VUB writer in residence wins major Walloon literature prize

British-Belgian author Patrick McGuinness has received the Espiègle du rayonnement des lettres belges, also known as the Leo Beeckman Prize, from the French Community of Belgium (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles). He was awarded the prize on Monday 20 November for his contribution to the influence of French-language Belgian literature abroad. McGuinness is writer in residence at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel's Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings.

McGuinness not only writes prose and poetry, but also teaches comparative literature at the University of Oxford. On 24 November, he will be the keynote speaker at the annual study day of the Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings.

The Last Hundred Days

His first work, The Last Hundred Days (2011), is a semi-autobiographical account of the final days of the Ceausescu regime in Romania. It appeared on the longlist of the Man Booker Prize and won the Wales Book of the Year and the Writers' Guild Prize for Fiction.

His memoir, Other People's Countries: A Journey into Memory (2014) documents his childhood in the post-industrial Belgian town of Bouillon. The book was awarded the Duff Cooper Prize and the Wales Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize.

He has written two books of poetry, The Canals of Mars (2004) and Jilted City (2010), both published by Carcanet Press. McGuinness has also written several translations, anthologies and academic monographs.

Learn here more about the Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings and Patrick McGuinness at their annual study day.