Gerrit Kouwenaar

Kouwenaar in November 1978.

Gerrit Kouwenaar (9 August 1923 – 4 September 2014) was a Dutch journalist, translator, poet and prose writer. He began working in 1941. He was a member of the Dutch poetry group known as the Vijftigers. He worked for magazines and newspapers such as Vrij Nederland, De Waarheid and Het Vrije Volk. During the mid-1940s, he worked for the illegal newspaper Parade der Profeten. He was arrested for this and sentenced to half a year in jail. In 1970, he was given the P. C. Hooft Award.

Kouwenaar was born in Amsterdam, North Holland. He was a resistance fighter during World War II. The painter and poet David Kouwenaar (1921–2011) was an older brother his. He retired in 2008.

Kouwenaar died on 4 September 2014 in Amsterdam, aged 91.

Other websites

• Gerrit Kouwenaar at the Digital Library of Dutch Literature website (in Dutch)