Lutz van Dijk | |
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![]() Van Dijk in 2007 | |
Born | Lutz van Dijk 1955 (age 69–70) |
Language | German |
Citizenship |
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Lutz van Dijk (born 1955 [1] ) is a German and Dutch author and educator.
Lutz van Dijk initially worked as a special education teacher in Hamburg and later joined the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. [1] Van Dijk also spends time in Cape Town. [1] Prior to settling in the Netherlands, he left Germany and lived in New York City, where he moved to in 1973. [2] He also became a naturalized Dutch citizen. [3]
Van Dijk received his doctorate in 1987 at the University of Hamburg, with his thesis being in the field of educational sciences and teachers who opposed Nazism in Germany. [4] In the summer of 2009, he was named an honorary professor in poetics at the Research Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature at the University of Oldenburg. [5]
In his writing, Van Dijk deals with topics related to Nazism and homosexuality [3] and, since 2018, he has published children's books. [6] Van Dijk also wrote Kampala-Hamburg, a book about a gay refugee from Uganda who escapes persecution in his native country and flees to Hamburg with the help of German LGBTQ+ activists. [2] Van Dijk wrote most of his books in German, with many of them translated into Afrikaans, Xhosa, and English. [1] In 2024, he wrote an autobiography recounting his childhood in a city divided by the Berlin Wall, and his decision to move to New York City as soon as he turned 18. [2]
In early 2001, Van Dijk founded the aid organization HOKISA (Homes for Kids in South Africa) in a town near Cape Town. [1] His partners in the NGO mostly were South African activists. HOKISA provides support for children and young people who have lost their parents to AIDS or who are themselves HIV-positive. [1] The first HOKISA home opened near Cape Town in 2002. [7]
Van Dijk was nominated in 2021 for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, [8] and in 2023, he was a nominee at the Stonewall Awards for his LGBTQ+ activism. [9] In 1997, Van Dijk was awarded with the Youth Literature Award of Namibia and, in 2001, he received the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize. [1]