Literair Café Veldhoven: Jacques Vriens

In Theater de Schalm, Jacques Vriens is interviewed by Mark van der Linden, Program Maker of the Veldhoven Library. Of course there is room for questions from the audience. Bruna Veldhoven is present with a nice selection of books, which visitors can buy and have signed.

About Jacques Vriens
Jacques Vriens (Den Bosch, 1946) enjoyed teaching primary education for 25 years. Together with his team, he thought it was important that children discovered what they were good at, in order to strengthen their self-confidence based on that feeling.

His students inspired him to write his 'school novels' such as Eighth-graders don't cry, That rotten school with that nice class and of course Meester Jaap. He has been a full-time writer since 1993. History was one of his favorite subjects, which is why he also writes historical children's books, such as Secrets of War, Weg uit de Peel and Smokkelkinderen.

His own childhood in a hotel formed the basis for the series about The Gang of the Korenwolf. 

In addition, Jacques also writes about social themes such as youth care (Not at home), euthanasia (Code Catnip, how my grandfather died happily) and divorce (My father lives in the garden house). 

His essay was published in 2021: Shall we just play school again? In it he talks about his experiences as a teacher and gives his vision on contemporary primary education: about what is certainly going well, but also where we have taken the wrong turn.

Enough topics for an inspiring afternoon!

About Literair Café Veldhoven
Convivial, inspiring and surprising: these are the characteristics of Literair Café Veldhoven. Since its start in 2018, the event has received Özcan Akyol, Esther Verhoef, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and Rob Kemps, among others. Literary Café Veldhoven is a collaboration between the Veldhoven Library, Bruna Veldhoven, Museum 't Oude Slot and Theater de Schalm.