These – mainly Dutch – books are in the last straight line for De Boon, the new literature prize

Martine Tanghe in Brigitte Raskin, chairmen of the children’s and youth jury and the fiction and non-fiction jury respectively gave explanations in “Culture Club” on Radio 1. Why is it that only one book from Flanders made it to the shortlists?

Martine Tanghe: “I am very happy with that, but the background of the author was not a criterion. It was not the intention to have a balance between m/f/x, Flanders-Netherlands, fiction or non-fiction, or between publishers. We looked at books. We have five good books and one of them is by a Flemish author.” Brigitte Raskin adds: “Our long list did contain Flemish people, but that’s not what you’re thinking about when you’re choosing. You choose books. And we chose discovery and revelation.”

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