Roland Jooris

Roland Jooris (b. 1936) is a Flemish poet and essayist with a relatively small but influential oeuvre. After an experimental start in the 1950s, he returned in the 1960s with neorealist poetry before developing an extremely austere, minimalist style. His work starts out from reality, but increasingly strips it down to its abstract, contemplative essence. Jooris is strongly inspired by art and by French poetry, and for years he was curator of the Roger Raveel Museum. He has received several literary prizes for his work.