A Harry Potter necklace, a Lord of the Rings quilt and a self-penned Star Trek story, all created by fans. Such productivity comes as no surprise to researcher Welmoed Wagenaar. Better yet, she herself admits to still having a yen for Harry Potter. As a teenager, she spent ages scrolling through online forums, which led her to discover ‘fan fiction’, in which characters and other elements from existing story worlds are borrowed for making your own story.

Welmoed Wagenaar immerses you in the wonderful world of fan fiction. Writers Alma Mathijsen and Munganyende Hélène Christelle have thrown open the gates of the fan fiction castle from within, especially for you, creating a bespoke piece of literary fan fiction for this programme, all about their own favourite fan fiction. Ellen Deckwitz will be presenting and introducing you to this special genre.

With intermezzos by members of Poetry Circle 058.

Inspired by a concept developed by the Amsterdam literary activities foundation, Stichting Literaire Activiteiten Amsterdam.

Times and other information
Thu 17 June - 8.30PM
Westerkerk | Price: € 7,50 | Language: Dutch


Get your tickets here

About the makers

Welmoed Wagenaar, a junior researcher for the Meerten Intitute’s HERILIGION project and PHD candidate at the University of Groningen, with a research focus on rituals, online fandom and daily life, received the Cornelis Tiele MA Thesis Award in 2019 from the Dutch society for religious studies, the Nederlands Genootschap voor Godsdienstwetenschap (NGG). Her winning thesis, entitled Framing the Fictional: Making sense of Tumblr media fandom in everyday life, is all about the ritual dimensions of online fandom practice, and how these are connected with the daily lives of fans.

Munganyende Hélène Christelle is an author and New Age Publisher. She created the FUFU&DADELS podcast platform and has made a lasting impression with her socio-critical essays. She was included in the NRC 101 culture list of Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad and in ELLE magazine’s ‘30 Gretas for today’ list of world improvers, and was awarded the CCS Crone certificate for promising authors. Munganyende’s work straddles pop culture and millennial feminism. In this light, she developed a course called Beyoncéology for the ArtEZ University of the Arts. Munganyende’s pen casts a discerning light on social issues of great urgency, acting as an indispensable voice for her generation. Her debut novel Vreemd Fruit (Strange Fruit) will be published this autumn by Uitgeverij Pluim.

Alma Mathijsen studied Image & Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and creative writing in New York. When she was 18, she began writing for the youth website Spunk.nl and was part of the columnist duo Fanny & Alma appearing in Dutch daily Het Parool. She has written six plays, a collection of stories and two novels. Mathijsen writes essays for NRC Handelsblad. Her debut novel Alles is Carmen (Everything is Carmen) was published in 2011, followed by De grote goede dingen (The Great Good Things) in 2014, an honest and light-hearted novel about her legendary father. In 2017 Vergeet de meisjes (Forget the Girls) was published, an ominous novel about two women who decide to withdraw from the world. In October 2020, Bewaar de zomer (Save the Summer) appeared.

Ellen Deckwitz studied Dutch and Literature and Culture Studies in Groningen. She is a writer, poet, theatre maker and columnist. In addition to poetry collections, including Hogere Natuurkunde (Higher Physics), which won the 2019 E. du Perron Prize, she writes books on poetry and writing. She regularly hosts poetry slams, which she has won several of herself, and is known for her guest appearances on De Wereld Draait Door, a popular prime-time talk show, and as a finalist in De Slimste Mens (The Smartest Human), a game show. Language and poetry also always play an important role in her theatrical work. Deckwitz is a columnist for both NRC Handelsblad and Belgian daily De Morgen, and together with Joost de Vries produces a literary podcast called Boeken FM. In 2020 she wrote the Book Week Poem, entitled Rebel.