Lodewijk van Oord (Madrid, 1977) has spent most of his life abroad. After his studies in Leiden and Utrecht he was a teacher in a twelfth-century castle on the cliffs of Wales. His first publication was a series of poems in De Revisor, and ever since he has written stories, essays and articles for several journals and literary magazines. His entries have been nominated for several literary prizes. His story ‘Thesmophoria’ won the Nieuw Proza Prijs 2011.
Lodewijk van Oord made his debut in 2014 with The Last Rhino, which was praised on national television and nominated for the Jan Wolkers Prize 2015 for books about nature. The Netherland’s most important newspaper NRC Handelsblad proclaimed the first chapter of The Last Rhino to be the best literary scene of Amsterdam of the year. The Last Rhino will be published as Der letzte Nashorn in March 2016 in Germany by Knaus Verlag.
Van Oord lived and studied in Leiden and specialized in Ancient History. In Everything of Value he looks back on this period and describes the canals, the cafés and libraries of his own studentship. He was a teacher in Wales and Swaziland and has lived in Italy where he is the deputy director of an international school since 2014.
