws of Love

Kelcey Ayer is mostly known as the co-founder indie band Local Natives. Not only was the band headliner at Crossing Border in 2010, they are also named by one reviewer as ‘one of the most intriguing and festival-friendly bands coming out of Los Angeles

Waar is het lam?

Already in 1995 Dutch-Moroccan poet Mustafa Stitou (1974) said during an interview: “Language is the biggest mystery there is.” So with his coming to Crossing Border we are in for an evening full of riddles and wonder, entering a lingual playground that has no equal. Especially with his new poetry anthology entitled 

, filled with unconventional and surreal subject matter, ranging from the praise of a new kind of sacrificial animal, a woman who turns bald because she wears a headscarf, and a god who is subjected to radiation in a simulator. In this, his fifth anthology, Stitou creates a world that is both archaic as it is current, examining the sacrificial drama from different angles. Stitou grew up with the Koran and discovered poetry in a library in Lelystad. He began writing poetry when he was only 14 years old: “I had a more lingual than visual fantasy. I liked playing with language”, he explained. Stitou’s work is also translated into Swedish and English, and his poetry has been awarded several times.

Mustafa Stitou 

Already in 1995 Dutch-Moroccan poet Mustafa Stitou (1974) said during an interview: “Language is the biggest mystery there is.” So with his coming to Crossing Border we are in for an evening full of riddles and wonder, entering a lingual playground that

In conversation with Mustafa Stitou 

Wayward: Just Another Life to Live

Coming to Crossing Border is folk scene cult icon Vashti Bunyan, to introduce her new book 

. It is a magical and moving memoir of how she bowed out of the 1970’s London folk scene and chose to make a long trip instead by foot and horse drawn wagon. The career of English singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan (1945) grew from obscurity to cult status to newfound fame. Trekking across the Outer Hebrides for a 650-mile journey, she wrote songs that formed the basis for her Just record 

 (1970). It quickly sank into oblivion, and Bunyan decided to leave the music scene. “My voice made me think of sorrow, I didn’t even sing to my children '', she said in a recent interview. But thirty years later her record was rediscovered, quickly gaining the recognition it deserves. Since then she released two more records, 

 in 2014, and now she made her debut as a writer with her 

Vashti Bunyan

Coming to Crossing Border is folk scene cult icon Vashti Bunyan, to introduce her new book Wayward: Just Another Life to Live. It is a magical and moving memoir of how she bowed out of the 1970’s London folk scene and chose to make a long trip instead by foot and horse drawn wagon. The career of English singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan (1945) grew from obscurity to cult status to newfound fame. Trekking across the Outer Hebrides for a 650-mile journey, she wrote songs that formed the basis for her Just record Another Diamond Day (1970). It quickly sank into oblivion, and Bunyan decided to leave the music scene. “My voice made me think of sorrow, I didn’t even sing to my children '', she said in a recent interview. But thirty years later her record was rediscovered, quickly gaining the recognition it deserves. Since then she released two more records, Lookaftering in 2005, Heartleap in 2014, and now she made her debut as a writer with her Wayward: Just Another Life to Live.

In conversation with Vashti Bunyan

 (2020), American writer Bryan Washington (1993) said: “I think that what I wanted to do with this particular book was write first and foremost something that I wanted to read, but also to write about the relationships that I've had, the relationships that my friends have had that we haven't really seen in narrative form in the way that I wanted to see them.” That is also an underlying current in his novel 

, in which we descend into a multicultural microcosm in Texas, where a boy of mixed race discovers he is attracted to men. But we also meet survivors of a hurricane, young hustlers, a dealer with a heart, in short, a city full of energy, humour and power. If anything, Bryan shows the longing people have for a home and that love can take on many shapes. He was nominated for the National Book Award and won many other prizes. “One thing I was really fortunate a friend told me early on was not to write terribly intently with the market in mind because the market doesn't know what it wants until the market wants it”, he said in an interview.

Bryan Washington

About his Memorial (2020), American writer Bryan Washington (1993) said: “I think that what I wanted to do with this particular book was write first and foremost something that I wanted to read, but also to write about the relationships that I've had, the relationships that my friends have had that we

In conversation with Bryan Washington

De diepst verborgen herinnering van de mens

Crossing Border is very pleased to be able to present French-Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (1990), who won the prestigious Prix de Goncourt last year, for his novel 

 He is one of the youngest writers and the first writer from Africa to receive the most renowned prize in French-speaking literature. One reviewer describes his latest book as a dazzling mixture of otherworldly mystic powers, reflecting on both world wars, criticising racism, having a fictional writer accused of plagiary, stripclubs, a female Haitian poet and a complex plot involving Nazis, concluding: “It is superbly told and written in beautiful French and clearly deserving of winning the Prix de Goncourt.”
Sarr, who grew up as the son of a doctor in Senegal, went to France for study and debuted in 2014 with La Cale, a novel about the slave trade. His 

, a novel about a fictitious city under the reign of an Islamic jihadist militia, was awarded thrice with prizes. He said, last year in an interview: “I defend the idea of open literature, where all imaginations find their place.”

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

Crossing Border is very pleased to be able to present French-Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (1990), who won the prestigious Prix de Goncourt last year,

In conversation with Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

Adelle Stripe (1976) is an acclaimed novelist, poet and journalist who co-wrote 

, based on the life and work of playwright Andrea Dunbar, was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Portico Prize for Literature. One interviewer called it ‘a dagger to the heart to read, best devoured in one sitting.’ Stripe focuses on exploring working class culture, untold stories of Northern England, pop music and small town life. 

 evolved out of a long interview with frontman Lias of the band Fat White Family. “It’s not very often that you witness that level of authentic derangement,” she said in an interview in 

. The two remained in touch while the band was touring in Europe, and Lias sent parts from his tour diaries. “Which I thought were hilarious and quite accomplished for someone who wasn’t a writer,” said Stripe. “And I knew that with a bit of encouragement I could help develop his voice and maybe use some of it within a wider narrative framework. So I wrote the straight voice and he created a more baroque register.”

Adelle Stripe

Adelle Stripe (1976) is an acclaimed novelist, poet and journalist who co-wrote Ten Thousand Apologies. Her debut novel, Black Teeth And A Brilliant Smile, based on the life and work of

 Ten Thousand Apologies

Formed in Peckham, London in 2011 by brothers Lias and Nathan Saoudi, experimental post-punk band Fat White Family quickly gained a reputation as Britain’s most notorius band, with their debut album 

 in 2013. It literally was ‘the drug band with a rock problem’, writes Adelle Stripe. Its frontman Lias Saoudi has now entered the literary arena with his debut book 

, co-written with Adelle. It chronicles the at times hilarious and certainly rowdy story of the country's most notorious cult band, Fat White Family. Loved and loathed in equal measure since they were founded, only one thing drove them on: to create constant chaos and achieve total creative freedom no matter what. “…let’s remember that we were already a bunch of dysfunctional egomaniacs to begin with. I suppose we took it a little bit too far in certain directions. I mean, heroin abuse is kind of like band cancer—it’s the worst fucking thing”, he admitted in an interview in 2019.

Lias Saoudi

Formed in Peckham, London in 2011 by brothers Lias and Nathan Saoudi, experimental post-punk band Fat White Family quickly gained a reputation as Britain’s most notorius band

In conversation with Lias Saoudi & Adelle Stripe

Het derde land

Het derde land - Karina Sainz Borgo

The debut novel of Venezuelan journalist and novelist Karina Sainz Borgo (1982) was generally acclaimed with terms as ‘grand’ and ‘breathtaking’. Now she has returned with her brilliant second novel 

 and Crossing Border is honored to have her on stage. Again the story in her second novel is expressed in a beautiful, poetic language. In it we follow Angustias Romero, who flees with her husband with their twin children on foot for a mysterious illness that is spreading through the country. There is loss and grief, but also bonding together in the face of corruption and ever fading borders between life and death. It’s a mythical drama with disturbing parallels to today’s reality, a subtheme her debut also featured, that treated one woman’s fight for survival in Venezuela that has spiralled into violence and anarchy. But underneath it is more than that, she explained in an interview: “I tried to write with metaphors. I always try to let the reader know that I’m talking about something universal.”

Karina Sainz Borgo

The debut novel of Venezuelan journalist and novelist Karina Sainz Borgo (1982) was generally acclaimed with terms as ‘grand’ and ‘breathtaking’. Now she has returned with her brilliant second novel Het Derde Land (The Third Country) and Crossing Border is honored to have her on stage. Again the story in her second novel is expressed in a beautiful, poetic language. In it we follow Angustias Romero, who flees with her husband with their twin children on foot for a mysterious illness that is spreading through the country. There is loss and grief, but also bonding together in the face of corruption and ever fading borders between life and death. It’s a mythical drama with disturbing parallels to today’s reality, a subtheme her debut also featured, that treated one woman’s fight for survival in Venezuela that has spiralled into violence and anarchy. But underneath it is more than that, she explained in an interview: “I tried to write with metaphors. I always try to let the reader know that I’m talking about something universal.”

In conversation with Karina Sainz Borgo

The Dutch recording artist and musician Robin Kester developed a new sound during the pandemic with her 

, described as an exciting departure full of sinister dreampop songs. “I am a filmnerd”, she said two years ago. “I like dystopian horror, like the series Westworld. That really set me to think, about what consciousness is, when you are human and if there is such a thing as free will. Hence the title 

. I like listening to a record, walking on the street and pretend I’m in a movie.”

Robin Kester

The Dutch recording artist and musician Robin Kester developed a new sound during the pandemic with her This is Not a Democracy, described as an exciting departure full of sinister dreampop songs.

From drug fuelled debaucheries in rock bands Happy Mondays and Black Grape to winning Celebrity Big Brother high on drugs in 2005, Mark 'Bez' Berry (1964) has experienced it all. His career was drenched in a blizzard of mind altering substances and when a journalist asked him why he ingested so much, he briefly answered: “it’s my job”. He was born in a family with his mother as a nurse and his father a member of an anti-terrorist squad, Bez served three years in a detention centre for a robbery when he was 17 years old.

The extraordinary rollercoaster life of this English percussionist, dancer, DJ and media personality was captured in the colourful book 

. But of course it’s best to listen to him talking about it himself. Whether it’s about his escapades as a maracas wielding dancer with Manchester’s rave rock legends Happy Mondays or his TV performances that earned him enough money to pimp his black cab into a sound system with twenty speakers and fifteen TV screens, Bez can tell it all. As he said in an interview this year: “I was a nightmare, even as a baby.”

Bez (Happy Mondays)

From drug fuelled debaucheries in rock bands Happy Mondays and Black Grape to winning Celebrity Big Brother high on drugs in 2005, Mark 'Bez' Berry (1964) has experienced it all. His career was drenched in a blizzard of mind altering substances and when a journalist asked him why

In conversation with Bez (Happy Mondays)

Kees Van Kooten te gast bij Wim Helsen in Winteruur

What can be said about famous Dutch comedian and writer Kees van Kooten (1941) that has not already been said? Groundbreaking, pioneering, innovative to the max, grandmaster of the absurd, these are but a few accolades he has rightfully earned with his oeuvre over the years. He had a successful cabaret show with Wim de Bie that lasted for decades and held almost the entire Dutch population hostage in front of the TV whenever they aired. He perfected the depiction of typical caricatures of Dutch people and their narrow-minded, ridiculous or downright gross sentiments and customs, but he has also made television, radio and an impressive oeuvre of books. We are in for a historic night with one of Holland’s most wonderfully absurd minds. And pearls of wisdom too. After all it was Van Kooten who said: “There are more adults afraid in the light than children are in the dark.” And: “If love is the answer, would you mind repeating the question.”

Kees van Kooten 

What can be said about famous Dutch comedian and writer Kees van Kooten (1941) that has not already been said? Groundbreaking, pioneering, innovative to the max, grandmaster of the absurd, these are but a few accolades he has rightfully earned with his oeuvre over the years. He had a successful cabaret show with Wim de Bie that lasted for decades and held almost the entire Dutch population hostage in front of the TV whenever they aired. He perfected the depiction of typical caricatures of Dutch people and their narrow-minded, ridiculous or downright gross sentiments and customs, but he has also made television, radio and an impressive oeuvre of books. We are in for a historic night with one of Holland’s most wonderfully absurd minds. And pearls of wisdom too. After all it was Van Kooten who said: “There are more adults afraid in the light than children are in the dark.” And: “If love is the answer, would you mind repeating the question.”


In conversation with Kees van Kooten 

The Delines is back! Being one of the highlights of Crossing Border in 2019, the band once again climbs the stage for this years edition. “I want to tell working class stories”, price-winning novelist Willy Vlautin said last year in an interview. So what better way than to write hauntingly beautiful countrysoul songs for The Delines as well, the band in which he also plays the guitar. Like his books, his songs border on the melancholic, and narrate of people whose lives are doomed to derail, and with relationships inevitably breaking up or having done so already. This is the recipe for an unique oeuvre of breathtaking songs. After the debut in 2014 with the generally acclaimed record 

, the band took five years to produce their second album. Titled 

, it is filled with a soothing mix of countrysoul songs, texts by Vlautin and the raw, passionate voice of vocalist Boone.

The Delines

The Delines is back! Being one of the highlights of Crossing Border in 2019, the band once again climbs the stage for this years edition. “I want to tell working class stories”, price-winning novelist Willy Vlautin said

Kara Jackson is a singer songwriter, musician, award winning poet and writer as well as the daughter of country folk from Oak Park, Illinois. Jackson served as the National Youth Poet Laureate from 2019-2020. She is the author of 

 (2019). A complex and resilient love permeates her writing, from anthems praising her full belly to poems grappling with “sort-of” love for her midwestern hometown. She stems from a literary bloodline created by women like Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Joan Baez. As she writes: “When the day calls I will answer to my name / claim it.” Jackson made her musical debut with the EP 

. Her highly anticipated debut album will be released this fall. About herself, she once said in an interview: “I have ADHD and so I’ve always struggled with living up to this idea of “the grind,” that is, the role of an artist being situated in work and routine. I think if anything, I maintain a ritual of art-consuming that helps me make the art I want to make when I’m not being lazy.”

Kara Jackson

Kara Jackson is a singer songwriter, musician, award winning poet and writer as well as the daughter of country folk from Oak Park, Illinois. Jackson served as the National Youth Poet Laureate from 2019-2020. She is the author of Bloodstone Cowboy (2019).

Kara Jackson 

 Big Snake Little Snake

How to write: practical tip for “starting the engine” in fiction with DBC Pierre

Crossing Border is pleased to again welcome DBC Pierre, one of literature’s most uncompromising voices with his latest novel 

, a cascade of true stories about gambling, the odds and outrageous chances of everyday life on earth.

The nickname his friends gave the writer already reflects something of the start of his literary career, as DBC stands for ‘Dirty, But Clean’. Born in Australia, growing up in a wealthy English community in Mexico, DBC Pierre (1962) sees himself more as a Mexican than as an Australian. His youth was not without troubles, since his family lost their fortune and Pierre became an addict. He hoped to pay off his debts with his debut novel 

, and as luck would have it, he won the Booker Prize, it was multi-awarded and in the end sold in 43 territories. Of it he said in an interview in 2011: “I started because I was pissed off. I was pissed off for a number of reasons but also I was just pissed off with a lack of reason in the world. It was anger that started me.”

DBC Pierre

Crossing Border is pleased to again welcome DBC Pierre, one of literature’s most uncompromising voices with his latest novel Big Snake Little Snake, a cascade of true stories about gambling, the odds and outrageous chances of everyday life on earth. 
The nickname his friends gave the writer already reflects something of the start of his literary career, as DBC stands for ‘Dirty, But Clean’. Born in Australia, growing up in a wealthy English community in Mexico, DBC Pierre (1962) sees himself more as a Mexican than as an Australian. His youth was not without troubles, since his family lost their fortune and Pierre became an addict. He hoped to pay off his debts with his debut novel Vernon God Little, and as luck would have it, he won the Booker Prize, it was multi-awarded and in the end sold in 43 territories. Of it he said in an interview in 2011: “I started because I was pissed off. I was pissed off for a number of reasons but also I was just pissed off with a lack of reason in the world. It was anger that started me.” 

In conversation with DBC Pierre

Known for his art, Lonnie Holley gained a new audience when he started releasing and performing his music the last decade. Entirely improvised and impossible to categorize, his free-flowing compositions include stream of consciousness lyrics and he never performs a song twice. He debuted in 2012 with 

. Sometimes known as The Sand Man, Lonnie Holley (1950) can certainly boast of a colourful life. The American artist and musician was born in Alabama, as the seventh child of 27 children during racial segregation, and from age five he worked at various jobs. He is best known for his assemblages and immersive environments made of found materials. “My grandpa was a recycler, he built an 18-room house out of objects he found on the side of the railroad coming from work to his new piece of land. He picked up every small rock, stone, brick – anything he could find – to make the foundation, so all of that was there for me to study. A lot of people said that I was possessed by his spirit because I was interested in the way he had done things”, he explained in an interview two years ago.

Lonnie Holley

Known for his art, Lonnie Holley gained a new audience when he started releasing and performing his music the last decade. Entirely improvised and impossible to categorize, his free-flowing compositions include stream of consciousness lyrics and he never performs a song twice

Exclusive performance in The Netherlands
A poetry reading and an interview by British author Max Porter about her latest narrative poetry book Orlam.

Orlam

Not only is PJ Harvey one of the most talented songwriters of her age, two-time winner of the Mercury prize and countless other musical awards, she is also an extremely gifted poet, as her newly released book 

 demonstrates. At Crossing Border we are treated with a rare glimpse of this literary and poetic side of her artistic genius. In the beautiful narrative poem 

 PJ Harvey takes us to a magical realist version of the West Country, her birth ground and inspiration. Of this, she said in an interview recently: “Dorset is light and dark, ecstasy and melancholy.” Drawing on rituals, children’s songs, chants and superstitions of the rural West Country of England, it is a remarkable coming-of-age tale and the result of six years of intense writing. It is also the first full-length book written in the Dorset dialect for many decades.

 we follow nine years old Ira and the other inhabitants of Underwhelem month by month through the last year of her childhood innocence. The result is a brilliant poetic canvas of light and shadow, with hints of violence, sexual confusion and perversion, juxtaposed with sunlit moments of ecstatic bliss.

PJ Harvey (poetry) 

Not only is PJ Harvey one of the most talented songwriters of her age, two-time winner of the Mercury prize and countless other musical awards, she is also an extremely gifted poet, as her newly released book Orlam demonstrates. 

Max Porter

PJ Harvey 

De gevaren van roken in bed

Considered to be one of the most original and most important writers of her generation, Mariana Enriquez (1973) presents her new book 

 (The dangers of smoking in bed) on what promises to be a magical evening at Crossing Border. In this anthology of the absolute best Latin-American author of the moment, the terrifying intrudes into the mundane and we alternate between realism and the magical. Welcome to Buenos Aires, a city weighed down by homicidal tendencies and morbid desires. Where missing children return from the dead and exhumed bones carry terrible curses. In this highly successful anthology the Argentinian writer treats themes as revenge, witchcraft, jealousy, murder and disappearances, but it is especially about women and girls who no longer can suppress their darkest tendencies. “Readers get horrified when they read one of my stories, with a child that lives in the streets, for example, but the truth is that they see children like that everyday. Many of them, sleeping in doorways, hungry, filthy. But when they read it, they ask how I can go so far. The truth is, I don’t go far at all”, she said in an interview last year.

Mariana Enriquez 

Considered to be one of the most original and most important writers of her generation, Mariana Enriquez (1973) presents her new book De gevaren van roken in bed (The dangers of smoking in bed) on what promises to be a magical evening at Crossing Border. In this anthology of the absolute best Latin-American author of the moment, the terrifying intrudes into the mundane and we alternate between realism and the magical. Welcome to Buenos Aires, a city weighed down by homicidal tendencies and morbid desires. Where missing children return from the dead and exhumed bones carry terrible curses. In this highly successful anthology the Argentinian writer treats themes as revenge, witchcraft, jealousy, murder and disappearances, but it is especially about women and girls who no longer can suppress their darkest tendencies. “Readers get horrified when they read one of my stories, with a child that lives in the streets, for example, but the truth is that they see children like that everyday. Many of them, sleeping in doorways, hungry, filthy. But when they read it, they ask how I can go so far. The truth is, I don’t go far at all”, she said in an interview last year.


In conversation with Mariana Enriquez 

De Belofte

De goede dokter

When South African writer Damon Galgut (1963) enters, Crossing Border welcomes a two times Booker Prize nominee, and a one time winner of the prestigious literary prize for his novel 

 that became a bestseller and is published in 33 countries. In it we meet a South African family that wrestles with its historical debt to their black housekeeper. Reviews are raving, naming Galgut a powerful voice in South African prose and one of South Africa’s best novelists. Galgut, who lives in a tiny room in Cape Town, needed to adjust to his newfound fame, he admitted in an interview last year. “I still need to get accustomed to so much attention. It does not come naturally to me. Usually you have to fight for attention for a book. Now it is the opposite.” Seven of his novels were translated into Dutch, one, 

 a captivating story about friendship and betrayal between two doctors in a South African hospital, was reprinted this year.

Damon Galgut 

When South African writer Damon Galgut (1963) enters, Crossing Border welcomes a two times Booker Prize nominee, and a one time winner of the prestigious literary prize 

In conversation with Damon Galgut 

Spaceships over Glasgow

Anyone who has enjoyed the spun out soundscapes leading up to volcanic eruptions of guitar noise performed live at eardrum splitting volumes by Scottish postrockband MOGWAI, is certainly in for a very special evening with Stuart Braithwaite. He is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter and the guitarist of the band, with whom he has recorded nine albums. Any earplugs can be left in the drawer, because for this very special evening Stuart has left his musical equipment at home and instead will introduce his new book 

. It’s “a lovesong to live rock and roll”, he writes, “to the passionate abandon we've all felt in the crowd (and some of us, if lucky enough, from the stage) at a truly incendiary gig. It is also the story of a life lived on the edge; of the high-times and hazardous pit-stops of international touring with a band of misfits and miscreants.”

Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai)

Anyone who has enjoyed the spun out soundscapes leading up to volcanic eruptions of guitar noise performed live at eardrum splitting volumes by Scottish postrockband MOGWAI,

In conversation with Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai)

Dromer

Interview with Benedict Wells

Welcoming German writer Benedict Wells (1984) at Crossing Border is meeting a writer whose star rises with each book he writes. His latest, entitled Hard Land, again got rave reviews and was an international bestseller. Recently Wells told in de Volkskrant that he’d had a bumpy childhood himself. One of his parents was bipolar, the other plagued with financial troubles: “I was placed in a home since I was six and I spent thirteen years in boarding schools, but I always felt the love of my parents in the background.”

Benedict Wells

Welcoming German writer Benedict Wells (1984) at Crossing Border is meeting a writer whose star rises with each book he writes. His latest, entitled Hard Land, again got rave reviews and was an international bestseller. Recently Wells told in de Volkskrant that he’d had a bumpy childhood himself. One of his parents was bipolar, the other plagued with financial troubles: “I was placed in a home since I was six and I spent thirteen years in boarding schools, but I always felt the love of my parents in the background.”
In August his new novel…

In conversation with Benedict Wells

With Scottish writer David Keenan Crossing Border welcomes perhaps its most esoteric author. Keenan (1971) coined the term ‘free folk’ in a 2003 issue of 

 for which he wrote for nine years, and later the term ‘hypnagogic pop’. His work for the magazine was instrumental for it to focus on covering experimental modes of music. Apart from his magazine work, Keenan has written 

, the classic on the connections between British music and the occult; and a series of novels, which started with 

 that will be published in August is his latest. Keenan began to write at an early age, writing about music when he was 16 years old: “I was still living at home in Airdrie when I first started writing. Airdrie is a small town about 21 miles outside of Glasgow, a magical small town actually, populated by eccentrics and weirdos, despite its reputation as being ugly and a rough place to grow up in.”

David Keenan

With Scottish writer David Keenan Crossing Border welcomes perhaps its most esoteric author. Keenan (1971) coined the term ‘free folk’ in a 2003 issue of The Wire for which he wrote for nine years, and later the term ‘hypnagogic pop’. His work for the magazine was instrumental for it to focus on covering experimental modes of music. Apart from his magazine work, Keenan has written England’s Hidden Reverse, the classic on the connections between British music and the occult; and a series of novels, which started with This is Memorial Device and of which its prequel, Industry of Magic and Light, that will be published in August is his latest. Keenan began to write at an early age, writing about music when he was 16 years old: “I was still living at home in Airdrie when I first started writing. Airdrie is a small town about 21 miles outside of Glasgow, a magical small town actually, populated by eccentrics and weirdos, despite its reputation as being ugly and a rough place to grow up in.”


In conversation with David Keenan

Robocobra Quartet, the post-punk jazz band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, is described as a cross of Fugazi meets Mingus, or a mixture of La Dispute and GoGo Penguin. The four musicians arrive at their unique and distinctive sound by using one drastic rule only: no guitars are allowed. That place is reserved for other instruments such as saxophones, samplers, keyboards and a whole array of sound effects swirling around melodic bass lines and pounding drum rhythms that form the core of their compositions. Add to that a single vocalist who also plays the drums, singing sometimes in sync, at other times completely at odds, and the fact that sometimes up to fifteen musicians were involved in working at their music on their debut record 

. “I think it becomes better after you have practiced more”, mused bandleader and singer-drummer Chris Ryan in 2017. Five years down the road, it’s time to check out their progress in what promises to be a blistering performance!

Robocobra Quartet

Robocobra Quartet, the post-punk jazz band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, is described as a cross of Fugazi meets Mingus, or a mixture of La Dispute and GoGo Penguin.

Het schaarse licht

Nino Haratischwili (1983) is an award-winning Georgian author, playwright and theatre director, living in Berlin. With her 

she addressed the history of her nation. “I never understood how Georgians could be proud of Stalin '', she said in 2019 in an interview. It was translated into twenty five languages and it became a worldwide bestseller. Her latest and fifth book 

 travels to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Four women who are friends grow up in the eighties and nineties, quarrel and reconcile, one becomes famous, another successful, and decades later they meet again at a photo exhibit in Brussels that also shows pictures from their youth. But there are only three friends left. Haratischiwili tells a beautiful and poignant tale of a lost land and a lost generation, a revolution that devours its own children and an unconditional friendship between women that defies death.

Nino Haratischwili

Nino Haratischwili (1983) is an award-winning Georgian author, playwright and theatre director, living in Berlin. With her The Eight Life she addressed the history of her nation. “I never understood how Georgians could be proud of Stalin '', she said in 2019 in an interview. It was translated into twenty five languages and it became a worldwide bestseller. Her latest and fifth book Das Mangelende Licht (Lack of Light) travels to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Four women who are friends grow up in the eighties and nineties, quarrel and reconcile, one becomes famous, another successful, and decades later they meet again at a photo exhibit in Brussels that also shows pictures from their youth. But there are only three friends left. Haratischiwili tells a beautiful and poignant tale of a lost land and a lost generation, a revolution that devours its own children and an unconditional friendship between women that defies death. 


In conversation with Nino Haratischwili

Over Tirannie

Want to protect your freedom and democratic rights? Want to recognize the beginnings of a totalitarian regime in time? Then you better show up at this evening of Crossing Border with Nora Krug. Krug (1977) is a German-American author and illustrator, living in the Bronx. “For me, to illustrate is a way to become deeply involved in what someone writes”, she said in February this year in the

Her latest work is an illustrated edition of Timothy Snyder’s 

, in which he describes twenty methods to protect democracy against authoritarian governments. Krug breathes new life in Snyder's arguments with fresh colours and immensely powerful images. “The most horrible part was when I began to illustrate his chapter on paramilitary organisations… That was exactly around the time that in America seemingly out of nothing groups as the Proud Boys began to manifest themselves”, she remembers. “I illustrated an existing book, but it was as if I recorded what I myself experienced, of what is happening in America, here and now.” Krug’s work appeared among others in the 

Nora Krug 

Want to protect your freedom and democratic rights? Want to recognize the beginnings of a totalitarian regime in time? Then you better show up at this evening of Crossing Border with Nora Krug

In conversation with Nora Krug 

Passagiers/achterblijvers

Dutch writer Thomas Heerma van Voss (1990) debuted in 2009 with 

 This year at Crossing Border he will present his new anthology 

Passagiers/Achterblijvers(Passengers/Remainers)

 that is getting rave reviews in the Dutch national press. As one reviewer explained: “The good thing about the stories of Heerma van Voss is that he does not explain everything and he does not elaborate on everything… fortunately much is left to the imagination of the reader.”
Heerma van Voss published among others the novels

 (2020) and was longlisted for the Libris Literatuurprijs. He has been hailed by the press as one of the greatest literary talents in Holland. But his taste is more diverse. “I like pulp and a bit of filthy hiphop and I like to write and talk about that”, he said two years ago in an interview in 

. And in his teens he was part of rap formation OZG. “It stood for Oud Zuid Gangsters. It was a one hundred percent persiflage. We couldn’t rap and the lyrics were grotesque and rude. Nobody at school understood it.”

Thomas Heerma van Voss

Dutch writer Thomas Heerma van Voss (1990) debuted in 2009 with De Allestafel. This year at Crossing Border he will present his new anthology Passagiers/Achterblijvers(Passengers/Remainers) that is getting rave reviews in the Dutch national press

Saturday 5 November, Evening programme