Germain Droogenbroodt, was born in Rollegem, the Flemish part of Belgium. In 1987 he moved to the Mediterranean artist village of Altea and integrated in Spanish literary life.
Germain Droogenbroodt is an internationally appreciated poet, translator, publisher and promoter of modern international poetry. So far he wrote eleven poetry books and translated – he speaks six languages – more than thirty collections of German, Italian, Spanish, English and French poetry, including anthologies of Bertolt Brecht, Reiner Kunze, Peter Huchel, Miguel Hernández, José Ángel Valente, Francisco Brines and Juan Gil-Albert and rendered Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Persian and Korean poetry into Dutch.
As founder and editor of the Belgian publishing house POINT Editions (POetry INTernational) he has published more than eighty collections of mainly modern, international poetry. In 1996 he set up a new poetic movement, called neo-sensacionismo with the famous Chinese poets Bei Dao and Duo Duo
Germain Droogenbroodt organised and co-organised several international poetry festivals in Spain. He is vice president of the International Poetry Festival Mihai Eminescu in Craiova, Romania, co-founder and advisor of JUNGPA (The Poetic Bridge of Kyoto) and founding president of the Spanish cultural foundation ITHACA.
His poetic oeuvre is many-sided. His poetry books have published so far in 25 countries. After his début with “Forty at the wall” (1984), defined as neo-romantic poetry, he published “Do you know the country?”, Meditations at Lake Como (Italy), a collection of nature poems. In 1995 he was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship (Scotland) where he wrote “Conversation with the hereafter”, poems about death, awarded in Belgium with the P.G. Buckinx-Prize and “Palpable absence”, a bilingual (Dutch-Spanish) collection of love poems. A critic of the Dutch Information Office for Libraries described his love poems as “virtuoso poetry”. At the end of 1997 appeared “Twenty-five and two love poems”, and in 1998 “Between the silence of your lips”, his collected love poems.
During his sojourn at the Palace-Fortress “Neemrana” in Rajasthan he completed the poetry cycle “The Road”, (read TAO) a poetic bridge between the East and the West, inspiring the Flemish artist Frans Minnaert and the Indian painter Satish Gupta, who enriched “The Road” with their drawings. This rather philosophical, mystical poetry is so far his most popular book, published already in 25 countries, translated by such famous poets as Bei Dao (Chinese), Fuad Rifka (Arabic), Jana Stroblova and Josef Hruby (Czech), Milan Richter (Slovak), Emilio Coco, Luca Benassi and Tiziana Orrù (Italian), Ganga Prasad Vimal (Hindi), Mongolian etc. In 2001 he wrote in Spanish “Amanece el cantor” (The Singer Awakes), a homage to the deceased poet José Ángel Valente, followed by “Counterlight” written in Ronda (Southern Spain) in 2002. This book has been published in Spain by Calima Ediciones, in Romania by ex Ponto, in Belgium by POINT Editions, in both Mongolian languages by GCompress Co., Ltd. Ulaanbaatar, in Arab by Albayat (Morocco), in Hong Kong by “Contemporary Poetry”, and in Taiwan by Poet Culture. Corp. The latter publication includes also “Counterlight “.
His last but one poetry book “In the Stream of Time”, Meditations in the Himalayas, was published in 2008 in Belgium and as part of “Selected Poems by Germain Droogenbroodt”, 2008 in Shanghai by the Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing Group and in Spain, laureate of the XXIX Premio de Poesía Juan Alcaide 2008. Struga Poetry Evenings published a selection of his poetry in their “Pleiades” in 2010. “In the Stream of Time, selected poetry of Germain Droogenbroodt has also been translated in Japanese and was launched at the Kyoto City International Foundation in Kyoto, Japan in 2010 and in Gaelic (Irish) in 2012. A selection of his poems has been published as well in Bengal in Bangladesh (2012 and 2015). “Unshadowed Light”, his latest poetry book, was launched end 2012 in a bilingual Dutch-Spanish publication at the Book Fair in Antwerp and in several Belgian towns and in Spain. The anthology “The Dewdrops of Dawn”, a selection form his 11 poetry books, has published with illustrations by Satish Gupta in German and in Croatian (2014) and will also be published in Dutch, Spanish and English.
Germain Droogenbroodt is frequently invited to give recitals and conferences at universities and international poetry festivals all over the globe. He has been honoured with a Doctor of Literature, h.c. in Egypt in 1990 and awarded several prizes, such as the prestigious Mihai Eminescu Prize at the International Poetry Festival Mihai Eminescu in Craiova, Romania (2014) for his devotion to the translation and promotion of International Poetry, the Prize Best Poem of the Festival at the International Poetry Festival in Tetovo, Macedonia (2014), The Kathak Literature Award 2015 in Bangladesh, the Grand Prix Mihai Eninescu Poetry Prize and the Médaille Mihai Eminescu as promotor of universal poetry at the Mihai Eminescu Internatinal Poetry Festival in Craiova, Romania, candidate European Cultural Capital 2021. His poem “Venice” is projected during the month December at the Piazza San Marco in Venice as part of the project “Poesia e Luce” organized by the Venetian artist Marco Nereo Rotelli.
