Frank Westerman

Frank Westerman, born in 1964 in Emmen, the Netherlands, studied Tropical Agriculture at Wageningen University. In 1987, as part of his thesis research, he studied the irrigation methods of the Aymara Indians in the Andes of Peru. During this period he started working as a journalist aswell. After his graduation – with distinction – he travelled to Africa, Latin-America and Eastern Europe as a freelance journalist.

In 1993, at the time of the war in Yugoslavia, he was asked by the Volkskrant newspaper to become their correspondent in Belgrade. Besides producing dispatches from the frontlines, during this hectic period he wrote his first book, The Bridge over the Tara (1994). Three years later, together with fellow journalist Bart Rijs, he wrote a revealing book about Srebrenica: The darkest scenario.

Between 1997 and 2002, Westerman worked as a correspondent for NRC Handelsblad newspaper in Moscow, where he wrote his third book, De Graanrepubliek - which was awarded the Dr Lou de Jong prize for contemporary history.

He applied a similar approach in Engineers of the Soul, about writers in the Soviet Union under Stalin. This book has won a number of awards in the Netherlands and is published in nine other languages.

Westermans book El Negro and Me is a literary travel account on race, culture and identity - which was awarded the Belgian equivalent of the Booker Prize. From the jury report: 'The Golden Owl Literature Prize 2005 goes to a book which sweeps away readers in many different ways. It is a passionate plea against lazy thinking and arrogance. It shines because it is so subtle.'

In 2007, Frank has finished a new book about scienceand religion Ararat, that got a shortlist-nomination for the prestigious AKO-prize for literature and two other literary prizes. Ararat is translated or will be translated into English, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Polish.

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