Hanny Michaelis Explained

Hanny Michaelis (19 December 1922  - 11 June 2007) was a Dutch poet.

The daughter of Alfred Michaelis and Gonda Sara Swaab, both Jewish, she was born in Amsterdam.

Her parents were sent to Sobibór in 1943^[1] and never returned. She lived in hiding from 1942 to 1945. After World War II, Michaelis worked for the Artistic Affairs department of the municipality of Amsterdam .

In 1948, she married the writer Gerard Kornelis van het Reve; they separated in 1959.

She was awarded the Anna Bijns Prize in 1996.^[2]

Her work has a prevailing tone of melancholy, loneliness and despair, although her last collection of poems has a more vital tone to it and moments of humour.^[3]

Michaelis died in Amsterdam at the age of 84.^[4]

Poetry collections

• Klein voorspel (Little prelude) (1949)
• Water uit de rots (Water from the rock) (1957)
• Tegen de wind in (Against the wind) (1962)
• Onvoorzien (Unforeseen) (1966); received the Jan Campert Prize^[4]
• De rots van Gibraltar (The Rock of Gibraltar) (1970)
• Wegdraven naar een nieuw Utopia (Running off toward a new Utopia) (1971)^[5]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Hanny Michaelis . Poetry International Rotterdam . 2014-11-06 . 2016-04-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160421201951/http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/4012/6/Hanny-Michaelis . dead .
2. Web site: Hanny Michaelis at the Poetry International festival 2003 . Poetry International Rotterdam . 2014-11-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160421203157/http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/cou_article/item/15136/Hanny-Michaelis-at-the-Poetry-International-festival-2003/en . 2016-04-21 . dead .
3. Book: Meijer, Maaike . https://books.google.com/books?id=DKDyxjdELaEC&pg=PA115 . Crushed. by. a. Malevolent. God: Hanny. Michaelis, 1922-2007 . Women's Writing from the Low Countries 1880-2010: An Anthology . 115–19 . 2010 . 9789089641939 . Bel, Jacqueline Bel . Vaessens, Thomas.
4. Web site: Michaelis, Hanny (1922-2007) . Online Dictionary of Dutch Women. nl.
5. Book: Wilson, Katharina M . An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers . 833 . 1 . 1991 . 0824085477.