About us

Mission

VONK & Zonen believes that literature, apart from having artistic value, also has a social function as reflection and inspiration. That’s why we produce societal relevant projects.

The organization wants to be a fertile and solid soil for professional literature writers and literary creators and want to offer them an arena wherein they can present their work to a public.

The core assignment of VONK & Zonen as a unique literary production house is to put literary creators in motion so that together we can connect Dutch poetry and literature with the community in Flanders and Brussels. We have extra attention for new voices, stories, presentation forms and links with other disciplines.

VONK & Zonen supports literary creators artistically, productionally and produces interventions that puts poetry and literature right in the middle of society.

History

VONK & Zonen was founded in 2011 by Andy Fierens, Maarten Inghels, Dave Van Gestel and Michaël Vandebril. In the following years they initiated and supported many projects, from Fatena’s Poetry salon, Nuff Said, IJZER 2018 to De Nacht van VONK and The lonely funeral.

The aim was always to promote literature outside of the book. In the pioneering years of VONK & Zonen there were also collaborations with Poëziecentrum and La Maison de la Poésie, around the project Dichter des Vaderlands. There were multidisciplinary nights organized in DE Studio and formats developed like the Poëziebordeel.

VONK & Zonen stands out by her involvement with society, but also by her courageousness and fun, and all thanks to fresh formats with innovative cross pollinations between disciplines. VONK & Zonen searched and found new ways to present literature ‘outside the book’.

Focus on literary creators

In recent years VONK & Zonen positioned their role as incubators of literary initiatives. What’s important here is the start of Watlab, a residential space for literary creators. It is our aim to put creators in charge, to create a ‘breeding ground’ for entrepreneurial literary creators and to be curious about where there’s space for literature in all its forms.