Delphine Lecompte

(1978) after the publication of her first book Kittens in the boiler was baptised by English critics as ‘a female Charles Bukowski’. Lecompte lives to write and indulge in fantasies. ‘I just don’t seem to be able to structure my days with meat and chips. Writing always comes first. Before eating and washing. Her admission into a psychiatric hospital was right up her alley. She really liked letting her imagination run its free course and take the people in charge of her case on a free ride. Her first Dutch-language collection De dieren in mij (The animals within me; 2009) won the C. Buddingh prize for new poetic talent. In it Lecompte describes her often morbid existence. ‘Lies exclusively, so personal that it gets embarrassing,’ she said about it herself. In her poems and in her life animals, magic and fairy tales play an important role. Subsequently she published the succesful collections Blinde gedichten (Blind poems, 2012), Schachten en amuletten (Shafts and amulets, 2013) and Dichter, bokser, koningsdochter (Poet, boxer, princess, 2015) that has been nominated for the VSB Poëzieprijs.