Niels Bekkema

What was your favorite book as a child?

De Donkere Kamer van Damokles by W. F. Hermans. I’m still in awe of this novel.

What was the original reason or motivation why you started writing creatively?

I feel indebted to Kate Briggs, who encouraged me to write creatively when I was studying for an MFA in visual art. With her support as a writing tutor, I wrote a dozen or so short stories, and self-published them as pamphlets. I loved the entire cycle, starting with a vague idea, developing it through writing, moving through editorial stages, printing, folding, etc. One of the most beautiful things about writing, to me, is the relation between editor, writer, reader, and text, how they complete each other in the most unexpected ways.

After my graduation, I returned to social work with refugees, and later began working as an Reader, Advisor and Editor for The Geographical Open Atlas for the Polity of Literature (www.thegoatpol.org), which is a shared territory of reading and writing. This project is also where I feel most politically engaged, because what could be more political than publishing the stories we’d normally never read?

What was the most adventurous or thrilling thing you ever did/experienced?

Probably parenthood. Emigrating is a close second.

Do you listen to music while reading or writing?

Rarely. Lyrics distract me too much, so when I do listen, it’s always instrumental, and always the same stuff: the Goldberg Variations, Roy Montgomery, Keith Jarret’s improvisations. Still, silence seems to work best. I find it a shame though, because I love music, but I suppose it’s best I keep some things separate.