Writers Jante Wortel and Corinne Heyrman both made their debuts with novels based on personal experiences, in which the main characters have eating disorders. They began a correspondence about the writing process and the associated choices and considerations, but also about the role of eating disorders in society; their correspondence resulted in a joint non-fiction book published in January 2026: Het ongemak van een lichaam (The Discomfort of a Body).

In it, Wortel and Heyrman interweave their insights into (autobiographical) writing on this subject with a broader analysis of society's approach to and debate about eating disorders.

Writer, programme maker and cultural journalist Teddy Tops interviewed Jante Wortel (Unfortunately, Corinne Heyrman was unable to participate) about their book, the ways in which eating disorders are (or can be) portrayed in art and culture, and the extent to which there is (sufficient) public debate on the subject. To what extent is honesty permitted and what taboos still surround the subject? Why is it so often accompanied by prejudice and clichés, sensationalism and shame?

Corinne Heyrman is a writer, theatre and podcast maker, and one of two City Writers of Eindhoven. In her debut novel Het begin en zijn oneindigheid (The Beginning and Its Infinity, 2022), Marcel ends up with a depression in the psychiatric hospital where his granddaughter also stayed years earlier in the eating disorders ward.

Jante Wortel is a writer of short stories, essays, and novels. Her first novel, Weerlicht (2022), is a powerful debut about the suffocating dynamics of a family and the question of how to help someone who is compulsively destroying themselves with an eating disorder. Her second novel, Ik, de ander (Me, the Other, 2025), slowly but surely draws you into the quicksand of a toxic relationship.

Teddy Tops is a writer, programme maker and cultural journalist. She is the artistic director of Mensen Zeggen Dingen, the spoken word platform for the Netherlands, Belgium and Curaçao. She creates programmes and MCs at Oerol, Lowlands and Theaterfestival Boulevard, among others, and founded the queer art collective Trek Iets Leuks Uit and the queer art club night Jezabel. Her debut novel Egelskop was published in 2025.

The Discomfort of a Body: Living with an Eating Disorder (Het ongemak van een lichaam: leven met een eetstoornis) was compiled for the Writers Unlimited Festival by Jet Steinz.