Transpoesie - Poets

Jan Kooistra was born on 15 February 1959 in Wâlterswâld, Fryslân. He currently lives in Anloo and works as a Dutch teacher at the Praedinius Gymnasium in Groningen.
Kooistra made his debut in the literary magazine Hjir; he was on the editorial board of the magazine from 1983 until 1998. He joined the poetry collective Rixt in 2018, and various of his poems can be found on their website. He regularly writes poems and reviews for the Frisian literary magazine Ensafh.
Kooistra published five poetry collections. In 1981, his debut collection, Ballads, appeared as a bibliophile edition, and his first real collection, De sulveren apels fan de moanne (The silver apples of the moon) was published in 1984. He mainly writes in a Frisian dialect called “Wâldfrysk”, the language from the area where he was born and grew up. Next publications were Dame fan myn dagen (Lady of my days) in 1992 and Gershipper (Grasshopper) in 1998. His most recent collection of poetry was published in 2014, Blues fan ’e sângrûn (Blues from the sandy soil), by publishing house Wijdemeer. He is currently working on his comeback.