Kouwenaar was born in Amsterdam,
North Holland. In the early 1940s, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, he wrote various clandestine publications (the first in 1941), and worked for the illegal newspaper
Parade der Profeten. He was arrested for this and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. Kouwenaar worked for magazines and newspapers such as
Vrij Nederland, and
Het Vrije Volk. Kouwenaar was awarded the
Martinus Nijhoff Prize in 1967 for his translation work. In 2009, the
Society of Dutch Literature named Kouwenaar the recipient of its annual honor. Gerrit Kouwenaar's older brother was the painter and poet
David Kouwenaar (1921–2011). Kouwenaar died on 4 September 2014 in Amsterdam, aged 91. ==References==