| Bea Vianen | |
| Birth Name: | Beatrice Sylvia Vianen |
| Birth Date: | 6 November 1935 |
| Birth Place: | Paramaribo, Suriname |
| Death Place: | Paramaribo, Suriname |
| Nationality: | Suriname |
| Occupation: | Writer, poet |
| Notable Works: | Sarnami, Hai (1969) Strafhok (1971)[1] |
Beatrice Sylvia Vianen (6 November 1935 in Paramaribo – 6 January 2019) was a Surinamese writer and poet who went by the name Bea Vianen.[2] Bea Vianen was the first Surinamese woman who had a book published by a Dutch publishing house (Querido).[3]
Bea Vianen was of both African and Indian ancestry. At the age of eight, her mother died of tuberculosis, and she was put in a Catholic foster home.[4] Vianen went to the Netherlands in 1957 for her Bachelor of Education.[5] Vianen wrote mainly in Dutch, but occasionally in Sranan Tongo, and her writing contained many autobiographical elements. Her first novel was Sarnami, Hai or "Surinam I am" in 1969, a coming of age story of a young East Indian girl in a country torn apart by religious and ethnic differences, and a colonial past.[6] It's a bleak story set in a world without love, but also about a young woman who persists in life.[7]
Vianen also wrote poetry, which has been collected in Liggend stilstaan bij blijvende monumenten (1975).[6] In 1978, she started to work for Avenue for whom she travelled to places like Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. The journeys resulted in many poems, and many personal dramas.[4]
Vianen was an admirer of the Trinidadian novelist V. S. Naipaul.[8] Vianen died in Paramaribo on 6 January 2019 at the age of 83.[3]