What is going on in the minds of conspiracy theorists? The longer the internet era lasts, the more we are coming to understand that conspiracy theorists are not just the firm believers in UFOs, crop circles, chemtrails, the Moon landing hoax, pyramid-building aliens, using ‘vaccines’ for mind control or simply ‘Vatican assassin warlocks’, but might also be the lady next door or your uncle, who have lost their faith in government.
For Complotproza (Conspiracy Prose), writers and poets Fenna Riethof, Michael ter Maat and Joël Hut have left the beaten track to discuss three conspiracy theorists’ theories with them. They then use these to create a story in a type of fiction of their own choosing, which the conspiracy theorist will subsequently read out.
Times and other information
Thu 1 July - 8.30PM
Westerkerk | Price: € 7,50 | Language: Dutch
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About the makers
Fenna Riethof (b. 1992) is a journalist, bookseller and fiction writer. She was a WriteNow! 2017 finalist, appeared in the Sampler of Das Mag as ‘talent anno tomorrow’, and is currently writing her debut novel which will be published by Lebowski Publishers. She has worked as a freelance journalist for AD Magazine and De Nieuwe Utrechtse Krant, among others. As daughter of a mother who spread conspiracy theories, she investigated what drives people to believe in alternative theories, in which authority figures like scientists, government officials, politicians and the media are wrongdoers.
Michael ter Maat (b. 1996) won second prize in Write Now! Groningen with his poem sequence Mama is een vogelaar (Mama is a birdwatcher), and was a WriteNow! 2020 finalist. Ter Maat is studying in Leeuwarden to become a Dutch teacher, having grown up in the province of Groningen. In his work, personal experiences and themes play an important role, while content and form are both found important.
Joël Hut (1995) is a writer and poet who writes in Zuidwesthoekse Frisian dialect. As a writer, he focuses on the technique that poetic or literary form involves, using this to enhance his work’s content. Issues affecting society play an important role in his work. Since 2013, a number of his stories and poems have been published in the Frisian literary magazines Ensafh and De Moanne. Börtertsgrut, his poetry collection, was published in 2020.