Renate Dorrestein Biography

Renate Dorrestein was born in Amsterdam on January 25, 1954, and raised in a Roman Catholic family. Her father was a lawyer, her mother a teacher and housewife. Renate began to write when she was in elementary school. Upon graduating in 1972 she opted not to go to college, going to work instead as a reporter for the Dutch news magazine Panorama, and worked for a number of other national publications.

Dorrestein had always wanted to write fiction. After years of trying, Outsiders was published in 1983. The book became a bestseller and established Dorrestein as a writer to watch in The Netherlands.

The novel A Heart of Stone attracted great interest internationally; the book’s translation rights were sold in a dozen countries. Her other books continue to be sold abroad in great numbers as well.

Dorestein spent the year 1986-1987 as Writer in Residence at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (USA) and has since been giving master classes at European and American universities. In 2000, she wrote the non-fiction book The Secret of the Writer based on this experience.

Dorrestein’s work has been lauded at home and abroad. Unnatural Mothers and A Heart of Stone were both nominated for The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and A Heart of Stone won the Vondel Prize for Translation. Her entire oeuvre was awarded the Annie Romein Prize in 1993 for its “irresistible idiosyncracy”.

Renate Dorrestein's website

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