Jeroen Mettes on Continent: Poetics for N30 in English

Continent issue 2.1. (2012) has an excellent English translation by Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei of Jeroen Mettes’ posthumous text ‘Political Poetry: A Few Notes. Poetics for N30‘.

Also highly recommended: ‘The Poetry of Jeroen Mettes‘, an essay by the poet, composer and current nY-editor Samuel Vriezen, along with some translated excerpts from Mettes’ great poem N30 itself.

Jeroen Mettes (1978-2006) was the most promising Dutch-language poet and critic of his generation. He published his last poems and essays in the literary journals Parmentier (The Netherlands) and yang (Belgium), the predecessor of nY, of which he was one of the editors until his self-chosen death in 2006.

In 2011, Wereldbibliotheek published two volumes of his most important last writings: Weerstandsbeleid. Nieuwe kritieken (blog texts and critical essays), and N30+. Nieuwe zinnen (poetry). Both volumes are published together in the box Nagelaten werk (‘Posthumous Works’), edited by Piet Joostens, Frans-Willem Korsten and Daniël Rovers (Wereldbibliotheek, Amsterdam, 2011).