ALMA MATHIJSEN (1984) was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She studied Image and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Creative Writing in New York. She is the author of six plays, a collection of short stories, a logbook, and six novels. Mathijsen also writes essays for the newspaper NRC Handelsblad. Her work has been translated into German and Romanian and has been nominated for the Libris Literatuurprijs and BNG Bank Literatuurprijs awards. Her latest novel, Onderland (2024), depicts a country that is only visible to those who know what sexual abuse is. Nightmares run rampant in this strange realm where nothing remains hidden.

*Photograph by Melissa Schriek