Chameleon | Nachtroer

Charlotte Van den Broeck was born in Turnhout, Belgium, in 1991. After studies in English and German, she took a Masters in Drama at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp. She has published two collections of poetry, Kameleon (2015), which was awarded the Herman De Coninck debut prize for poetry by a Flemish author, and Nachtroer (2017), which was nominated for VSB Poetry Prize 2018 and the Ida Gerhard Prize. These two volumes are combined in Chameleon / Nachtroer, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer (Bloodaxe Books, 2020). Her poetry has also been translated into German, Spanish, French, Serbian and Arabic. In 2016 she opened the Frankfurt Bookfair together with Dutch poet Arnon Grunberg. In 2017 she was one of that year's Versopolis poets, performing at several European festivals including Ledbury in Britain. As well as publishing critically acclaimed collections she is renowned for her distinctive performances, which are differ from UK/US versions of spoken word as theatre pieces 'searching for the speakability and experience of oral poetry', now presented in English as well as Dutch.

After first making her mark as a compelling performer, Belgian poet Charlotte Van den Broeck was acclaimed as one of Europe's most innovative and original new voices in poetry. Her first English translation combines her debut volume Chameleon (2015) with its sequel Nachtroer (2017), its title the name of all-night shop in Antwerp where she lives.