Tom Lanoye

Tom Lanoye [lan-WA] (born August 27, 1958 in Sint-Niklaas) is a Belgian novelist and poet who works in Antwerp (Belgium) and Cape Town (South Africa). He is the most influential and best-known Flemish writer of his generation, and won numerous literary prizes, both in The Netherlands and in Flanders.

Most recently he was, as the first Flemish artist and the youngest winner ever, awarded the prestigious Golden Goose Feather, a Dutch oeuvre-prize. In 2000 he was already awarded the Innovationspreis at the Berlin Theatre festival, for his epic 12-long adaptation of Shakespeares Royal Plays ("Schlachten!"), which had opened the Salzburger Festspiele one year before. He is since one of the most staged foreign authors of new drama in Germany.

There is hardly a genre that Lanoye hasn’t written an important work in – be it a novel, a selection of poems, columns, essays, short stories, theatre or cabaret plays... He is also renowned for the vivid and theatrical way in which he performs his own work, touring with his ‘literary shows’ from theatre to theatre, as if they were monologues rather than readings. The highlights of Lanoye’s oeuvre include the melancholy autobiography "Cardboard Boxes" ("Kartonnen dozen"), "The divine monster" ("Het goddelijke monster"), which is the ultimate trilogy on the disintegrating kingdom of Belgium, heart of Europe), his prize-winning most recent novel "The third marriage" ("Het derde huwelijk") and the internationally staged plays "La Forteresse Europe", "Mamma Medea" (adapting Euripides) and the widely acclaimed "Mefisto for Ever" (adapting Klaus Mann’s novel "Mephisto"). This production, staged by Guy Cassiers (Toneelhuis/Antwerpen) was invited at the Festival d’Avignon and will be translated and staged in Berlin (in German) and Brussels (in French) in the spring of 2008.

His latest production "Atropa. The vengeance of peace" (which forms the third and final part of Guy Cassiers’ "The Tryptichon of Power", that started off with Lanoye’s "Mefisto for ever") opened in Antwerp in may 2008 en was immediately invited at the Festival d'Avignon (July 2008). It is a free adaptation of very different texts. Though mainly based upon all plays of Euripides concerning the ‘Mother of All Wars’ – the Trojan War – "Atropa" is also influenced by Aeschylus and Curzio Malaparte, and literally uses speeches of George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, turned into iambic verse.

Bibliography

* 1980 - "Maar nog zo goed als nieuw" (poetry)
* 1981 - "Neon! Een elegisch rockgedicht" (poetry)
* 1982 - "Gent-Wevelgem" (poetry)
* 1983 - "De nagelaten gedichten" (poetry)
* 1983 - "De glazen klomp" (poetry)
* 1983 - "Rozegeur en Maneschijn" (essays)
* 1984 - "In de piste" (poetry)
* 1984 - "Bagger" (poetry)
* 1985 - "Een slagerszoon met een brilletje" (stories)
* 1986 - "Het cirkus van de slechte smaak" (critiques)
* 1988 - "Alles moet weg" (novel)
* 1989 - "Vroeger was ik beter" (essays)
* 1989 - "De Canadese Muur" (play, with Herman Brusselmans)
* 1989 - "Gespleten en bescheten" (critiques)
* 1990 - "Hanestaart" (poetry)
* 1991 - "Kartonnen dozen" (novel)
* 1991 - "Blankenberge" (play)
* 1991 - "Bij Jules en Alice" (play)
* 1992 - "Doen!" (columns/essays)
* 1993 - "De schoonheid van een total loss" (play)
* 1993 - "Celibaat" (play, after Gerard Walschap)
* 1994 - "Spek en bonen" (stories)
* 1994 - "Maten en gewichten" (critiques)
* 1997 - "Het goddelijk monster" (novel)
* 1997 - "Ten oorlog" (play, with Luk Perceval; after "The Wars of the Roses" by Shakespeare)
* 1999 - "Zwarte Tranen" (novel)
* 2001 - "Tekst & uitleg/Woorden met vleugels" (critiques)
* 2001 - "Mamma Medea" (play, after Euripides and Apollonios)
* 2002 - "Niemands Land" (poetry)
* 2002 - "Boze Tongen" (novel)
* 2003 - "Veldslag voor een man alleen" (play)
* 2004 - "Diplodocus Deks" (play)
* 2004 - "De Jossen" (play)
* 2004 - "Overkant" (poetry)
* 2004 - "Het vroegste vitriool" (critiques)
* 2004 - "Vitriool voor gevorderden" (critiques)
* 2005 - "Stadsgedichten" (poetry)
* 2005 - "De meeste gedichten" (poetry)
* 2005 - "Fort Europa" (play)
* 2006 - "Het derde huwelijk" (novel)
* 2006 - "Mefisto for ever" (play, after Klaus Mann)
* 2007 - "Schermutseling" (kritieken)
* 2008 - "Atropa. De wraak van de vrede" (play, after Euripides, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Curzio Malaparte)
* (expected) 2008 - "Sprakeloos" (novel)
* (expected) 2008 - "Woest" (one man show)

Important awards

* 1992 - Humo's Gouden Bladwijzer for "Kartonnen dozen"
* 1994 - Toneelprijs van de provincie Antwerpen for "Blankenberge"
* 1995 - Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord for "Maten en gewichten"
* 1998 - Océ Podium Prijs for "Ten oorlog"
* 1998 - Prosceniumprijs for "Ten oorlog"
* 1999 - Thaliaprijs for "Ten oorlog"
* 1998 - Humo’s Gouden Bladwijzer for "Het goddelijke monster"
* 2000 - Driejaarlijkse Vlaamse Gemeenschapsprijs voor Toneelletterkunde for "Ten oorlog"
* 2000 - Innovationspreis Theatertreffen Berlin for "Schlachten!" ("Ten oorlog")
* 2000 - De Gouden Uil Publieksprijs for "Zwarte Tranen"
* 2000 - Humo's Gouden Bladwijzer for "Zwarte Tranen"
* 2003 - De Gouden Uil Literatuurprijs for "Boze Tongen"
* 2003 - De Gouden Uil Publieksprijs for "Boze Tongen"
* 2004 - De inktaap for "Boze tongen"
* 2007 - De Gouden Ganzenveer for his oeuvre

ee also

* Flemish literature

External links

* [http://www.lanoye.be Official site]
* [http://www.erasmuspc.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157&Itemid=81 Lanoye CityPoem in Antwerp with photo and translation on Erasmuspc]