Elke de Rijcke

Elke de Rijcke

Bio

Elke de Rijcke is a bilingual poet, poetry translator and essayist. She has published in French and in Dutch.

Her most recent book, June on April (Juin sur Avril) has been published by LansKine Editions in 2021. Her poetry engages into various experiments and focusses on sophisticated sensorial experiences, poetic perception and cognition, and language’s materiality. It reflects an acute interest in interdisciplinary practices situated between the arts, sciences, and philosophy. On a conceptual level, Elke has been working on possible declinations of feminine eros and identity. She has been particularly inspired by the work of Harald Szeeman, Marina Tsvétaïéva, Andrea Zanzotto, Andreï Tarkovski, Romeo Castellucci, David Altmejd, Antonio Damasio, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Maurice Blanchot. She has also translated one of the major Dutch poets, Kees Ouwens, into French.

Currently, she is working on two new poetry books: Paradisiaca, a bilingual text on what is left of paradisiacal elements, and Journal I, a reflection on the possibilities of contemporary diary writing. She is also working on Mythologies (2002), a translation of Ouwens’ last poetry book. Elke teaches contemporary literature and aesthetics in Academic Art Schools (ESA Saint-Luc and Erg / Brussels), where she has curated since 2018 the pluridisciplinary platform Physical Poetics, and since 2021 The Living Library.

Projects