The Brusse Prize for the best Dutch-language journalistic book this year goes to Thalia Verkade and Marco te Brömmelstroet for their book The right of the fastest. How our traffic became more and more antisocial.
The authors received the prize, with a cash prize of 10,000 euros, from jury chairman and NOS journalist Gerri Eickhof in radio program With a view to tomorrow.
Verkade writes about mobility for the journalistic site De Correspondent. Te Brömmelstroet is professor of urban mobility at the University of Amsterdam.
Their book revolves around the history of public space in the Netherlands and how the car has come to play an increasingly dominant role in it. The authors wonder who owns the street these days and also think aloud about how things could be done differently or better.
‘compelling thinker’
“A compelling thinker”, writes the jury of the Brusse Prize about the book. “It offers many unprecedented insights into traffic and mobility, convincingly poses the question of how important mobility really is and suggests an answer.”
In a video meeting of about 3.5 hours, the jury came up with a shortlist of 5 books from 187 entries, with the book by Verkade and Te Brömmelstroet ultimately the winner.
Other nominees were Harm Ede Botje and Mischa Cohen with their portrait of FvD leader Baudet: My opinions are facts. The birth of Thierry Baudet. Also were The discovery of Urk on Golden mountains. Portrait of the digital generation contenders.
In the book about Urk attempts Matthias MR Declercq to penetrate to the core of the Urk community and the other book, by Doortje Smithuijsen, offers an insight into the world of influencers. Also Ecstasy: A Biography by Philippus Zandstra and Wietse Pottjewijd, on the history of the nightlife drug, was nominated.
The annual Brusse Prize is an initiative of the Special Journalistic Projects Fund. The prize has been awarded since 2006, initially once every two years and since 2010 annually. Last year the prize was won by Pieter van Os, with his book Rather animal than human.
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