Gerrit Kouwenaar

Gerrit Kouwenaar (9 August 1923 – 4 September 2014) was a Dutch journalist, translator, poet and prose writer. He was first published in 1941. He was a member of the Dutch poetry group known as the Vijftigers. Kouwenaar worked for magazines and newspapers such as "Vrij Nederland", "De Waarheid", and "Het Vrije Volk". During the mid-1940s, he worked for the illegal newspaper "Parade der Profeten". He was arrested for this and sentenced to half a year in jail. Kouwenaar was awarded the Martinus Nijhoff Prize in 1967 for his translation work. In 1970, he was given the P. C. Hooft Award. Kouwenaar later won the 1989 Dutch Literature Prize. In 2009, the Society of Dutch Literature named Kouwenaar the recipient of its annual honor. His last published work was released on 9 August 2008, Kouwenaar's eighty-fifth birthday.
Kouwenaar was born in Amsterdam, North Holland. He was a resistance fighter during World War II. The painter and poet David Kouwenaar (1921–2011) was his older brother. Kouwenaar died on 4 September 2014 in Amsterdam, aged 91.