Herman de Coninck

When Herman de Coninck (1944-1997) passed away, Flanders lost one her most widely-read poets. The poet and essayist who taught his people how to read poetry was no more, but even after his death, his poetry debut, ‘Limber Love’, a collection of playful love poems, remains one of the best-sold volumes of Dutch-language poetry. But it was not just as a poet that he left his mark on the literary world. As a poetry critic in daily and weekly newspapers and as the editor of the Nieuw Wereldtijdschrift, aiming for a cross-fertilisation between literature and journalism, he developed into one of the Low Countries’ most prominent guides to poetry.

Photo © Chris Van Houts