In november Andy Fierens will be the writer in residence at Spui in Amsterdam, upon invitation of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.
Andy Fierens (1976) is known as the outsider of the Flemish literary world. He is a poet and performer, cartoonist, organiser and frontman of the literary trash group ‘Andy and the Androids’. Fierens grew up in Hove, Belgium. For the television programme Iedereen beroemd (Everybody’s Famous) of Flemish channel ‘Één’ Andy Fierens made the weekly item Het laatste woord (The Last Word), where he read a poem at the end of the show.
In 2009 he debuted at De Bezige Bij (The Busy Bee publishers) with the collection Grote smerige vlinder (Big Disgusting Butterfly) which was awarded the Herman de Coninck Debutprize. Fierens lives and works in Antwerp. Around the year 2000 he was very active as an organiser of literary events in Flanders: he organised the first Flemish Poetry Slam and multiple tours for Didi de Paris and the poetry and music company from Groningen De dichters uit Epibreren. With his hilarious and merciless texts, and with his uncompromisable live performances he quickly became a remarkable and much requested guest on stages in Belgium, The Netherlands and South-Africa.
Fierens is regularly active in South-Africa. He is one of the few Dutch-speaking Belgium poets who also performs in Wallonia and France. In 2013 he published the novel Astronaut van Oranje. Een Vlaams epos (De Bezige Bij; Astronaut of Orange. A Flemish Epos) together with Michaël Brijs. Andy Fierens also worked for literary magazines Ballustrada and Rottend Staal and Belgian newspaper Weekend Knack.
- More information about the writers in residence programme.