author
Janneke Ratsma
A Frisian schoolteacher who turned to storytelling, she is remembered for preserving local language and folklore in print. Her best-known work, Frysk mearkesboek, reflects a warm interest in fairy tales and regional culture.
1 Audiobook
Frysk mearkesboek
by Janneke Ratsma
About the author
Born in Grou in 1896 and later dying in Enschede in 1976, Janneke Ratsma was a Dutch Frisian writer and schoolteacher. The sources available here consistently describe her as a teacher who wrote in Frisian, linking her work closely to the language and literary life of Friesland.
She is especially associated with Frysk mearkesboek, a collection that helped keep Frisian fairy-tale traditions visible to readers. A recent literary piece about her also notes that after training in Amsterdam she worked as a teacher, and that her political sympathies affected her career in Friesland before she moved to Enschede.
Ratsma may not be widely known outside Frisian literary circles, but her work has lasting value for readers interested in regional storytelling, folklore, and women’s writing in the Netherlands. Her surviving public profile is modest, which makes the continued availability of her work all the more meaningful.