Reading Between the Wines with Simon(e) van Saarloos

On Wednesday, Sep. 25, we will welcome Simon(e) van Saarloos to Reading Between the Wines to discuss her new book PLAYING MONOGAMY.

Through a contemporary rereading of the cult of monogamy, van Saarloos playfully queers the way in which the structure of monogamy is upheld through social convention within Western contexts. Written for more of a lay audience, the book proposes an expanded and polyamorous engagement with intimacy and sexuality as a possible alternative.

Originally written in Dutch and published by De Bezige Bij, PLAYING MONOGAMY is being published in English for the first time through Publication Studio. This edition is translated by Liz Waters and includes a preface by Leni Zumas, author of the best selling science fiction novel, RED CLOCKS.

Simon(e) van Saarloos is a writer, philosopher and performer living between Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Brooklyn, New York City. She has published several books in Dutch including Ik deug / deug niet (a collection of columns originally published in the Dutch national newspaper NRC), De vrouw die (a novel on a molecular biologist running the NYC marathon in a burqa) and Enz. Het Wildersproces (a feminist and queer report of the trial against the Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders). Her forthcoming book, titled Herdenken herdacht, is a nonfiction work about queer forgetfulness, white erasure, and embodied commemoration. Simon(e) also writes and performs theatre and regularly appears on stage as a lecturer and interviewer. Currently, she is an MA student at the Dutch Art Institute. Her recent artist residencies include the Deltaworkers in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft.

Simon(e) writes the “e” in her name between parentheses because she questions gender norms and doubts anything that appears ‘as given’ or self-evident. Also, what’s between parentheses might be more meaningful than what is said to be meaningful.