J.M. Coetzee

J.M. Coetzee has received more awards than he has written books, and he has written many. He won the Booker Prize twice and in 2003 received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Now we can at last celebrate him in Brussels, too. After a lecture on the stage of La Monnaie, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) will award him an honorary doctorate. A unique opportunity to listen to one of the world’s most influential authors in person.

To mark J.M. Coetzee’s visit to Brussels and The Hague, his Dutch publisher Cossee is releasing Wereld en wandel van Elizabeth Costello, for which the author selected old Costello stories and added new ones. This prominent character in Coetzee’s oeuvre is also the subject of a new opera, with a libretto by the author himself. During this encounter, Coetzee will deliver an insightful lecture on a subject close to his heart. The evening will be accompanied by live music from the operas based on his work, most notably by Belgian composer Nicholas Lens.

J.M. Coetzee is not only a writer. He also had a long and rich academic career at the universities of Cape Town and Adelaide. In recognition of this, VUB is awarding him the title of doctor honoris causa this year. The official award ceremony of the honorary doctorate will be part of the programme on the stage of La Monnaie. 

After Annie Ernaux and Abdulrazak Gurnah, Passa Porta is once again welcoming a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature at La Monnaie. More than twenty years after receiving the highest literary award, J.M. Coetzee continues to write timeless and relevant books. He is not known as an author who often makes public appearances, and we are therefore particularly honoured to be able to offer his Belgian readers this unforgettable evening at our opera house.