English - Bart Moeyaert

one

I was born in Bruges on June 9th 1964, where I grew up, in a big house on the outskirts of town. I’m the seventh out of seven boys. In the Moeyaert family I tended to disappear a little. I was the kind of child that draws a lot, likes to cut and paste and to build tree- and other houses. I read a great deal and all sorts of books.

When I was ten, I wrote my first longer story about a boy who’s ill. At the age of eleven I started a first book about a secret society. And though becoming a writer was not among my ambitions because my father had told me writing was not an actual profession, I still took the step towards a publisher with my next book.

two

I studied Dutch, German, and history in Brussels. I was barely nineteen when I made my debut (1983) with my autobiographical novel Duet met valse noten (Duet out of tune). The book was named the best Book of the Year in 1984 by the Belgian Children’s and Young Adult Jury and has been translated into German, Catalan, Japanese and Hungarian. It turned out to be a bestseller that became a classic, entering its second life as a play as well as a musical. After forty years the novel is still in print.

three

After my studies, I moved from Brussels to Antwerp — to Nieuwstad 14, the address that would later become a poem. My small flat overlooked the theatre where my Kus me (Kiss Me, 1994), Broere (Brothers, 2000), Bremen is niet ver (Bremen Isn’t Far, 2001) and Café Geluk (Café Happiness, 2007) would later appear on the posters. I worked freelance for the magazine Flair, reviewed children’s books and translated articles. For years I wrote articles about design for De Standaard Magazine, the cultural supplement of the renowned paper, De Standaard.

five

Several of my books, like De Schepping (Creation), Het Paradijs (Paradise) and De Hemel (Heaven) are projects where text, illustrations and music are combined. Performances and CDs accompany the books. I am the narrator, accompanied by renowned orchestras and performers, such as Janine Janssen, the Brussels Philharmonic and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble.

I have a performative approach when giving lectures about my work. I performed at many international literature festivals, including Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, Woordfees Stellenbosch, White Ravens München, Bath Children’s Literature Festival, and I was a keynote speaker at different conferences, among which FILIJ Mexico and RISE Lisboa.

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From 2000 until 2021, I have been senior lecturer of Creative Writing at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, division Word and Stage. In 2007, I received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa for my work as a Poet Laureate by the University of Antwerp. In 2014, I was appointed artistic director of the guest of honour program for the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2016, where the Netherlands and Flanders were joint guests of honour. In 2022-2023 I was writer-in-residence at the University of Leuven, where I lectured Creative Writing.

four

In 1992 I became the editor of a magazine for young people. Three years later, I decided to dedicate myself full-time to writing. I left the publishing house where I had made my debut and moved to Querido, where Blote handen (Bare Hands) was published in 1995. The book has been translated into several languages, winning many awards, and marking the beginning of a new phase in my work.

After 1995, I no longer restricted myself to fiction alone. Two of my television screenplays were filmed, in 1998 I wrote my first play for Theater Luxemburg, Rover, dronkeman (Robber, drunkard), which was later translated and also performed in German.
I have published Dutch translations of German (by Christine Nöstlinger and Jürg Schubiger), English (by Carolyn Coman, Shaun Tan and Michael Rosen) and French books (by Chris Donner, Kitty Crowther and Frédéric Clement).