Nikki Dekker garnered critical acclaim with her debut novel diepdiepblauw (‘Deep Deep Blue’), which was awarded the CCS Crone Stipendium and nominated for the Bronzen Uil  and De Boon. This year she published her second book, Graafdier, in which she digs a tunnel through the Dutch landscape, more specifically, De Groote Peel. The deeper she gets, the further into the past she travels: past the peat mole and talking fungi, land consolidation and peat extraction to the primeval cattle and the invention of the clock, through the year zero and the period when whales and basking sharks swam over, to three hundred million years ago.

In her characteristically nimble and rooting way, Dekker takes the reader into the depths where fascinating stories and big life questions sprout. In that descent, she unlocks a world full of possibilities. The result is a journey through the earth's surface, back in time.

Nikki Dekker (b. 1989) is a writer and radio producer. Her debut novel diepdiepblauw (‘Deep Deep Blue’) de Volkskrant proclaimed her literary talent of 2023. She made radio documentaries for NTR and VPRO. She writes columns for Vroege Vogels and is on the editorial board of literary magazine Tirade.