New books travelling to the United States

Fantastic news: the new publishing house of Levine Querido, directed by the legendary Arthur Levine will devote a small segment of its program to books that were originally published by Querido Amsterdam. I'm really, really proud to announce that already in the company's first programs two of my books will be presented.

First of all the book I made with Marije Tolman will be translated. It's called Vosje which in the US-version will be Red Fox. David Colmer will be translating. This English edition succeeds the French, German, Russian and Italian editions.

But that's not the only book Levine Querido will publish. In the spring of 2012 there will be an English version of my Young Adult novel about the first passionate love between Tycho and Oliver, two eighteen year old European boys, who meet in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The book, which will be called Days of Bluegrass Love, (in Dutch: De dagen van de bluegrassliefde) was first published in 1999, with an updated version in 2015. Besides the United States the book will also be published in Latvia soon, by the way. I'm so thrilled by all this! Thanks to everyone involved.

The English SUPER GUPPY is out now

In 2003 Superguppie was published, by Querido, in The Netherlands and Flanders, and now, sixteen years later, it's out in the United Kingdom! It was translated for The Emma Press as Super Guppy - by the great David Colmer, who translated two other poetry volumes of mine into English as well.

Of course the illustrations are still by Fleur van der Weel, who gave my short poems a continuous sparkle. Superguppie was also translated into French and German.


The book could be ordered here (The Netherlands) and here (UK) or here (USA etc).

SUPER GUPPY in the UK

Happy to anounce that there will be a third poetry volume in English next year - this time it's my poems for very young children that will be translated by the great David Colmer. The lovely house of The Emma Press in Birmingham, United Kingdom will publish Super Guppy, a translation of Superguppie, the book that illustrator Fleur van der Weel and I made in 2003.

The book was originally issued by Querido in Amsterdam, and got several awards, including the Woutertje Pieterse Prijs (critic's award) and a Zilveren Griffel (best books of the year).
Earlier translations were the French one (Super Gloupi, Éditions Être) and the German one (Superguppy, Boje Verlag).

Other translations of my poetry are The sexy storm (A midsummer night's press, USA, 2018) and I'll root for you (Eerdmans, USA, 2018), both translated by David Colmer as well. The latter poetry collection got a starred Kirkus review.

Even more poetry in the United States

And again some wonderful translation news. David Colmer is also working on the English translation of the poems from my volume I'M CHEERING FOR YOU - poems that are about animals and sports, written to the images made by Wolf Erlbruch.

The publishing house of Eerdmans, that also did THE DOG THAT NINO DIDN'T HAVE (with Anton Van Hertbruggen) and the consecutive books about the dog Sam (with Philip Hopman), will now publish I'M CHEERING FOR YOU. That is marvelous news. So, a big thank you to Eerdmans, to rights manager Luciënne van der Leije (of the original publisher Querido), and to David Colmer!

I'M CHEERING FOR YOU was awarded with the bi-annual Golden Poetry Medal for children's poetry and received an Honorary Mention at the Dutch Children's Book Prizes.

Poetry in the United States

It's not that often poetry gets translated - and certainly not in English. But master translator David Colmer is working on it right now: an English translation selection of poems taken from my two volumes AANHALINGSTEKENS (QUOTATION MARKS) and CHATBOX, that will be published by the small, vibrant American publishing house of A Midsummer Night's Press (directed by Lawrence Schimel). The publishing date will be somewhere this year.
These both books were originally issued by Querido, Amsterdam.

A huge thank you to both Lawrence Schimel and David Colmer.

SAM IN THE US

Last week my first book about the dog Sam came out in the United States. In Dutch it's called TOEN KWAM SAM and in the version that Eerdmans' Publishing House issued it's named A DOG LIKE SAM. It was beautifully translated by David Colmer, and of course the original illustrations by Philip Hopman are included.
Next year also the second volume about the dog will be published!

The book came out in Holland in 2011 and was awarded with the Zilveren Griffel (Silver Slate) one year later. Further editions are the French, the German, the Estonian and the South-African one, where it was published in all the official eleven languages of the country.
Rights can be seen here, and the Dutch Literary Fund is giving out grants for the translation of this book (and others).

NEWS ABOUT SAM

The dog that gave me two books, Sam, is still alive (well, the real one isn't, sadly enough). The two books (SAM SHOWED UP and SAMS MYSTERIES) were bundled into one big Sam-book, the new cover goes hereby. The books were issued by Querido and contain of course all the original illustrations by the great Philip Hopman.

Apart from that, the Estonian Organisation for Child Care, chose their 'best books of the year'. Among those picks was the Estonian translation by Kerti Tergem of the first book, SAM SHOWED UP (KOER NIMEGA SAM, published by Päike Ja Pilv).

The rights of the first book so far were sold for these languages:
French
German
Estonian
English (USA)
and all eleven languages of the Republic of South-Africa.

The second book:
German
Estonian.

The Dutch Literature Fund gives grants for spreading the book into even more countries. This can be checked here. Also on that page: a sample translation into English (by David Colmer) of the first book. 

SAM WILL SHOW UP IN THE US

Today a press statement was released by my publisher, Querido in Amsterdam, announcing that the World-English Rights for both my books SAM SHOWED UP and SAMS MYSTERIES have been sold to Eerdmans Publishing Company in the Uinited States. The first book will come out this fall and is translated by David Colmer, awarded translator. The books will, just as in all international versions so far, contain the beautiful illustrations by Philip Hopman.

The first and second book came out in Germany (Carlsen) and Estonia (Päike ja Pilv) and the first book was issued in all eleven official languagues in South-Africa (ten editions by the Department of Arts and Culture, one by Protea Boekhuis). The French translation will be published soon, by L'école des loisirs.

For other languages: rights can be informed here, and The Dutch Literary Fund could provide a grant.