User:J.Grandgagnage

Hi, I'm active on the Dutch, French and English Wikipedia. I created a Dutch user page you can visit here. Being born in Brussels, French was my first native language, then, after 'relocating' to Antwerp, I learned Dutch. I also understand English, as well as some Spanish and German. My main field of interest is literature, and I'm also well read in philosophy, the occult and jazz.

I am a Flemish writer and retired teacher living in Brasschaat, a town near Antwerp, Belgium, and I hope to be able to contribute something valuable to this project. For about 30 years I worked as a elementary school teacher, meanwhile I studied at the open university for about eight years (Faculty of Arts) and wrote a few Dutch books for adults and for children. In the late nineties I was a columnist for a Dutch computer magazine ('Netwerk') and worked as a programmer of educational software in my wife's company. At about that time I also made a career change and quit teaching to start working as an ICT coordinator in the city of Antwerp.

I am retired now and spend my time reading, translating English poems (Shakespeare's sonnets, John Donne), studying, and walking my dogs. I also write poetry and short stories and some of them where published in literary magazines. I enjoy playing guitar, saxophone, blues harp and tin whistle, watching old movies, painting still lifes and portrets, and listening to my favourite music (traditional jazz and jazz manouche). I am the webmaster and editor of Shakespearevertalingen.com, a site dedicated to free available Dutch translations of Shakespeare's work. I'm currently working on a Dutch site about John Donne, collaborating with other poet-translators.