Marieke Rijneveld

Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (born 20 April 1991, Nieuwendijk, Netherlands) is a Dutch writer. They use the pronouns they/them. Their debut novel, translated into English as The Discomfort of Evening by Michele Hutchison, is nominated at the shortlist for the International Booker Prize in 2020, making them only the third Dutch author to be nominated for the prize, after Tommy Wieringa (longlisted in 2019) and Harry Mulisch (shortlisted in 2007).

Rijneveld grew up in a religious family on a farm in North Brabant in the Netherlands. They have said that their debut novel, translated into English as The Discomfort of Evening, is inspired partly by the death of their brother when the author was three. It took them six years to complete the novel.

Rijneveld started getting an interest in writing in primary school after reading J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which they loaned from the local library. As in Reformed circles, fantasy is a taboo genre, Rijneveld typed over the whole book on their computer so they could re-read it upon returning the novel.

Rijneveld has stated that renowned Dutch writer Jan Wolkers, who also grew up in a Reformed environment, is their idol. Their interest for poetry was conceived when they had speech therapy as they were looking at pictures with poetry on them when waiting on a session. When Rijneveld was progressing in their therapy, they were allowed to read up those poems by their therapist.

They studied to become a Dutch teacher, but dropped out to focus on writing. Next to writing, Rijneveld works on a farm.

Poetry

• Kalfsvlies, 2015 (English: Calf's caul, excerpts from which were translated into English by Sarah Timmer Harvey and shortlisted for Asymptote magazine's 'Close Approximations' translation contest in 2017).
• Fantoommerrie, 2019 (English: Phantom Mare)

Books

• De avond is ongemak, published in English as The Discomfort of Evening, translated by Michele Hutchison (Faber & Faber) ISBN 9780571349364.

• Kalfsvlies, awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize for best Dutch-language poetry debut in 2015.
• De avond is ongemak, awarded the ANV Debutantenprijs, the prize for best debut novel in Dutch, in 2019.
• The Discomfort of Evening, translated by Michele Hutchison, was nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2020.