Writers Famous Authors from Belgium

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List of the most popular authors from Belgium, listed alphabetically with photos when available. For centuries authors have been among the world's most important people, helping chronicle history and keep us entertained with one of the earliest forms of storytelling. Whether they're known for fiction, non-fiction, poetry or even technical writing, the famous Belgian authors on this list have kept that tradition alive by writing renowned works that have been praised around the world. You can find useful information below about these notable Belgian writers, such as when they were born and where their place of birth was.

The list you're viewing has a variety of authors, like Philippe Francq and François-Joseph Fétis, in it.

This list answers the questions, "Which famous authors are from Belgium?" and "Who are the best Belgian authors?"

For further information on these historic Belgian authors, click on their names. If you're a bookworm then use this list of celebrated Belgian authors to discover some new books that you will enjoy reading.

1

Georges Simenon La Premiere enquete de Maigret, La Marie Du Port, La Veuve Couderc Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective ...more

2

May Sarton Fur Person, The Education of Harriet Hatfield, Crucial Conversations May Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton, an American poet, novelist and memoirist.

3

Julio Cortázar Hopscotch, Las Armas Secretas, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar ...more

4

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images that fall under the umbrella of surrealism. ...more

5

Léon Van Hove George Placzek, 1905-1955 Léon Charles Prudent Van Hove was a Belgian physicist and a former Director General of CERN. He developed a scientific career spanning mathematics, solid state physics, elementary ...more

6

Hergé Tintin in Tibet, The Seven Crystal Balls, The Crab with the Golden Claws Georges Prosper Remi, known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for The Adventures of Tintin, the series of comic albums which are considered one of the most ...more

7

Raoul Cauvin La pelle aux morts, La tournée du patron, Le Drain sifflera trois fois Raoul Cauvin is a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field.

8

Django Reinhardt The great Django Reinhardt, I got rhythm (A Jazz Hour With Series), The Best of Django Reinhardt Jean "Django" Reinhardt was a Belgium-born French guitarist and composer of Romani ethnicity. Reinhardt is regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time; he was the first ...more

9

Hugo Claus The Sorrow of Belgium, The swordfish, Desire Hugo Maurice Julien Claus was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, the novel, and ...more

10

Peyo La Schtroumpfette, tome 3, La soupe aux Schtroumpfs Pierre Culliford, known as Peyo, was a Belgian comics artist, perhaps best known for the creation of The Smurfs comic strip.

11

Henri Michaux Miserable Miracle, Épreuves, exorcismes Henri Michaux was a highly idiosyncratic Belgian-born poet, writer, and painter who wrote in French. He later took French citizenship. Michaux is best known for his esoteric books written in a ...more

12

Edward Schillebeeckx Le Christ, sacrement de la rencontre de Dieu, Le Mariage Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx was a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian born in Antwerp. He taught at the Catholic University in Nijmegen. He was a member of the Dominican ...more

13

André Franquin Le gang des gaffeurs, Gaston 19, La Saga Des Gaffes André Franquin was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best known comic strip creations are Gaston and Marsupilami, created while he worked on the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip ...more

14

Chantal Akerman Family in Brussels, Chantal Akerman Chantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the City College of New York. Her best-known film is Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. ...more

15

Maurice Maeterlinck Pelléas and Mélisande, The Treasure of the Humble, Mary Magdalene Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was a Fleming, but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 "in ...more

16

Ilya Prigogine The molecular theory of solutions, Étude thermodynamique des phénomènes irréversibles, La nouvelle alliance Viscount Ilya Romanovich Prigogine was a Belgian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility.

17

Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt Oscar and the Lady in Pink, La secte des Egoïstes, M. Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt is a French and Belgian dramatist, novelist, fiction writer and film director. His plays have been staged in over fifty countries all over the world.

18

Claude Lévi-Strauss Structural anthropology, The Raw and the Cooked, Tristes Tropiques Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the Chair of ...more

19

Robert Goffin Le Roi Des Belges A-t-il Trahi?, Le fusillé de Dunkerque, Le Versant noir Robert Goffin was a Belgian lawyer, author, and poet, credited with writing the first "serious" book on jazz, Aux Frontières du Jazz in 1932.

20

George Sarton A guide to the history of science, Hellenistic science and culture in the last three centuries B.C, The history of science and the new humanism George Sarton was a Belgian-American chemist and historian who is considered the founder of the discipline of history of science. He has a significant importance in the history of science and ...more

21

Amélie Nothomb The Character of Rain, The Stranger Next Door, The Enemy's Cosmetique Amélie Nothomb is a Belgian writer who writes in French.

22

Henri Pirenne Les villes du Moyen Age, Las Ciudades de La Edad Media, Geburt des Abendlandes Henri Pirenne was a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a multivolume history of Belgium in French and became a national hero. He also became prominent in the ...more

23

Jean Dufaux Fox, tome 2, Ombres Jean Dufaux is a Belgian comic book writer. Initially beginning his professional career as a journalist for "CINÉ-PRESSE", Dufaux started writing comic books in the 1980s. ...more

24

Carl Norac Nemo et le volcan, L'île aux câlins, Bonjour Carl Norac is a Walloon Belgian author of children's books and poetry.

25

Hendrik Conscience De Leeuw van Vlaanderen, The boys of the Sierras, or Henri or Hendrik Conscience was a Belgian author. He is considered as the pioneer of Dutch-language literature in Flanders, writing at a time when Belgium was dominated by French among the upper ...more

26

Sidney Nolan Nolan, Nolan on Nolan, Notes for Oedipus Sir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.

27

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his ...more

28

Wim Mertens American minimal music Wim Mertens is a Flemish Belgian composer, countertenor vocalist, pianist, guitarist, and musicologist.

29

Charles Spaak Grand illusion Charles Spaak was a Belgian screenwriter who was noted particularly for his work in the French cinema during the 1930s. He was the son of the dramatist and poet Paul Spaak, the brother of the ...more

30

Mehmet Ali Birand Demirkırat: Bir Demokrasinin Doğuşu, Panorama '97 CD-ROM 32. Gün Dünya'da ve Türkiye'de Yılın Olayları, Diyet Mehmet Ali Birand was a Turkish journalist, political commentator and writer.

31

Bob de Groot Lucky Luke, Bd.75, Der Kunstmaler Bob de Groot is a Belgian comics artist and writer, born on 26 October 1941 in Brussels, to Dutch and French parents.

32

Eric de Kuyper Eric de Kuyper is a Flemish-Belgian and Dutch writer, semiologist, art critic, and experimental film director. Fictionalized autobiographical novels, written in the 3rd-person, account for most ...more

33

Willem Elsschot Pensionen/Het tankschip, Kaas, Elsschot leest voor Alphonsus Josephus de Ridder, was a Belgian writer and poet who wrote under the pseudonym Willem Elsschot. A number of his works have been translated into English.

34

Dominique Rolin Le futur immédiat, La Rénovation, Les marais Dominique Rolin was a Belgian novelist. Her career was launched by Jean Cocteau and Jean Paulhan during the Second World War. Over some sixty years she developed a unique, feminist voice in ...more

35

Koenraad Elst Freedom of expression - Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy, Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate, Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple Koenraad Elst is a Belgian orientalist and Indologist known primarily for his writings in support for the Out of India theory, a controversial proposition that the Indo-European language family ...more

36

Dominique Pire Building peace Dominique Pire was a Belgian Dominican friar whose work helping refugees in post-World War II Europe saw him receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958. On Dec. 11, 1958 Pire delivered his Nobel ...more

37

Béatrix Beck The Passionate Heart, Stella Corfou, Des accommodements avec le ciel Béatrix Beck was a French writer of Belgian origin. She was born at Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland, the daughter of the poet Christian Beck. After several jobs, she became the secretary ...more

38

Yves Debay Heliborne, The Balkans on Fire, War in the Balkans Yves Debay, a veteran French-Belgian war correspondent who founded and reported for French-language magazines Raids and later Assaut, which is published out of Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, ...more

39

Jacqueline Harpman I Who Have Never Known Men, La lucarne, Récit de la dernière année Jacqueline Harpman was a Belgian writer who wrote in French. She also worked as a psychoanalyst and lived in Etterbeek, Brussels.

40

Jan Cox Jan Cox Jan Cox was a painter who spent the largest part of his creative life in the United States and Belgium. He was born in The Hague.

41

Simon Stevin The Hauen-finding Art Simon Stevin was a Flemish mathematician, physicist and military engineer. He was active in a great many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical. He also translated ...more

42

Adolphe Quetelet A treatise on man and the development of his faculties Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet was a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist. He founded and directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential in introducing ...more

43

Willy Vandersteen Amazing Coconut, Thyl Ulenspiegel, tome 5 Willy Vandersteen was a Belgian creator of comic books. In a career spanning 50 years, he created a large studio and published more than 1,000 comic albums in over 25 series, selling more than ...more

44

Edgar Pierre Jacobs The Necklace Affair, Blake et Mortimer, Papyrus of Manethon Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs, better known under his pen name Edgar P. Jacobs, was a Belgian comic book creator, born in Brussels, Belgium. He was one of the founding fathers of the ...more

45

Pierre Alechinsky Pierre Alechinsky Pierre Alechinsky is a Belgian artist. He has lived and worked in France since 1951. His work is related to tachisme, abstract expressionism, and lyrical abstraction. Alechinsky was born in ...more

46

Victor Horta Horta Victor Horta was a Belgian architect and designer. John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect." Horta is considered one of the most ...more

47

Kitty Crowther L'Anniversaire de l'écureuil, Les animaux et leurs poètes, L'Enfant racine Kitty Crowther is a Belgian illustrator and writer of children's books. For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" she won the 2010 ...more

48

Paul Haesaerts James Ensor, Renoir Paul Haesaerts was a multi talented Belgian artist. Born as Pauwel Helena Alfons Haesaerts, son of Benjamin Adolf Jan Baptist Haesaerts and Emma Philomena Spillemaeckers. As an artist he worked ...more

49

Luc Tuymans Premonition, The passion, Luc Tuymans Luc Tuymans is a Belgian artist who lives and works in Antwerp. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated ...more

50

Philippe Van Parijs What's Wrong with a Free Lunch?, Evolutionary explanation in the social sciences, Real freedom for all Philippe Van Parijs is a left-libertarian Belgian philosopher and political economist, mainly known as a proponent and main defender of the basic income concept and for the first systematic ...more

1 Georges Simenon La Premiere enquete de Maigret, La Marie Du Port, La Veuve Couderc Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective ...more

2 May Sarton Fur Person, The Education of Harriet Hatfield, Crucial Conversations May Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton, an American poet, novelist and memoirist.

3 Julio Cortázar Hopscotch, Las Armas Secretas, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar ...more

4 René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images that fall under the umbrella of surrealism. ...more

5 Léon Van Hove George Placzek, 1905-1955 Léon Charles Prudent Van Hove was a Belgian physicist and a former Director General of CERN. He developed a scientific career spanning mathematics, solid state physics, elementary ...more

6 Hergé Tintin in Tibet, The Seven Crystal Balls, The Crab with the Golden Claws Georges Prosper Remi, known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for The Adventures of Tintin, the series of comic albums which are considered one of the most ...more

7 Raoul Cauvin La pelle aux morts, La tournée du patron, Le Drain sifflera trois fois Raoul Cauvin is a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field.

9 Hugo Claus The Sorrow of Belgium, The swordfish, Desire Hugo Maurice Julien Claus was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, the novel, and ...more

10 Peyo La Schtroumpfette, tome 3, La soupe aux Schtroumpfs Pierre Culliford, known as Peyo, was a Belgian comics artist, perhaps best known for the creation of The Smurfs comic strip.

11 Henri Michaux Miserable Miracle, Épreuves, exorcismes Henri Michaux was a highly idiosyncratic Belgian-born poet, writer, and painter who wrote in French. He later took French citizenship. Michaux is best known for his esoteric books written in a ...more

12 Edward Schillebeeckx Le Christ, sacrement de la rencontre de Dieu, Le Mariage Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx was a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian born in Antwerp. He taught at the Catholic University in Nijmegen. He was a member of the Dominican ...more

13 André Franquin Le gang des gaffeurs, Gaston 19, La Saga Des Gaffes André Franquin was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best known comic strip creations are Gaston and Marsupilami, created while he worked on the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip ...more

14 Chantal Akerman Family in Brussels, Chantal Akerman Chantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the City College of New York. Her best-known film is Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. ...more

15 Maurice Maeterlinck Pelléas and Mélisande, The Treasure of the Humble, Mary Magdalene Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was a Fleming, but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 "in ...more

17 Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt Oscar and the Lady in Pink, La secte des Egoïstes, M. Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt is a French and Belgian dramatist, novelist, fiction writer and film director. His plays have been staged in over fifty countries all over the world.

18 Claude Lévi-Strauss Structural anthropology, The Raw and the Cooked, Tristes Tropiques Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the Chair of ...more

19 Robert Goffin Le Roi Des Belges A-t-il Trahi?, Le fusillé de Dunkerque, Le Versant noir Robert Goffin was a Belgian lawyer, author, and poet, credited with writing the first "serious" book on jazz, Aux Frontières du Jazz in 1932.

21 Amélie Nothomb The Character of Rain, The Stranger Next Door, The Enemy's Cosmetique Amélie Nothomb is a Belgian writer who writes in French.

22 Henri Pirenne Les villes du Moyen Age, Las Ciudades de La Edad Media, Geburt des Abendlandes Henri Pirenne was a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a multivolume history of Belgium in French and became a national hero. He also became prominent in the ...more

23 Jean Dufaux Fox, tome 2, Ombres Jean Dufaux is a Belgian comic book writer. Initially beginning his professional career as a journalist for "CINÉ-PRESSE", Dufaux started writing comic books in the 1980s. ...more

24 Carl Norac Nemo et le volcan, L'île aux câlins, Bonjour Carl Norac is a Walloon Belgian author of children's books and poetry.

25 Hendrik Conscience De Leeuw van Vlaanderen, The boys of the Sierras, or Henri or Hendrik Conscience was a Belgian author. He is considered as the pioneer of Dutch-language literature in Flanders, writing at a time when Belgium was dominated by French among the upper ...more

26 Sidney Nolan Nolan, Nolan on Nolan, Notes for Oedipus Sir Sidney Robert Nolan OM, AC was one of Australia's best-known painters and printmakers.

27 Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his ...more

28 Wim Mertens American minimal music Wim Mertens is a Flemish Belgian composer, countertenor vocalist, pianist, guitarist, and musicologist.

29 Charles Spaak Grand illusion Charles Spaak was a Belgian screenwriter who was noted particularly for his work in the French cinema during the 1930s. He was the son of the dramatist and poet Paul Spaak, the brother of the ...more

30 Mehmet Ali Birand Demirkırat: Bir Demokrasinin Doğuşu, Panorama '97 CD-ROM 32. Gün Dünya'da ve Türkiye'de Yılın Olayları, Diyet Mehmet Ali Birand was a Turkish journalist, political commentator and writer.

31 Bob de Groot Lucky Luke, Bd.75, Der Kunstmaler Bob de Groot is a Belgian comics artist and writer, born on 26 October 1941 in Brussels, to Dutch and French parents.

32 Eric de Kuyper Eric de Kuyper is a Flemish-Belgian and Dutch writer, semiologist, art critic, and experimental film director. Fictionalized autobiographical novels, written in the 3rd-person, account for most ...more

33 Willem Elsschot Pensionen/Het tankschip, Kaas, Elsschot leest voor Alphonsus Josephus de Ridder, was a Belgian writer and poet who wrote under the pseudonym Willem Elsschot. A number of his works have been translated into English.

34 Dominique Rolin Le futur immédiat, La Rénovation, Les marais Dominique Rolin was a Belgian novelist. Her career was launched by Jean Cocteau and Jean Paulhan during the Second World War. Over some sixty years she developed a unique, feminist voice in ...more

36 Dominique Pire Building peace Dominique Pire was a Belgian Dominican friar whose work helping refugees in post-World War II Europe saw him receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958. On Dec. 11, 1958 Pire delivered his Nobel ...more

37 Béatrix Beck The Passionate Heart, Stella Corfou, Des accommodements avec le ciel Béatrix Beck was a French writer of Belgian origin. She was born at Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland, the daughter of the poet Christian Beck. After several jobs, she became the secretary ...more

38 Yves Debay Heliborne, The Balkans on Fire, War in the Balkans Yves Debay, a veteran French-Belgian war correspondent who founded and reported for French-language magazines Raids and later Assaut, which is published out of Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, ...more

39 Jacqueline Harpman I Who Have Never Known Men, La lucarne, Récit de la dernière année Jacqueline Harpman was a Belgian writer who wrote in French. She also worked as a psychoanalyst and lived in Etterbeek, Brussels.

40 Jan Cox Jan Cox Jan Cox was a painter who spent the largest part of his creative life in the United States and Belgium. He was born in The Hague.

41 Simon Stevin The Hauen-finding Art Simon Stevin was a Flemish mathematician, physicist and military engineer. He was active in a great many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical. He also translated ...more

42 Adolphe Quetelet A treatise on man and the development of his faculties Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet was a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist. He founded and directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential in introducing ...more

43 Willy Vandersteen Amazing Coconut, Thyl Ulenspiegel, tome 5 Willy Vandersteen was a Belgian creator of comic books. In a career spanning 50 years, he created a large studio and published more than 1,000 comic albums in over 25 series, selling more than ...more

44 Edgar Pierre Jacobs The Necklace Affair, Blake et Mortimer, Papyrus of Manethon Edgard Félix Pierre Jacobs, better known under his pen name Edgar P. Jacobs, was a Belgian comic book creator, born in Brussels, Belgium. He was one of the founding fathers of the ...more

45 Pierre Alechinsky Pierre Alechinsky Pierre Alechinsky is a Belgian artist. He has lived and worked in France since 1951. His work is related to tachisme, abstract expressionism, and lyrical abstraction. Alechinsky was born in ...more

46 Victor Horta Horta Victor Horta was a Belgian architect and designer. John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect." Horta is considered one of the most ...more

47 Kitty Crowther L'Anniversaire de l'écureuil, Les animaux et leurs poètes, L'Enfant racine Kitty Crowther is a Belgian illustrator and writer of children's books. For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" she won the 2010 ...more

48 Paul Haesaerts James Ensor, Renoir Paul Haesaerts was a multi talented Belgian artist. Born as Pauwel Helena Alfons Haesaerts, son of Benjamin Adolf Jan Baptist Haesaerts and Emma Philomena Spillemaeckers. As an artist he worked ...more

49 Luc Tuymans Premonition, The passion, Luc Tuymans Luc Tuymans is a Belgian artist who lives and works in Antwerp. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated ...more