Carmien Michels is a Belgian writer and performer that dances between pen and podium, between the urban and the classic. She explores verbal and non-verbal language in all its forms, in her educational and artistic practices and in her research. She holds a Master’s degree in Drama (Media, Writing and Performance Art) and a Postgraduate degree in drama teaching at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp. For her graduation project, she wrote her debut novel We zijn water (We are Water, 2013, De Bezige Bij), which was shortlisted in 2014 for both the Flemish Debut Prize and the Bronzen Uil debut prize. Her second novel Vraag het aan de bliksem (Lightning Never Lies, 2015) and her poetic debut We komen van ver (From Where We Came, 2017) were published by Polis Books. She is also making a splash in other genres. In 2016 she won the Dutch Poetry Slam Championship, came in third at the World Championships of Poetry Slam and became the European Champion later that year. She graces scores of international stages, organizes events, presents, teaches, and collaborates with artists of all disciplines. In December 2016 she finalized a research project into language stimulation at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp. She is a guest lecturer at several school of arts, the official resident storyteller of M Museum Leuven, artistic director of ARType vzw, board member of both PEN Vlaanderen and the spoken word commission of Flanders Literature. In 2019 she will be touring with the music theatre performance Voyeurs in BXL, which will be launched at the Passa Porta Festival in Brussels in March 2019. In the meantime she writes new prose and poetry in faraway lands.
