Janne Buurman writes. All sorts of stuff. Prose, poetry, song lyrics, columns. At the age of nineteen he wins a literary award for his short Story ‘The Great Desire’, published by Meulenhof. Invited by Elsevier’s Weekly he spends three days in Amsterdam. He meets author Jan Wolkers, who shares his signing session (including each other’s books) at the 1968 Annual Book Fair in the RAI Conference Hall. The next day he interviews another reknown author, Godfried Bomans at his villa in Bloemendaal. Both encounters have been extensively delineated in: ‘Jimmy Burn’s New Glasses‘.

After a shortlived carreer as a reporter for several national newspapers, music takes over and prevailes from then on. More of this in ‘A Brief Musical History’, elsewhere on this site. After a turbulent life with numerous professional wanderings, he opens the Amsterdam Royal Gallery with his charismatic spouse Emma Jean Brown (1952 – 2021). For the duration of twelve years they host monthly exhibitions with artists from all over the world and live music of all imaginable genres. The Gallery represented both a ‘local living room’ and a ‘global hub’. The yearly street festivals also brought many visitors, residents and artists together. Nowadays J.J.Buurman still writes poetry, song lyrics and columns, but now, as a die hard late bloomer, also full size novels. The Jimmy Burn Trilogy is a recent example. Published by Boekscout.

In progress: ‘The Return Of Jimmy Burn’ , part three of the trilogy, ‘Ever After’ (collected poems) and ‘Cufflinks for a T-shirt’ (short stories). English versions pending. His style is clearly unique and original. Never shy of clichés or the lyrical though. His motto: ‘Dump New Pragmatism’ bears witness. Janne buurman (1948) was born and raised in Vlissingen, aka Flushing (the original), but has been living and working in Amsterdam for the last forty years. And left solid footprints in both places. With his theatre show ‘The Word Is Out’, a mixture of poetry and music, he performs regularly. Stage name: ‘Jay Bee Sliverfox’. His column ‘Janne’ appears every three months in Amsterdam based magazine OpNieuw.