Frank Martinus Arion

Who is Frank Martinus Arion?

Frank Efraim Martinus, who wrote as Frank Martinus Arion, was born on Curaçao on 17 December 1936 and grew up partly in Aruba before moving to the Netherlands in 1955 to study Dutch language and literature at the University of Leiden. He wrote in both Papiamentu and Dutch across a career as poet, novelist, and essayist, and in 1981 returned to Curaçao to head the Curaçao Language Institute, which promotes the use of Papiamentu. He was a leading advocate for integrating Papiamentu into formal schooling, opposing the Dutch-only instruction policy that had marginalized the creole language since 1907, and in 1987 he founded Kolegio Erasmo in Willemstad, the first primary school to teach a complete curriculum in Papiamentu. His 1973 novel Dubbelspel (Double Play), widely considered his masterwork, portrays life and rivalry among domino players in a Curaçao neighborhood and remains a landmark of Dutch Caribbean literature; it was adapted into a feature film that premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2017. Martinus Arion died on Curaçao on 28 September 2015, remembered as one of the island's most influential literary and cultural figures.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Frank Martinus Arion" · Sydney Review of Books, "The Last Great Author of Curaçao? On Frank Martinus Arion" · Writers Unlimited, "Frank Martinus Arion"