Zito Ysenbaert winner of Gerrit Krol Award 2019

Zito Ysenbaert is the first winner of the Gerrit Krol Award, the University of Groningen (UG) essay competition. Ysenbaert studies Dutch and English Language and Culture at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and showed with his submission that language is more than a mere communication tool. In his essay, he handles the Dutch language in a masterful way to prove a crucial point concerning human nature: people will always fear diversity. Zito Ysenbaert lets chaos make way for a work of art, for composition, for a new story and for inclusivity of everything that before seemed irreconcilable. The other nominees were Takashi Nakamura and Yasmine Finani.

The Language Centre and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen have established the Gerrit Krol Award this year in order to pay structural attention to Dutch as an academic language. Students from all universities in Dutch-speaking regions were invited to submit their essays of up to 2,000 words in Dutch. An expert jury decided which submissions were nominated for the award and who would be the winner. The jury comprised writer Ellen Deckwitz, Ellen Krol, who is Gerrit Krol’s daughter, and lecturer at the UG Language Centre and writer Ronald Ohlsen. The selection criteria were originality, stylistic ingenuity, and a talent for entertainment. Zito Ysenbaert’s essay has been published on literary weblog Tzum.