Ernst Bruinsma (Heerenveen, 1966) is the director of Leeuwarden UNESCO City of Literature. He also works as a publisher at Afûk in the city of Leeuwarden. He is also chair of the Stichting Sjoerd de Vries.

He studied Dutch Language and Literature at the University of Groningen (1986-1992) and wrote a dissertation (2004) at the University of Antwerp.

He writes about Flemish, Dutch and Frisian literature on a regular basis and was until 2023 one of the editors of the Collected Works of Louis Paul Boon. He was associated with the Documentation Centre of Louis Paul Boon (1992-2004) at the University of Antwerp.

In recent years, he was editor-in-chief of the bilingual cultural and literary magazine de Moanne (2002-2019). Editor of the series ‘Minsken en Boeken’ (People and Books) of the Fryske Akademy (Frisian Academy).

In earlier years he was – amongst other things – member of the board of Fonds voor de Letteren en Nederlands Letterenfonds/Dutch foundation for Literature. And he was editor of the series ‘Over de Roman’ (On the Novel) (Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep / Atlas-Contact) in which essays of A.F.Th. Van der Heijden, Connie Palmen, Bas Heijne, Marcel Möring and Oek de Jong were published.

Ernst Bruinsma was also (founding) editor of the magazines Literatuur, Zacht Lawijd and De kantieke schoolmeester and wrote for DW&B, Ons Erfdeel, Boekblad & Biografieportaal.