Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (born 17 January 1968) is a Dutch poet, novelist,

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topic ...

ist and classical scholar. He was born in

Rijswijk Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water. The municipality also includes t ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and studied, lived and worked in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

, and he moved permanently to

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

, Italy, in 2008.

Biography

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer was born on 17 January 1968 in

in the Netherlands. He made his début in 1998 with a collection entitled ''Of the Square Man'', containing of fifty-odd highly individualistic poems. This debut won him the 1999 C. Buddingh’ poetry prize. As well as a poet, Pfeijffer was for some time a Greek scholar on the staff of

University. He wrote a dissertation on the poetry of

Pindar Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar ...

and published a history of classical literature for the general reader. Regarding his own poetry he has outspoken views, not just in his oft-quoted programmatic opening poem "Farewell Dinner," in which he dismisses the hermetic Hans Faverey and calls for "butter-baked images / and bulimic verse". Pfeijffer's poetic polemics leave no room for doubt as to what kind of poetry he prefers. He feels akin to Lucebert, and he abhors the paper verse of introverted hermetics and meek-hearted dreamers ("stumble, stiff romantic, mumble on"). Poetry should have life, and preferably, in

Lucebert Lucebert (; Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk; 15 September 1924 – 10 May 1994) was a Dutch artist who first became known as the poet of the COBRA movement. He was born in Amsterdam in 1924. He entered the Institute for Arts and Crafts in 193 ...

’s words, "life in full". Nacht van de Poëzie 2015 - Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer-1

Ilja Pfeijffer signing Grand Hotel Europa Eindhoven 1

Thus Pfeijffer, the "gleaner of contrivances," quotes not only

and Ezra Pound, Horace and Lucebert,

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

, Derek Walcott,

Herman Gorter Herman Gorter (26 November 1864, Wormerveer – 15 September 1927, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels) was a Dutch poet and socialist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers, a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together in ...

, Hans Faverey,

Martinus Nijhoff Martinus Nijhoff (20 April 1894, in The Hague – 26 January 1953, in The Hague) was a Dutch poet and essayist. He studied literature in Amsterdam and law in Utrecht. His debut was made in 1916 with his volume ''De wandelaar'' ("The wanderer"). F ...

and

Gerard Reve Gerard Kornelis van het Reve (14 December 1923 – 8 April 2006) was a Dutch writer. He started writing as Simon Gerard van het Reve and adopted the shorter Gerard Reve in 1973. Together with Willem Frederik Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he i ...

, but comic book characters as well. He not only writes about the political martyr

Ken Saro Wiwa Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa (10 October 1941 – 10 November 1995) was a Nigerians, Nigerian writer, television producer, and environmental activist. Ken Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homelan ...

, but also about C&A sweaters and Fiat Croma,

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...

s, canned beer, butt-tight and

garamond Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and bo ...

ten-point italic. The poet neither lacks humor or self-mockery, nor seriousness for that matter, witness his hotly tender love poems: "and though I sang and gave over my loins / and you failed to scorch my senses / I should be useless white on white."

Awards and honors

* 1999: C. Buddingh' Prize (1999) for ''Of the Square Man'' * 2002: (2002) for ''Rupert'' * 2003: (or ''Seghers Literatuurprijs'') (2003) for ''Rupert'' * 2005: over 2004 * 2014: Tzumprijs voor de beste literaire zin over 2013 * 2014:

Libris Prize The Libris Literature Award or Libris Prize (Dutch: Libris Literatuur Prijs) is a prize for novels originally written in Dutch. Established in 1993, it is awarded annually since 1994 by Libris, an association of independent Dutch booksellers, an ...

for ''La Superba'' * 2015: for ''La Superba'' * 2015: Jan Campert Prize for ''Idyllen'' * 2015: Awater Poëzieprijs for ''Idyllen'' * 2015: for ''Gelukszoekers'' and ''Idyllen'' ant the colums in ''

NRC Next ''nrc•next'' () was a Dutch daily newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis. The first edition was released on 14 March 2006. It was stopped in March 2021. ''nrc•next'' was a morning edition tabloid, and its primary target group a ...

''. * 2015: VSB Poetry Prize for ''Idyllen'' * 2015: Awater Poëzieprijs for ''Idyllen'' * 2016: VSB Poetry Prize for ''Idyllen'' * 2016: Proza prize from the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature for ''La Superba'' * 2017: Toneelschrijfprijs for ''De advocaat''

Works

Poetry

*Van de vierkante man, 1998 *Het glimpen van de welkwiek, 2001 *Dolores. Elegieën, 2002 *In de naam van de hond. De grote gedichten, 2005 *De man van vele manieren. Verzamelde gedichten 1998–2008 (collected poems) *Idyllen, 2015 *Giro Giro Tondo, een obsessie, 2015

Prose

*De antieken. Een literatuurgeschiedenis (literary history), 2000 *Rupert. Een bekentenis (novel), 2002 *Het geheim van het vermoorde geneuzel (essays), 2003 *Het grote baggerboek (novel), 2004 *Het ware leven. Een roman (novel), 2006 *De eeuw van mijn dochter (theatre), 2007 *Second Life. Verhalen en reportages uit een tweede leven (essay), 2007 *Malpensa (theatre), 2008 *De filosofie van de heuvel. Op de fiets naar Rome (travel literature, with Gelya Bogyatishcheva), 2009 *Harde feiten. Honderd romans (short fiction), 2010 *De Griekse mythen (mythological compendium), 2010 *La Superba (novel), 2013 *Brieven uit Genua (letters), 2016 *Grand Hotel Europa (novel), 2018 *Monterosso mon amour (novella), 2022

English translations

* ''Rupert: A Confession'', 2009 (translated by Michele Hutchison, Rochester, Open Letter, 2009) * ''La Superba'', (translated by Michele Hutchison, Dallas, TX, Deep Vellum Publishing, 2016)

External links

* *
"Ilja Pfeijffer, aka Ilja Pfeiffer, the most important poet from the Netherlands"
satirical website

(same website as above)

Articles

Article on I.L. Pfeijffer at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek
(in Dutch)

Online poems (with translations)

"en wat het dan betekent"/"and what it means""Een Corinthische ode"/"A Corinthian ode"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pfeijffer, Ilja Leonard 1968 births 21st-century Dutch novelists Dutch male poets Living people Dutch male novelists People from Rijswijk 21st-century Dutch male writers C. Buddingh' Prize winners