Tom Lanoye facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tom Lanoye
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Tom Lanoye (c) Arthur Los (2022)
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| Born |
Tom Emiel Gerardine Aloïs Lanoye
27 August 1958 |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Occupation | novelist, poet |
Tom Lanoye (say his name like "lan-WAH") was born on August 27, 1958, in Sint-Niklaas, a city in Belgium. He is a writer who creates novels, poems, newspaper articles, movie scripts, and plays. He is one of the most popular and celebrated authors in the Netherlands and Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). His plays are often shown at big theatre festivals across Europe.
About Tom Lanoye
Tom Lanoye was the youngest child of a butcher. He went to the Sint-Jozef-Klein-Seminarie school in Sint-Niklaas, which was a boys-only school at the time. Later, he studied languages and social studies at Ghent University.
While still a student, he published his first work himself. He said he did this "just like all the punk bands did back then." He wanted to learn how to write and publish from the inside out.
Today, Tom Lanoye lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium, and also in Cape Town, South Africa. His books and plays have been published or performed in more than fifteen different languages around the world.
Tom Lanoye's Books and Plays
In 1985, Tom Lanoye published his first novel, Een slagerszoon met een brilletje (which means A Butcher's Son with Spectacles). This book was partly about his own life.
Some of his other well-known books include:
- Alles moet weg (Everything Has To Go) from 1988.
- Kartonnen dozen (Cardboard Boxes) from 1991, which is a story about growing up.
- A series of three books: Het Goddelijke Monster (The Divine Monster), Zwarte tranen (Black Tears), and Boze tongen (Spiteful Tongues). These books tell the story of a wealthy Belgian family falling apart. A ten-part TV show based on these books was shown in Belgium in 2011.
Tom Lanoye is also famous for his plays. One of his most impressive works is Ten Oorlog (To War), written in 1997. This play is a very long, 12-hour adaptation of eight of Shakespeare's history plays. It has been performed at major festivals, including the Salzburg Festival in Germany. He has written more than thirty plays, and many of them have been performed at big festivals in cities like Avignon, Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris, and the Ruhr region.
Tom Lanoye started his career as a bit of a rebel in the writing world. But he has now become a very respected writer. He writes many different kinds of texts, from books and newspaper articles to plays and performances. He also performs his own literary shows in theatres, which are like theatrical monologues.
Many of his books and plays have won important awards. In 2007, he received the Gouden Ganzenveer for all his work. He also received an honorary doctorate from Antwerp University. In 2013, he won the Constantijn Huygens Prize, which is one of the most important awards for writers in the Dutch language area.
His 2006 novel, Het derde huwelijk, was made into a movie called Third Wedding in 2018.
Main Awards
- 1992 – Humo's Golden Bookmark for Kartonnen dozen
- 1998 – Océ Podium Prize for Ten oorlog
- 1998 – Proscenium Prize for Ten oorlog
- 1998 – Humo's Golden Bookmark for Het goddelijke monster
- 2000 – Innovationspreis Theatertreffen Berlin for Schlachten! (Ten oorlog)
- 2000 – The Golden Owl Public Prize for Zwarte Tranen
- 2000 – Humo's Golden Bookmark for Zwarte Tranen
- 2003 – The Golden Owl Literature Prize for Boze Tongen
- 2007 – The Gouden Ganzenveer for his entire collection of work
- 2007 – Honorary Doctorate from the University of Antwerp
- 2010 – The Golden Owl Public Prize for Sprakeloos
- 2011 – The Henriette Roland Holst Prize for Sprakeloos
- 2013 – The Constantijn Huygens Prize for his entire collection of work
- 2024 – Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren
