Lutz van Dijk
Lutz van Dijk | |
|---|---|
 Van Dijk in 2007 | |
| Born | Lutz van Dijk 1955 (age 70–71) |
| Language | German |
| Citizenship |
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Lutz van Dijk (born 1955[1]) is a German and Dutch author and educator.
Biography
[edit]Lutz van Dijk was born in 1955 in the outskirts of West Berlin, near the Berlin Wall.[2] He initially worked as a special education teacher in Hamburg and later joined the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.[1] Van Dijk also spends time in Cape Town.[1] Prior to settling in the Netherlands, he left Germany and lived in New York City, where he moved to in 1973.[3] He also became a naturalized Dutch citizen.[4]
Van Dijk received his doctorate in 1987 at the University of Hamburg, with his thesis being in the field of educational sciences and teachers who opposed Nazism in Germany.[5] In the summer of 2009, he was named an honorary professor in poetics at the Research Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature at the University of Oldenburg.[6]
In his writing, Van Dijk deals with topics related to Nazism and homosexuality[4] and, since 2018, he has published children's books.[7] Van Dijk also wrote Kampala-Hamburg, a book about a gay refugee from Uganda who escapes persecution in his native country and flees to Hamburg with the help of German LGBTQ+ activists.[3] Van Dijk wrote most of his books in German, with many of them translated into Afrikaans, Xhosa, and English.[1] In 2024, he wrote an autobiography recounting his childhood in a city divided by the Berlin Wall, and his decision to move to New York City as soon as he turned 18.[3]
In early 2001, Van Dijk founded the aid organization HOKISA (Homes for Kids in South Africa) in a town near Cape Town.[1] His partners in the NGO mostly were South African activists. HOKISA provides support for children and young people who have lost their parents to AIDS or who are themselves HIV-positive.[1] The first HOKISA home opened near Cape Town in 2002.[8]
Awards and nominations
[edit]Van Dijk was nominated in 2021 for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis,[9] and in 2023, he was a nominee at the Stonewall Awards for his LGBTQ+ activism.[10] In 1997, Van Dijk was awarded with the Youth Literature Award of Namibia and, in 2001, he received the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g "Lutz van Dijk reads from his book "A History of Africa"" (PDF). Stellenbosch University. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
- ^ "„Irgendwann die weite Welt"". Education and Science Workers' Union (Germany) (in German). 19 August 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
- ^ a b c ""Irgendwann die weite Welt"" ["Sometimes the vast world"]. Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (in German). 19 August 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
- ^ a b ""Queer remembering of the Nazi era – does that exist? Lecture, reading and conversation with Dr. Lutz van Dijk"". Stadtbibliothek Bremen. 6 June 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
- ^ Van Dijk, Lutz (1988). Oppositionelles Lehrerverhalten, 1933-1945 biographische Berichte über den aufrechten Gang von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern [Dissenting behavior among teachers, 1933-1945: biographical accounts about the upright posture of teachers] (in German). Hamburg, Germany: Juventa Publ. ISBN 9783779906773.
- ^ "Lutz van Dijk". mundagency.com. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
- ^ Reich, Lena (28 June 2024). ""Ich möchte Kinderliteratur dekolonisieren"" ["I want to decolonize children's literature] (in German). Amnesty International. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
- ^ "Hokisa | South Africa". changemakershub.org. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
- ^ "Nominierungen 2021". jugendliteratur.org (in German). 2021. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
- ^ "Programm & Kundgebung 2023". csd-berlin.de (in German). 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
- Living people
- 1955 births
- 20th-century German male writers
- 21st-century German male writers
- 20th-century Dutch male writers
- 21st-century Dutch male writers
- German emigrants to the Netherlands
- Emigrants from West Germany to the United States
- German autobiographers
- Dutch autobiographers
- Writers from Berlin
- Writers from Hamburg
- Writers from Amsterdam
- Writers from Cape Town
- German gay writers
- Dutch gay writers
- 20th-century German LGBTQ people
- 20th-century Dutch LGBTQ people
- 21st-century German LGBTQ people
- 21st-century Dutch LGBTQ people
- University of Hamburg alumni
- Academic staff of the University of Oldenburg
- Naturalised citizens of the Netherlands
- German-language writers
- HIV/AIDS activists
- Activists from Berlin