Paul Verhoeven is a Dutch film director. His films are known for their graphic violence and sexual content, combined with social satire. After receiving attention for the TV series Floris in his native Netherlands, Verhoeven's breakthrough film was the romantic drama Turkish Delight (1973), starring frequent collaborator Rutger Hauer. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and later received the award for Best Dutch Film of the Century at the Netherlands Film Festival. Verhoeven later directed successful Dutch films including the period drama Keetje Tippel (1975), the war film Soldier of Orange (1977), the teen drama Spetters (1980) and the psychological thriller The Fourth Man (1983).
Lodewijk Paul Aalbrecht Boon was a Belgian writer of novels, poetry, pornography, columns and art criticism. He was also a painter. He is best known for the novels My Little War (1947), the diptych Chapel Road (1953) / Summer in Termuren (1956), Menuet (1955) and Pieter Daens (1971).
Patricia Mary W. Barker, is a British writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken. In 2012, The Observer named the Regeneration Trilogy as one of "The 10 best historical novels".
Patricia Frances Grace is a New Zealand writer of novels, short stories, and children's books. She began writing as a young adult, while working as a teacher. Her early short stories were published in magazines, leading to her becoming the first female Māori writer to publish a collection of short stories, Waiariki, in 1975. Her first novel, Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps, followed in 1978.
Hélène "Hella" Serafia Haasse was a Dutch writer, often referred to as the "Grande Dame" of Dutch literature, and whose novel Oeroeg (1948) was a staple for generations of Dutch schoolchildren. Her internationally acclaimed magnum opus is Heren van de Thee, translated to The Tea Lords. In 1988 Haasse was chosen to interview the Dutch Queen for her 50th birthday after which celebrated Dutch author Adriaan van Dis called Haasse "the Queen among authors".
Halina Reijn is a Dutch actress, writer and film director.
Anna Maria Geertruida "Annie" Schmidt was a Dutch writer. She is called the mother of the Dutch theatrical song, and the queen of Dutch children's literature, praised for her "delicious Dutch idiom," and considered one of the greatest Dutch writers. An ultimate honour was extended to her posthumously, in 2007, when a group of Dutch historians compiled the "Canon of the Netherlands" and included Schmidt, alongside national icons such as Vincent van Gogh and Anne Frank.
Gerardina Alida "Gerdi" Verbeet is a retired Dutch politician and political consultant who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 6 December 2006 to 19 September 2012. A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), she is the second officeholder elected independently by the House of Representatives after her predecessor Frans Weisglas. She served as a member of the House of Representatives from 26 July 2002 to 19 September 2012 and previously from 11 December 2001 until 22 May 2002.
Sara Brita Stridsberg is a Swedish author and playwright. Her first novel, Happy Sally was about Sally Bauer, who in 1939 had become the first Scandinavian woman to swim the English Channel.
Maria Johanna Meijsing was a Dutch novelist. She won the AKO Literatuurprijs in 2000 for her novel De tweede man, and in 2008 the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs for her novel Over de liefde. Doeschka Meijsing is the older sister of writer Geerten Meijsing and philosopher Monica Meijsing.
Van de koele meren des doods is a 1982 Dutch film, directed by Nouchka van Brakel and based on the same-named novel by Frederik van Eeden. Book and film give an account of a bourgeois woman who struggles with her sexuality. The film is known internationally as Hedwig: The Quiet Lakes and The Cool Lakes of Death. The film was selected as the Dutch entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 55th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Marike Bok was a Dutch portrait painter.
Marente de Moor is a Dutch novelist and columnist. She published five novels and two collections of short stories. She won the AKO Literatuurprijs (2011) and the European Union Prize for Literature (2014) for her novel De Nederlandse maagd (2010). Her work is translated into sixteen languages.
Astrid Heligonda Roemer is a Surinamese-Dutch writer and teacher. The Dutch-language author has published novels, drama and poetry, and in December 2015 was announced as the winner of the P. C. Hooft Award, considered the most important literary prize in the Netherlands and Belgium, which was presented in May 2016.
Kathleen Vereecken is a Belgian writer of novels, children's literature and non-fiction.
Gerda Blees is a Dutch writer. She published her first book in 2017, a short story collection titled Aan doodgaan dachten we niet. In 2018, she published her first volume of poetry, Dwaallichten.
Nazmiye Oral is a Dutch actress and writer. She has won a Golden Calf for Best Acting in a Television Drama.
Lieke Marsman is a Dutch poet. She is the Dutch Poet Laureate [Dichter des Vaderlands] for the period 2021 to 2023.
Johanna Maria Jelles (Hannemieke) Stamperius was a Dutch feminist writer and critic. She published literary criticism and feminist scholarship under her own name, and literary work under the pseudonyms Hannes Meinkema. She used the pseudonym Justa Abbing to write four other novels, mostly thrillers.
