author
Simke Kloosterman
1876–1938
A pioneering voice in Frisian literature, she brought rural life, family conflict, and local tradition vividly onto the page. Her fiction and poetry helped give the Frisian language a stronger place in modern literary culture.
4 Audiobooks
De Hoara's fen Hastings
by Simke Kloosterman
Ruth : In hânfol ieren
by Simke Kloosterman
It Jubeljier : (1793-1813)
by Simke Kloosterman
Twiljocht-teltsjes : Maerkes
by Simke Kloosterman
About the author
Born in Twijzel in 1876, Simke Kloosterman was a Frisian writer and poet who grew up in a literary family; her father, Jan Ritskes Kloosterman, was also a poet. Reliable biographical sources describe her as an important early writer in Frisian, and several note that she wrote under the pseudonym In Frysk Famke.
She is best known for De Hoara’s fan Hastings (1921), often described as a landmark modern novel in the Frisian language. Sources on her work also highlight later books including It Jubeljier (1926), the children’s story collection Twiljochtteltsjes (1928), and her poetry collection De wylde fûgel (1932).
Kloosterman died in Leeuwarden in 1938. Her reputation lasted well beyond her lifetime: literary organizations and reference works continue to describe her as a major figure in Frisian letters, and a literary prize for Frisian children’s literature bears her name.