Tonke Dragt

Tonke Dragt
Tonke Dragt (1963)
Born	Antonia Johanna Willemina Dragt (1930-11-12) 12 November 1930 (age 86) Batavia, Dutch East Indies (Present day Jakarta, Indonesia)
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	Academy of Visual Arts, The Hague
Period	1961–present
Genre	Children's literature
Notable works	"De Zevensprong", "Brief voor de Koning"
Notable awards	Various
Signature
Website
www.tonkedragt.nl

Antonia "Tonke" Johanna Willemina Dragt (born 12 November 1930) is a Dutch writer and illustrator of children's literature. Her book De brief voor de Koning was chosen as the best Dutch youth book of the latter half of the twentieth century.

Antonia Johanna Willemina Dragt, better known as Tonke Dragt, was born in 1930 in Batavia on the Dutch East Indies (currently Jakarta in Indonesia). She spent the largest part of her youth there, including three years in a Japanese prisoner's camp during the Second World War between 1942 and 1945. She came to the Netherlands with her family after the war. She studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague and worked afterwards as a drawing teacher in secondary schools, living in The Hague.

Tonke Dragt first published stories in the magazine Kris Kras, and her first book appeared in 1961. She became one of the best known Dutch youth authors in 1962 with her second book, De brief voor de koning ("The Letter for the King"), which won the Gold Pen award (Gouden Griffel) for the best Dutch youth book of the year. She continued to produce at a high rhythm during the 1960s, but massively reduced the output of new work in the next decades, although collections of older short stories filled up many of the gaps.

Apart from writing and illustrating her own books, Tonke Dragt also made illustrations for some other books, including work by Paul Biegel, E. Nesbit, Rosemary Sutcliff, and the novel Elidor by Alan Garner.

The work of Tonke Dragt has been translated into many languages, including German, English, Afrikaans, Czech, Spanish, Danish and Indonesian.