The American Book Center warmly invites you to the 3rd annual Amsterdam Boekennacht (Book Night) on Friday, April 15, 2011.
The theme of this year’s Boekennacht is “De Ontdekking” or “The Discovery”. It promises be an exciting and varied evening of books and book lovers with a wide array of authors, literary events and presentations in the participating book stores, cultural institutions, and cafés on and around the Spui.
All the participating venues have crafted their own program, making the theme their own. One can discover, poetry, music, art, evil, The Netherlands, Amsterdam, love, food, a theory, a calling and last but not least a great new author or a book!
The American Book Center Amsterdam program:
Discovering the Future of Publishing
- What: Introducing the Espresso Book Machine
- Who: ABC!
- Where: ABC Amsterdam, second floor
- When: 10.00-22.00
We would like to invite all Boekennacht visitors to drop by the top floor of our store to see the future of publishing in action.
The American Book Center has the first Espresso Book Machine on the continent of Europe. This revolutionary machine prints, cuts and binds your very own book (or previously unavailable title, chosen from an ever-growing database) right before your eyes! During Boekennacht we will introduce the €25 EBM gift voucher. Buy one for the book lover in your life and take part in our draw to win free tickets to the The Hague Jazz festival in June in the Kyocera Stadium.
(Dis)covering the English Language and Culture
Who: Ronald van de Krol
Where: American Book Center, Ground Floor
When: 20.00-20.25
Ronald van de Krol – an American with a Dutch surname – is the author of the best-selling ‘Native English for Nederlanders’ and its sequel ‘Voertaal: English’.
The aim of the books is to prevent Dutch speakers from falling into tricky cultural and grammatical traps when speaking English. Intended to be a survival guide for the Dutch in a globalized world, the books concentrate on the common mistakes which the Dutch tend make in English. Along the way, Dutch readers find out why they should never say ‘Welcome in Amsterdam’ or ‘I am working for Shell’.
In both books Van de Krol draws on his own experience of learning Dutch and describes the cultural challenges he encountered in speaking the language correctly. Whereas Americans need to become more direct and less polite when adopting Dutch as their second language, the Dutch need to do the opposite when speaking English — be less direct and more obviously polite.
Van de Krol currently edits the Saturday edition of Het Financieele Dagblad. Previously he was deputy editor of the newspaper, after earlier working for the Financial Times and for Reuters. He was born in the US to Dutch emigrant parents and is a graduate of Oxford University.
Discovering the Netherlands and Other Places
Who: Teresa Gotay
Where: American Book Center, Ground Floor
When: 20.30 – 20.55
Teresa Gotay is a travel writer and lives in New York but is often away backpacking through new places all over the world.
She found love in the Netherlands and will share her observations and discoveries of the Dutch and their culture with us during Boekennacht. And she could have some tips for those who want to discover New York off the beaten track.
Discoveries and experiences in the Netherlands from the perspective of a black American woman
Who: Carolyn Vines
Where: American Book Center, Ground Floor
When: 21.00 – 21.25
Carolyn Vines is the author of Black and (A)broad: Traveling Beyond the Limitations of Identity. Besides that Carolyn is also an editor, award-winning blogger, teacher and mother of two bi-cultural daughters. After accepting her Dutch boyfriend’s invitation to move from sultry New Orleans to soggy Holland, Carolyn found herself in a land of windmills and endless grey skies. On the way to self-discovery in a strange country her determination was put to the test as she dealt with motherhood, the Dutch, a career change and much more, and along the way changed her ideas about being a black woman.
“I come from a place where almost everything is seen through the lens of race, so it’s all a matter of black and white. For many Americans I am a black woman, and that label has centuries of stigma attached to it. In America it’s hard to be black in “a white man’s world” as my mother always called it. I discovered color in Holland. I discovered in the Dutch people a willingness to see the various tones that constitute a person’s background. The bulb fields alight with deep reds, passionate purples, regal oranges and pretty pinks, seen along the road as I discovered this country of contradictions, became something of a metaphor for my own self-discovery. I discovered that my passion for writing ran deep and that my journey to discover who I was at times regal. Through the eyes of Dutch people I’m pretty and the culture I physically left behind is always here – inside.”
Discovering Amsterdam through Poetry
Who: Cralan Kelder
Where: American Book Center, Ground Floor
When: 21.30 – 21.55
Cralan Kelder was born in 1970 and grew up between California and The Netherlands. He is a trained anthropologist. He has edited numerous literary magazines, including Full Metal Poem and Retort.
His latest collection is Give Some Word. Previous books include ‘French Pastry’ (Coracle 2007), and ‘Night Falls and is Slow to Get Up’ (Longhouse 2005).
Cralan Kelder will close our evening poetically by leading us through the streets and alleyways of Amsterdam and beyond.
The complete Boekennacht program, covering all the venues and events, can be found on boekennacht.nl
The following event has been cancelled:
Discovering the Art of Music: Notations 21: Exhibition and Book Presentation
Who: Theresa Sauer
Where: ABC Treehouse
When: 17.30-19.30
Ready for a new entry in ABC’s Favorite Reads of 2012 series? There will be new titles, old titles, magazines, Dutch books, games, fiction, non fiction, anything and everything we read and liked in 2012. We are as diverse as our individual choices and that is what makes ABC unique!
Ah yes, it’s December, the time of looking over the past year and deciding what was great, what was so-so, and what could be done better next year. In what is now 
)? And who’s not fond of a writer’s bag of tricks?
