Babs Gons

Babs Gons is a writer, performer, host and teacher. She organised Palabras, a monthly stage for young poets and writers in Paradiso, for almost a decade from 2000. After that, she was artistic director of the now national organisation Poetry Circle for many years.

She reads her work at festivals, literary programmes, in museums, debate centres and libraries, recites on radio and television and travelled with her work to South Africa, Sudan, Curaçao, Suriname, Hungary and Brazil, among others. Because of the social commitment and urgency expressed in her work, Gons is regularly asked to present her work during social initiatives or events such as the February Strike and the Commemoration of the Slavery Past.

She presents various programmes and hosts the musical-literary show ‘Babs’ Woordsalon'. 

Gons made her debut in May 2021 with her poetry collection ‘Doe Het Toch Maar’, nominated for the Herman de Coninck Prize and the Poetry Debut Prize. In the same year, she wrote the Book Week poem and won a Poetry Star for one of her poems. In 2021, she published a children's book: ‘Het Begint Met Een Droom’ (Gottmer). In 2022, she was one of two winners of The Johnny, an oeuvre prize for stage poetry.

Gons also writes stories and articles and is a columnist. A selection of her columns for Het Parool were collected in June 2022 under the title ‘Alles Wat Je Liefhebt Wordt Mooi’, published by Atlas Contact. She was the Free Writer 2021/22 of the Free University and is a member of the Academy of Arts. Gons is the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands from September 2023 to September 2025.