Carli Biessels (1936 – 16 September 2016) was a Dutch writer of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

Biography

Biessels was born and died in

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

, where she studied

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

. Biessels worked in the field of children psychiatry and orthopedagogy. Before writing books for children Biessels wrote various stories for children's magazines ''Okki'' and ''Taptoe''. Biessels made her debut as author at 62 years of age with her book ''Twee druppels water'' (1998). The book was on the Longlist for the

Gouden Uil The Golden Book-Owl (De Gouden Boekenuil) is a Belgian prize for original Dutch language literature. Originally it was named Golden Owl (De Gouden Uil). It has been awarded annually since 1995. Development It has changed categories several times d ...

award in 1999. In 2010, she won the

Woutertje Pieterse Prijs The Woutertje Pieterse Prijs (Dutch for Woutertje Pieterse Prize) is an annual Dutch literary award for the best children's book of the preceding year. History The award was first given in 1988. The award is awarded annually in March or A ...

for her book ''Juwelen van stras''. She also received the

Vlag en Wimpel In the Netherlands, the award is an honourable mention awarded by either the jury of the Gouden Griffel, Gouden Griffel and Zilveren Griffel awards (for Dutch-language children's literature) or the jury of the Gouden Penseel, Gouden Penseel and ...

award in 2001 for her book ''De feestrede'' and in 2007 for her book ''Irah en de dieren''. Her last book ''Ik moet je iets belangrijks vertellen'' (2016) was published posthumously. Her books have been illustrated by various illustrators, including

Martijn van der Linden Martijn van der Linden (born 1979) is a Dutch illustrator. Career Van der Linden illustrated the book ''Stem op de okapi'' written by Edward van de Vendel and they both won the Woutertje Pieterse Prijs in 2016 for this work. For this book he ...

Harmen van Straaten Harmen van Straaten (born 15 September 1958) is a Dutch author and illustrator. He has illustrated books by numerous Dutch and Belgian authors, including Carli Biessels, Bette Westera, Hilde Vandermeeren and Jaap ter Haar. In 2013, his book ...

and

Marije Tolman Marije Tolman (born 1976) is a Dutch illustrator of children's literature. Career In 2010, she won the Gouden Penseel award together with her father Ronald Tolman for her illustrations in the book ''De boomhut''. She also won the Vlag en Wi ...

. Other illustrators include Patsy Backx, Marjolein Hund and

Wolf Erlbruch Wolf Erlbruch (30 June 1948 – 11 December 2022) was a German illustrator and writer of children's books, who became professor at several universities. He combined various techniques for the artwork in his books, including cutting and pasting, ...

. Her book ''Anton en het kamelenkleed'' (1999) was illustrated by one of her daughters. Some of her books have been translated to German by

Hanni Ehlers Hanni Ehlers (born 2 August 1954, Eutin) is a German translator known for translating English and Dutch literature into German. Career Ehlers has translated books written by numerous Dutch authors, including Renate Dorrestein, Guus Kuijer, Jo ...

and

Mirjam Pressler Mirjam Pressler, born Mirjam Gunkel (18 June 1940 – 16 January 2019) was a German novelist and translator. Being the author of more than 30 children's and teenage books, she also translated into German more than 300 works by other writers from ...

. Biessels married and had four children.

Awards

* 2001:

, ''De feestrede'' * 2007:

, ''Irah en de dieren'' * 2010:

, ''Juwelen van stras''

Publications

* ''Twee druppels water'' (1998) * ''Anton en het kamelenkleed'' (1999) * ''Sinterklaas' verhalen: over mijterrekjes, voetbalschoenen en de rode staf'' (1999) * ''De buurman van de Magere Heinen'' (2000) * ''De feestrede'' (2000) * ''Tussen Mees en Mol'' (2002) * ''De zee, de zee'' (2002) * ''Doortje wil naar de zee kijken'' (2003) * ''Op doortocht'' (2004) * ''De meeste dingen gebeurden onverwachts'' (2005) * ''Irah en de dieren'' (2006) * ''Geknipt'' (2008) * ''Juwelen van stras'' (2009) * ''Lucas en de woorden: een verhaal over leren lezen'' (2011) * ''Ik moet je iets belangrijks vertellen'' (2016)

References

External links

Carli Biessels
(in Dutch)

Digital Library for Dutch Literature The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, second ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biessels, Carli 1936 births 2016 deaths Dutch children's writers Dutch women children's writers Woutertje Pieterse Prize winners People from Nijmegen