Bea Vianen

Beatrice Sylvia Vianen (6 November 1935 in Paramaribo – 6 January 2019) was a Surinamese writer and poet who went by the name Bea Vianen.^[2] Bea Vianen was the first Surinamese woman who had a book published by a Dutch publishing house (Querido).^[3]

Bea Vianen
Born	Beatrice Sylvia Vianen 6 November 1935 Paramaribo, Suriname
Died	6 January 2019(2019-01-06) (aged 83) Paramaribo, Suriname
Nationality	Suriname
Occupation(s)	Writer, poet
Notable work	Sarnami, Hai (1969) Strafhok (1971)[1]

Biography

Bea Vianen was of both African and Indian ancestry. At the age of eight, her mother died of tuberculosis, and she was put in a Catholic foster home.^[4] Vianen went to the Netherlands in 1957 for her Bachelor of Education.^[5] Vianen wrote mainly in Dutch, but occasionally in Sranan Tongo,^[6] and her writing contained many autobiographical elements.^[7] Her first novel was Sarnami, Hai or "Surinam I am" in 1969,^[6] a coming of age story of a young East Indian girl in a country torn apart by religious and ethnic differences, and a colonial past.^[7] It's a bleak story set in a world without love, but also about a young woman who persists in life.^[8]

Vianen also wrote poetry, which has been collected in Liggend stilstaan bij blijvende monumenten (1975).^[7] In 1978, she started to work for Avenue for whom she travelled to places like Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. The journeys resulted in many poems, and many personal dramas.^[4]

Vianen was an admirer of the Trinidadian novelist V. S. Naipaul.^[6] Vianen died in Paramaribo on 6 January 2019 at the age of 83.^[3]