In the Ambassade Hotel you will find a unique collection of signed books by authors who have all stayed at the Ambassade Hotel: more than 5000 of them. The Ambassade Hotel has traditionally maintained close links with publishers in Amsterdam and the surrounding areas. Many of these publishing houses, as well as some of Amsterdam’s best-known bookshops and authors’ cafés, are located within walking distance of the Ambassade Hotel.
What is a writers’ hotel without writers? A pen without ink?
The twenty-seven stories on this page form the heart of a project that was begun during the long lockdown in the winter of 2020-21, with the working title Sheltering in the Writers’ Hotel. Bookshops had been closed for months and for the authors there were no tours, no readings, no signings, no national Book Ball, no live awards ceremonies… The writers stayed away from the Ambassade Hotel and we missed them. After all, what is a writers’ hotel without writers? A pen without ink? This is how the idea came about to invite one author each week over six months to stay at the Ambassade Hotel and describe their writing lives at that time. Throughout the period May to November 2021, the newspaper Het Parool published the Writers’ Hotel columns in its weekly Arts Section.
In cooperation with:
Ambo Anthos, Atlas Contact, Arbeiderspers, DasMag, De Bezige Bij, De Geus, De Harmonie, Hollands Diep, Lebowski, Meulenhof, Overamstel, Pluim, Prometheus, Samsara Uitgeverij, Singel Uitgeverijen, Querido en van Nijgh & Ditmar.
The twenty-seven Writers’ Hotel columns have been translated into English and have been published as a book titled The best place for you to stay is ultimately a book. It was published by our own publishing house Samsara Books as a promotional gift and is not for sale in book shops.
However, you are most welcome to read all twenty-seven columns in English below.