The first prize came as a complete surprise. It was only when the jury chairperson read a sentence from her work during the prize-giving ceremony, that Füsers realised that it was about her. “The prize has existed for twenty years and until now it was always someone who wrote a short story who won. I didn’t think I would win.” However, the jury saw differently. “You touched us with painful sentences,” the jury report says about the “experimental text” that “didn’t give us a message or point a finger, but gave us a real account of a modern life.”
Füsers wrote the series of eight poems in only three weeks. She had previously won the preliminary round for the South of the Netherlands with other poems. Ten prize winners from various preliminary rounds then had to write a new text for the final. “I hadn’t really prepared for that. So, three weeks was really short.”
She eventually chose a theme that she thinks about a lot: how the Internet influences the relationships between friends. “The Internet is almost inescapable, certainly now during this Covid era. On the one hand, it ensures that you can always be connected to other people, but sitting in front of that screen can also be lonely. For example, I removed my Instagram account for a while, because I felt I was on it too much. That felt like an enormous relief, but at the same time also like something was lacking. You actually only notice then in what way such an app influences your daily life.”
Still, she didn’t want to describe the online world as something big and scary in her poems. “We mustn’t deny that there are negative sides to it, but the influence of the Internet also has a funny and positive side. In chats with friends, we often see memes or references to things that we have come across online. The humour and the use of language – including emoticons - also pop up in the poems. There is also a poem in which the first-person speaker has a discussion with Siri.”
She views her victory mainly as encouragement to continue writing. “I have only been doing it seriously for two to three years. These days, I try to write every day, even though I don’t always manage in combination with my study and my job. I often do it in between things, for example, on the train. I never saw it as an option to make a living, that realisation has only come recently. Although I do find my study very interesting, so I will have to find out now what it is exactly that I want to do.”
The prize package will undoubtedly help. For example, Füsers will be allowed to recite her work on the literary podium Frontaal and at the Nieuwe Types festival, and she can also participate in the summer camp for young talent by Das Mag publisher. “These are really great opportunities to gain more experience. And you are definitely in the spotlights.” She is planning on using some of the prize money to develop herself in the field of writing. What she hopes for the future? “It is nice when people can actually read your work. Publishing a bundle would be nice.”