With this year’s edition of the European Literature Night coming up soon, we have asked Veronica Baas, the programme editor of the event, a few questions about working with the Dutch Cluster of EUNIC. Read the interview below to get an insight into Veronica’s role in the Literature Night and the collaboration between De Balie and EUNIC Netherlands.
1.What role do you play in your organization?
De Balie is a centre for arts, debate, culture and politics at the heart of Amsterdam’s cultural district. As a programme editor, I am responsible for three or four evenings a month, in which we tackle a topic of societal or artistic relevance. I do so by inviting interesting speakers, making sure that authors, politicians or experts are able to tell their story in the best way possible and enabling the audience to engage with them.
2.How do you contribute to EUNIC Netherlands, particularly to the European Literature Night?
Together with the EUNIC Netherlands team we have decided on an exciting theme of the evening – this year, we chose The writer as traveler. Then, all the interested member institutes invite an author from their state that they think will suit the theme. Together with the EUNIC team, we then came up with a dynamic subdivision of the evening. Who will give a talk, who will read poetry, who will have a conversation together? The next step is speaking with all the participating authors, so I can prepare the interviews.
3.What parts of working with EUNIC Netherlands do you enjoy the most?
Of course, I really like collaborating with the EUNIC team. Also, it is really great to be introduced to wonderful writers that you would otherwise not be introduced to so quickly, like a Moldovan author or a writer from Malta. Through these networks, new worlds are really opening up, and that is wonderful.
