Anne Provoost received the tri-annual Flemish Community Prize for Fiction for her novel ‘In de zon kijken' (‘Looking into the sun'). According to the jury, Provoost uses both a unity of style and a deliberate but sensory and rich language in her novel. Every detail has been carefully chosen. The other nominations were for Tom Lanoye's ‘The Third Marriage' and Stefan Brijs' ‘The Angel Maker'. The Flemish Community Prize for Comics went to Willy Linthout. Griffo and Ilah were also nominated. With ‘Years of the elephant' Willy Linthout has delivered a strong and gripping graphic novel. The main character in this surrealist and moving graphic novel tries to pick up the pieces of his life after his son has commited suicide.
The tri-annual prize for translations was awarded to Ina Rilke, who has translated an impressive number of Dutch-language authors. ‘Shutterspeeld', her English translation of the novel by Erwin Mortier, made the longlist of the 2008 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The jury called Ina Rilke a true ambassador for Dutch-language literature in the Anglosaxon world. The other nominees were Alain van Crugten and Franco Paris.
