Pierre Lauffer
Pierre Lauffer (22 August 1920 – 14 June 1981) was a Curaçaoan writer and poet who mainly wrote in Papiamentu. He is considered one of the greatest poets of Curaçao. Biography Lauffer was born on 22 August 1920 as Pierre Antoine Lauffer. He graduated from the Mulo (junior high school) in 1936, and started various jobs as a civil servant, a military policeman, and an undertaker. During this time, he was writing stories and poetry as a hobby. His first publication was a story in Dutch for the magazine De Stoep. In 1944 Patria, his first poetry collection in Papiamentu, was published. It received a negative review from De Stoep who questioned the usefulness of a poetry book which a mere 100,000 people could read. In 1950, Lauffer co-founded the magazine Simadán written entirely in Papiamentu in order to compete with De Stoep. The magazine would only have three editions. In 1955, he published Kumbu with rhythmic poetry. It was the first publication of modernist poetry in Papiamentu with an emphasis on the emotional value of the words. In 1964, Lauffer published Kantika pa Bientu for which he was awarded a prize by the Cultural Centre Curaçao. The publications were