Eeuwige Reizigers ('Eternal travellers') is the first ever Dutch anthology of pre-modern Japanese literature. It offers the reader a wide selection of texts in many different genres and styles, dating from the 7th to the 19th century. All texts were translated from the Japanese and annotated by the compiler of the anthology. Not only does Eeuwige Reizigers include writings the average reader might expect (such as tragic samurai stories and reflections by Buddhist monks), it also contains things most European readers are probably unfamiliar with, such as plays (both comic and serious) from the Noh and Kabuki theatres, as well as picaresque tales, wild satires and grim ghost stories by 18th/19th century prose writers. The Japanese literary tradition is probably the only in the world whose greatest masterpieces were written by female authors, as early as the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Eeuwige Reizigers includes a wide-ranging selection of poetry and revelatory prose (fiction and autobiography) by court ladies such as Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu. The collection also contains a large variety of poems, including haikus and aristocratic love poetry!

Author Jos Vos teaches Dutch at St. Clare's on the International Baccalaureate Diploma. Each year we have students from the Netherlands all of whom study Dutch as their first language and literature. Jos is a well respected teacher and author and has been teaching at St. Clare's for 10 years.

Eeuwige Reizigers will be published on 21 February by Arbeiderspers, a well-known Dutch literary publisher. It counts app. 800 pages and costs 45 Euros (hardback)