Dutch poet laureate Lieke Marsman dead at age 35 after lengthy fight against cancer
Dutch poet laureate, philosopher, and writer Lieke Marsman died on Wednesday, at the age of 35, after living for years with a rare form of cartilage cancer, her publisher, Uitgeverij Pluim, confirmed on Thursday. The publisher also said that her last book, De dichter en de duivel (The Poet and the Devil), will be released posthumously on June 9.
Marsman, born in 1990 in ’s-Hertogenbosch, was one of the most prominent contemporary Dutch literary voices, known for poetry, essays, and novels that blended philosophical reflection with political and personal themes.
She debuted in 2010 with the poetry collection Wat ik mijzelf graag voorhoud (What I Like to Tell Myself), which earned multiple awards, including the C. Buddingh’-prijs, the Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs, and the Liegend Konijn Debuutprijs. She later published De eerste letter (The First Letter) in 2013.
Her 2017 novel Het tegenovergestelde van een mens (The Opposite of a Human) was named one of the best books of the century by NRC. According to her publisher, the book “interweaves prose with poetry and essayistic writing to illuminate a major and contemporary theme of our time: climate change.” That same year, she also published Man met hoed (Man with Hat), a collection of poems that includes translations of her work.
She was diagnosed in 2017 with a malignant bone tumor in her upper back, which doctors had found over four years earlier. In 2018, Marsman released De volgende scan duurt vijf minuten (The Next Scan Takes Five Minutes), a work describing her cancer treatment and its impact on her body and worldview. She wrote about how a tumor in her upper back affected her mobility, leaving her unable to raise her left arm.
Following unsuccessful radiotherapy, she underwent an arm and shoulder amputation. “The poisoned chalice had to be completely drained; the radiation therapy from this spring did not help at all, and that is why my arm and shoulder were amputated this morning,” she said in her statement at the time. “It’s going to be a difficult recovery, but as you can see, I’m already tweeting.”
Following the procedure, she also posted a satirical message on Twitter written in the style of clickbait: “This woman lost five kilos in one day. Click here to find out what her secret is.”
In a 2024 appearance on the Dutch program Boerderij van Dorst, she reflected on living with the illness and the amputation, saying, “You get used to it rapidly. You have to.” She added that the disease had changed her: “By nature, I am one of the least impulsive people I know, but I have become more impulsive. When uncertain, it's best to take action."
In an earlier interview with de Volkskrant, Marsman said, "I was obsessed with intense feelings. It was more like a mathematical formula: death anxiety as a concept. Now I feel it. I feel that death is coming, but I do not want it.”
Marsman served as Poet Laureate from 2021 to 2023. In 2021, she published In mijn mand (In My Basket), addressing themes of life and death. In 2023, she released Ter gelegenheid van poëzie (On the Occasion of Poetry), described by her publisher as an ode to poetry and precise use of language, written with directness and sincerity.
In 2025, she published Op een andere planeet kunnen ze me redden (On Another Planet They Can Save Me), a philosophical exploration of the mind intertwined with diary entries that describe her awareness of her approaching death. In February of this year, Marsman also drew attention to the economics of audiobook streaming. Dutch media reported she earned just over 200 euros after this audiobook was streamed for more than 500,000 minutes on the Fluister platform, part of DPG Media.
She criticized the payout structure publicly, warning that the current streaming model makes it increasingly difficult for writers to sustain themselves and calling for a dedicated audiobook platform that would provide “fair compensation” for authors.
That same year, she received the Constantijn Huygens-prijs for her body of work, with the jury calling it leading within contemporary Dutch literature for its formal experimentation and broad appeal. Most recently, on May 9 this year, Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema awarded her the Frans Banninck Cocqpenning for cultural and civic contributions.
