Contributor of the Week: Tommy Wieringa

Tommy with his daughter Hazel

On April 27, novelist Tommy Wieringa visited Sampsonia Way to give a reading with Sofi Oksanen and Christos Tsoilkas. The event was sponsored by City of Aslyum/Pittsburgh in partnership with PEN/America. While he was here, he sat down for a chat with Sampsonia Way editor Silvia Duarte, read this interview here.

Wieringa’s 2005 novel Joe Speedboat has been translated into ten languages and is the first of his novels to be translated into English. The book was also a best seller in Holland.

Recently, Sam Garrett has been awarded for the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize for his translation of Wieringa’s Joe Speedboat. This prestigious award highlights translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance.

The prizes were awarded at a ceremony at St Anne’s College, Oxford, on Thursday June 3rd.

As a contributor to Sampsonia Way Magazine and an author, Wieringa has also written two previous novels. Dormantique’s manco was recognized as a beautifully written novel, while Alles over Tristan, was awarded the Halewijn Prize and nominated for the AKO Literature Prize. Some of these works have been translated into Hebrew, French, Korean, German, and six other languages, highlighting how his work has significance across different cultures.

Click here to read Brian’s bio.