Join us on 19th November for a special event featuring a rare UK appearance by Dutch poet Anne Vegter, alongside her translator Astrid Alben.
To celebrate the publication of the second collection they have published with Prototype, Pig Data, Anne and Astrid will be reading from their work, discussing the collection, reflecting on the processes of translation and collaboration, the challenges, rules and freedoms of translating experimental poetry, and the role of independent publishers in bringing translated poetry to new readers.
ABOUT PIG DATA:
Anne Vegter’s Pig Data, winner of the the Ida Gerhardt Poetry Prize, exposes the raw nerves of power and desire. The collection orchestrates a mythic and historical collision between three formidable figures – the South African poet Ingrid Jonker, the mythical witch Medea, and a provocative poetic ‘I’ (evoking the trope of the ‘scorned woman’) – to interrogate the male gaze and the transformative potential of female rage.
Vegter’s poems tease language to its limit, with a restless energy that is dynamic, vicious and vulgar, infused with humour and absurdist overtones, brought to life through Astrid Alben’s virtuosic translation. Pig Data fearlessly rebuffs the comforts of traditional form, revelling in contradictions, moving between a luminous tenderness and vulgar, incoherent urgency.
Anne Vegter is the author of numerous poetry collections, children’s books, theatre monologues and erotic stories. She trained in theatre in Utrecht and taught at the Writers’ Academy in Amsterdam. She made her debut as a children’s book author in 1990 with The Lady and the Rhinoceros, which won the Woutertje Pieterse Prize, a major Dutch award for new children’s literature. Vegter’s first poetry collection, Het veerde, appeared in 1991, followed in 1994 by Ongekuiste versies, a book of erotic tales. Since then, she has published widely across genres.
Vegter regularly works as a performer, collaborating with composers and musicians. Her work has been translated into English, German, Spanish and French. She has received numerous awards for children’s literature, theatre and poetry, including the Woutertje Pieterse Prize, the Awater Poetry Prize (2011), the Anna Blaman Prize, and the Ida Gerhardt Poetry Prize. In 2013, she became the first woman to be named Poet Laureate of the Netherlands, a role she held until 2017.
Prototype published Astrid Alben’s English translation of Vegter’s collection Eiland berg gletsjer (Island Mountain Glacier) in 2022. This collection, originally published in Dutch in 2020 as Big Data, was awarded the Ida Gerhardt Poetry Prize for best collection. Vegter’s work is characterised by an elastic style that is playful, erotic, enigmatic and disturbing. Her next collection, Projectmedewerker (Project Staff), was published in January 2026.
Astrid Alben is a poet, editor and translator. She is the author of Ai! Ai! Pianissimo, Plainspeak and Little Dead Rabbit. Alben self-translated Little Dead Rabbit and this was published as Klein dood konijn by PoëzieCentrum. Her poetry and non-fiction have appeared in literary journals including Granta and the Times Literary Supplement. She has worked with BBC Radio, the Serpentine Gallery and Wellcome Collection, and with performance and animation.
This event is part of the New Dutch Writing programme, supported by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Dutch Embassy in the UK.
Event rundown:
6pm: Doors open. There'll be enough unreserved seating for everyone, so come grab one and make yourself comfortable.
6:30pm: We'll begin the conversation.
7.15pm: Open up for audience questions.
7:30pm: Anne and Astrid will be available to sign copies of their book, the shop will remain open for browsing and chatting.
Juno Books is a very small venue, and we will do our best to meet particular requirements. Accessibility information can be found here.
If you have any accessibility requirements or questions please email us at hello@junobooks.co.uk