Babs Gons

Dutch writer, poet and host, Babs Gons is at the core of a number of poetry initiatives, including Palabras (Amsterdam), a monthly gathering of young and/or emerging poets. She also founded and managed the artistic direction of the renowned Poetry Circle.

Long devoted to putting other fellows in the spotlight, Gons made her writing debut in 2021 with her collection of poems Doe het toch maar. The same year, she published a children's book: Het Begint Met Een Droom. In 2022 she won ‘The Johnny’ prize for poetic interpretation, and in 2024 the ‘Gouden Ganzenveer’. Gons' poems are fundamentally socially engaged, and navigate brilliantly between global themes and the sphere of the individuality and intimacy.

Babs Gons is currently national poetess of the Netherlands from 2023 to 2025, a term during which she aims to pursue one of the main motivations behind her work and vision: bridging the gap between the worlds of spoken word and poetry, the latter considered elitist and the former often dismissed as “inferior”. Gons shows the world both the plurality and singularity of poetic forms, while addressing the need to make poetry more accessible: according to her, everyone can read it, integrate it into their daily lives, and even write it themselves.