Dutch poet, philosopher and author Lieke Marsman has died at the age of 35 after living with cancer for several years. Her publisher, Pluim, announced that she died on Wednesday. Marsman had been diagnosed with cartilage cancer in 2018, an illness that would later become part of her writing, public voice and philosophical inquiry.
Marsman was one of the most prominent contemporary literary voices in the Netherlands. She served as the Dutch national poet from 2021 to 2023 and became known for work that moved between poetry, fiction, essays and philosophy. Her writing often carried a sharp political awareness, but it was also deeply personal, especially in the way she wrote about illness, mortality and the limits of rational thought.
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A Debut That Announced A Major Voice
Marsman made her poetry debut in 2010 with ‘Wat ik mijzelf graag voorhoud’, a collection that was widely praised and quickly established her reputation. The book went on to win several honours, including the C. Buddingh’ Prize, the Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs and the Liegend Konijn Debuutprijs.
Her second poetry collection, ‘De eerste letter’, followed in 2013. Marsman also worked with the literary magazine Tirade between 2013 and 2015, becoming part of a literary generation interested in poetry as a way of thinking, arguing and confronting the present.
Writing Across Poetry, Fiction and Climate Anxiety
In 2017, Marsman published her first novel, ‘Het tegenovergestelde van een mens’, known in English as ‘The Opposite of a Human’. The book blended prose, poetry and essayistic reflection, using its hybrid form to think about climate change and human responsibility. It was reported as “one of the best books of the 21st century”.
That same year, she also published ‘Man met hoed’, a poetry compilation. Her work was later translated into several languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, German, Turkish and Chinese, bringing her voice to readers beyond the Netherlands.
Illness Became A Subject, Not A Silence
Marsman’s diagnosis changed the direction of her life and writing, but she refused to let illness reduce her voice. In 2018, she published ‘De volgende scan duurt 5 minuten’, translated into English as ‘The Following Scan Will Last Five Minutes’. The work addressed cancer not only as a private medical crisis, but also through its political, social and emotional contexts.
In 2024, she published ‘Op een andere planeet kunnen ze me redden’, which is being translated into English as ‘On Another Planet They Can Save Me.’ The Dutch Foundation for Literature describes the book as a mix of short essays and diary fragments, reflecting on cancer recurrence, hospital encounters, an arm amputation, death, hope and the search for meaning.
The book moves beyond straightforward illness writing. Marsman questions whether a pragmatic and rational Western worldview can fully hold the experience of approaching death. Catapult’s listing for the English edition says the memoir turns to theology, philosophy, mythology, science, Wittgenstein, William James and even UFOs while searching for meaning beyond certainty.
A Writer Who Kept Speaking
In 2025, Marsman told de Volkskrant that she was not ready to surrender to death. “I am not resigned to my imminent death. I still have things to say. I want them said,” she said. That sentence now feels like a clear expression of the urgency that marked her final years.
The same year, she received the Constantijn Huygens Prize, one of the Netherlands’ major literary honours, recognising her body of work. Her final book, ‘De dichter en de duivel’, is set to be published posthumously on June 9. It centres on a storage room that becomes a gateway to an underground world inhabited by influencers, politicians, opinion makers, columnists and the devil.
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Marsman’s death is a profound loss for Dutch literature. She belonged to that rare group of writers who could make poetry feel intellectually alive, politically alert and emotionally exposed at the same time. Her work did not turn away from the hardest subjects. It faced illness, climate collapse, fear, hope and death with clarity, wit and philosophical restlessness. At 35, she leaves behind a body of work that feels painfully brief, but unmistakably complete in its courage.