CPNB / Els Zweerink
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 17:38
The writer of the poem for the Children’s Book Week 2023, Pim Lammers, withdraws because he has received death threats. Lammers has informed the CPNB, the organizing foundation, of this.
Lammers is attacked for writing texts in adult stories that “sometimes shock and abrade”, according to the CPNB. The foundation refers to the commotion that arose this week about a story Lammers wrote in 2015 about a boy and his trainer.
In recent days, fragments have been shared on social media from the story, which is based on childhood experiences of an acquaintance of Lammers. Various organizations and well-known Dutch people complained about it, as did the Christian organization Family in Danger, and Member of Parliament Wybren van Haga. Lammers was accused, among other things, of being a pedophile activist.
‘Pertinently untrue’
“Writing a poem is not worth death threats to me. The allegations are emphatically untrue and I have therefore filed a report,” Lammers told the CPNB.
“The sheer amount of threats and their aggressiveness towards me and my loved ones made me decide to withdraw.”
‘Unacceptable pressure’
The CPNB announced in the middle of last month that it had selected Pim Lammers for the special poem that will be published in October in honor of Children’s Book Week. “His children’s books are about a very topical theme: being able to be yourself as a child.” Lammers is an award-winning children’s author.
Today, the CPNB says in a statement that it still supports that choice. The foundation is outraged by the threats and attacks against an author. “Literary freedom is under extreme pressure here that is unacceptable to the CPNB.”
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