About Small Delights

Are you familiar with those little moments of wonder or happiness? They surprise you on the street or in nature, or they suddenly appear in objects, encounters or smells. With Small Delights, we want to investigate what small joys we can hold on to when everything around us is in turmoil.

During Arcadia (17 May to 24 August 2025), Leeuwarden UNESCO City of Literature will surprise you for 100 days with literary highlights that pop up all over Friesland. From short texts in the wild to the publication of complete stories. We’ve asked 100 writers and poets from Friesland, the Netherlands and UNESCO Cities of Literature all over the world to put on paper what moves them, in the form that suits them (like a poem, story, essay or comic). We then ‘translated’ their texts to 100 different publication forms, together with artists, designers and various smaller and larger organisations.

Surprise and wonder are at the heart of this project, so you have to pay attention to catch sight of the texts. Each day at 12.00 noon we will reveal on this website where a new text can/could be seen and in what form. You can then also read the (full) text on the website. Do sign up for the special newsletter. This gives you all the info ánd a hint where you can find the text of the following day. As with our previous Arcadia project Happiness Delayed in 2022, a growing collection of literary texts arises online.

The photographs of the manifestations are made by Lucas Kemper. The photographers of the author photos are mentioned in the bios.