Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her essay on Dutch identity and Jewishness, “On (Not) Reading Anne Frank,” has received a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2018. The Safekeep, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 and won the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Yael van der Wouden is a 2025 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference New Voices Fellow.

Photo credit – Roosmarijn Broersen