Christine D'haen (1923–2009)

Christine D'haen was born in Saint-Amandsberg, Belgium, and studied philology at the University of Ghent. She went on to complete her studies in Amsterdam and Edinburgh, Scotland. She worked as a teacher in Bruges and later became curator of the Guido Gezelle Archive.
Christine D'haen inventoried the works of Gezelle, a major 19th-century Flemish poet, and also translated them into English. She also translated works of the leading Belgian author, painter and film director Hugo Claus into English. Christine made her publishing debut in 1943 with a long, narrative poem "Abélard and Héloïse," which appeared in a literary review. Her first collection of verse was published in 1958 as Gedichten, 1946-1958. Her further works included Onyx (1983), Mirages (1989), Morgane (1995), Bérénice (1998), and the novel Het huwelijk (2000), her last. Christine D'haen is considered the most important female poet of post-World War II Flemish and Dutch-language poetry.