BWC writers have been busily upholding literary standards over the past few years. Look who’s been earning distinction, having works published far and wide . . .
Colin Walsh’s debut novel, Kala, was sold to Atlantic via five-way auction in a two-book deal. Kala will be Atlantic’s biggest debut novel of 2023 and will be backed by a significant publicity and marketing campaign. Colin’s short stories have won several awards including the RTE Francis MacManus Short Story Prize and the Hennessy Literary Award. In 2019 he was named Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year.
Sarah Reader Harris new book, entitled On the Move: Poems and Songs of Migration, was chosen as a finalist in the 2021 Amateo Award for Arts Participation Projects across Europe.
Kevin Dwyer and Hamed Mobasser have written and produced a movie entitled I Heard They Change Color, a semi-finalist in the Indie Shorts Awards, Cannes Film Festival 2022.
Stephan Theo won an Indie Book Award, and worked on the film ‘Dog’, winner of the Thessaloniki IFF 2021 Special Youth Jury Award. He is currently undertaking a Masters in Creative Writing in the UK, and building his list as a literary agent. His writing has appeared in newspapers and magazines including Brussels Express, and Library Journal.
Luciano Di Gregorio, a freelance writer and travel author for Bradt Travel Guides (UK), is currently undertaking an MFA in Creative Writing at New York University. Based in Belgium, Italy and Hong Kong, he is working on a novel and a collection of short stories.
Claudia Delicato, an Italian living in Gent, Belgium, published her first novel in Italian titled Una cena (A Dinner). You can find her at claudiadelicato.com.
Michael Adubato recently published a book of poems entitled Missing the Exit. He is a former Brussels resident who can still be found on occasion milling about Sablon.
Jeanie Keogh published the short story collection Press 9 for Pig Latin. The ebook is widely available everywhere online (Barnes and Noble, Chapters-Indigo, Amazon, and FNAC).
Claude Forthomme, writer, economist, painter and poet, is now Senior Editor at Impakter, a swiftly growing online magazine for millennials. A writer, economist. and graduate of Columbia University, Claude gained a broad range of experience before starting a career at the United Nations (Food and Agriculture), finishing as Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia. She authored many fiction books under various pen names in both English and Italian. She is considered a prime exponent of Boomer literature and founded the Boomer Lit Group on Goodreads. Her poetry has been included in the international poetry anthology Freeze Frame.
Vyacheslav Konoval’s poetry was published in Anarchy Anthology Archive, International Poetry Anthology, Literary Waves Publishing, Sparks of Kaliopa, Reach of the Song 2022, Diogenes for Culture Journal, ‘Scars of my heart from the war’, ‘Poetry for Ukraine’, ‘Rhyming’, ‘La page Blanche’, Norwich University research center, ‘Impakter’, ‘Military Review’, ‘The Lit’, ‘Allegro’, Innisfree poetry journal, Atunes Galaxy Poetry, Ekscentrika, Mere Inkling, EgoPhobia, Fulcrum, Omnibus, Adirondack Center for Writing, Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Vyacheslav’s poems were translated from Ukrainian into French, Scottish, and Polish languages.
Giorgia Pavlidou’s poem “The Alchemy of Misperception” appeared in Kallisto Gaia Press in October, 2022. Ireland-based Strukturriss Magazine selected her as the main visual artist for their January 2022 issue 3.1. Also, trainwreckpress.com published her chapbook inside the black hornet’s mind-tunnel in 2021, and Anvil Tongue Books launched her book of poems and paintings, Haunted by the Living – Fed by the Dead. Georgia has also published in Caesura, Lotus-Eater, Zoetic Press, Maintenant Dada Journal, Unlikely Stories, The Room, Puerto del Sol, Thrice Fiction and Entropy. She’s an editor of SULΦUR literary magazine.
Muntpunt Library published a gazette including stories by Brussels Writers Circle writers:
- Ahtziri Gonzalez
- Jamuna Gopaul
- Irina Papancheva
- Melissa Watkins
- Layla Sabourian
- Melissa Watkins
- Irina Papancheva
- Jamuna Gopaul
Layla Sabourian also had her story, ‘The Discovery of Magic,’ published through EdiLivre. She has published numerous children’s books, hosts a cooking show, and recently did a TV segment on Bruzz TV station.
Teodora Lalova published her debut poetry collection Afternoons Like These. She is currently a PhD candidate at KU Leuven and lives in Brussels. Her poetry has been featured in numerous Bulgarian and international outlets including Eurolitkrant. She holds awards from several Bulgarian poetry competitions.
Ann Milton has won her first competition in the category ‘writing without restriction‘. Her poems about the experiences of herself and others in becoming the parents of a trans child. The judge said some wonderfully encouraging things. She extends her thanks to all the Tuesday nighters who commented on some of the poems in draft, and has acknowledged the contribution of the BWC on the competition page. A sample:
The first shock, by Ann Milton
I knew what the words meant
‘he’ ‘is’ ‘trans’
But I couldn’t add them together
find any sense, instead
for days I lived in a haze
wanting to cry
not daring to reach out.
Grief combined with shock
led to pain,
pain for his suffering
pain for all the family
pain for me as the body I created
is rejected.
JL Morin’s fifth novel, Loveoid, won an eLit Silver Medal in 2022. It is also a Cygnus 1st Place Sci-fi Award Winner; Book Excellence Award Finalist; ScreenCraft Semifinalist; and the short story kernel was shortlisted by the Fish Prize.
Mauricio Ruiz’s second book, Silencios al sur, was published in early 2017. His work has appeared in Words Without Borders, Catapult, The Common, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, JMWW, River Teeth, Literal Magazine, and has been translated into Dutch and French. He’s been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and Myriad Editions Competition in the UK, as well as the Fish Short Story Prize in Ireland. He has received fellowships from OMI writers (NY), Société des auteurs (Belgium), Jakob Sande (Norway), Can Serrat (Spain), and the Three Seas’ Council (Rhodes).
Fintan O’Higgins, former script editor at Lime Pictures, the UK’s oldest TV series, ‘Coronation Street’, gave an inspiring workshop in 2022 for Brussels Writers’ Circle members at Muntpunt Library. Fintan has also written for the TV series Emmerdale Farm, and has led workshops in drama, poetry and prose fiction.
Brussels Writers’ Circle writers with blogs:
Sarah Strange, Poet in the Woods
Jack Gilby, Make Sense of English
Alys Key, Sorry We’re Prosed
The Brussels Writers’ Circle is brimming with talent! Get involved.
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Brussels Writers' Circle 