Carmien Michels

(Leuven, 1990) looks at language and story in all forms, both verbal and non-verbal. She studied language arts at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp where she completed a research project in 2016. That same year, she won the Dutch and European Poetry Slam Championship and took bronze at the world championship in Paris. Her debut novel We zijn water (We Are Water) interweaves stories of seven characters who are stubbornly finding their own way through life. Her next one, Vraag het aan de bliksem (Go Ask the Lightening, 2015), is a contemporary coming-of-age novel. Her first volume of poetry, We komen van ver (We Come from Afar) appeared in 2017. She is storyteller of M Museum Leuven, guest teacher at LUCA School of Arts and board member of PEN Flanders. From 2017 to 2019 she is one of the young authors in the European talent development programme CELA: Connecting Emerging Literary Artists.