Jos Vandeloo

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Jos Vandeloo (Zonhoven, 5 September 1925) is a Belgian writer and poet. He grew up in a miner family and graduated as a chemist for the mining industry.

After the war he started working in the mine as a coal specialist and for this he traveled throughout Europe (up to 1953). In the meantime he also studied also Dutch and French literature at the Royal Academy and the Higher Institute for Arts in Antwerp.

After his career in the mine, he (first deputy director and afterwards) became director of the Belgian division of the publisher Manteau. In the sixties he was for a while sports commentator for the Belgian Radio and Television (BRT). Since 1963 he lives in Mortsel near Antwerp.

He made his debut in 1955, with the collection of poems Speelse parade (E: Playful parade) became well known with the stories De muur (E: The wall) en Het gevaar (E: Te danger). In 1982, he became full-time writer.

In his work he generally describes the negative impact of modern society, such as loneliness and alienation and he tries to strive for an idealistic, paradisaical environment. He not only wrote novels, tales and poetry but also wrote several screenplays for television and theatre plays. His was translated in several European languages (such as Russian) and he was awarded on several occasions.