Friday Night Unlimited

Name: Friday Night Unlimited — Grote festivalavond met voordracht, gesprekken, poëzie, spoken word, film, muziek en boeken op vijf podia
Start: 2026-01-23T20:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-01-24T00:30:00+01:00
Location: Theater aan het Spui

Grote festivalavond met voordracht, gesprekken, poëzie, spoken word, film, muziek en boeken op vijf podia

Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival

Fri 23 Jan 20:00 - 00:30

Literature & poetry

Fri 23 Jan 2026

20:00 - 00:30

Fri 23 Jan 2026

20:00 - 00:30

Theater aan het Spui, Den Haag

All halls

Tickets

Friday Night Unlimited is a grand, super-varied Writers Unlimited Festival evening about and featuring books, films, stories, poems, and current issues on five stages in Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. Writers, poets, and artists from the Netherlands and abroad will participate in conversations, give readings, and talk about their favorite books and films.

During Friday Night Unlimited you choose your own route from performances by twenty-five authors on four stages at Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag. You are welcome in the foyer for drinks and the in-house De Vries Van Stockum bookstore.

Events last between 20 and 60 minutes and are in English or Dutch. Writers are asked to read from their works in the language in which it was written. There will be both Dutch and English surtitles. An English-spoken events route is available.

Make sure to book the discounted Early Bird tickets for €25. From 27 December, a regular ticket will be €35. Are you under 31? Then you always receive a discount and a ticket is only €15.

With your Friday Night Unlimited ticket you get access to all festival events in Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag on Friday 23 January 2026.

Part of

Writers Unlimited International Literature Festival

Festival programme

Friday Night Unlimited includes twelve writer appearances with readings and discussions by twenty-five authors. French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani talks about her trilogy The Land of Others, which was inspired by her own family. She and Angolan author José Eduardo Agualusa also discuss the role of dance and drums as a form of resistance. Swiss author and actor Kim de l'Horizon talks about what it means to love in a world full of inequality. Forugh Karimi and Maddy Stolk talk about intergenerational trauma and read from their new books.

A special guest at the festival is South Korean poet Kim Hyesoon. In Expelled Tongue, she performs herself and six poets—Mia You, Don Mee Choi, Simone Atangana Bekono, Maxime Garcia Diaz, Pamela Sneed, and Gustaaf Peek—draw inspiration from her and recite newly written poems.

Virginia Woolf wrote the essay On Being Ill. She wondered why illness plays such a minor role in literature. Exactly one hundred years later, authors Rob van Essen, Thomas Heerma van Voss, Mariken Heytman, Lieke Marsman, Lize Spit, and Nadia de Vries address this topic and read from their own (new) work.

Also in Friday Night Unlimited: six writers talk about their favorite books in “Book of My Life,” students from The Hague perform their own Very Short Stories in the foyer, and bookstore De Vries Van Stockum sells books and poetry collections by festival authors.

Zoom in

Full festival

Do you want to see more of Writers Unlimited Festival? From 22 to 25 January 2026, the festival is to be found in theatres, libraries and schools throughout the city: from Theater aan het Spui, Filmhuis Den Haag, GR8 to Theater Dakota, Curaçaohuis, the Laakkwartier, Nieuw Waldeck, Schilderswijk and Ypenburg libraries, the Institute of Social Studies and De Haagse Hogeschool. With over 100 writers, poets, spoken-word artists and musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. With readings, prose, poetry, storytelling, spoken word, author interviews, topical talks, films and music.

Check the website of Writers Unlimited for the full programme and timetable:

Writers Unlimited website