Patrick Ten Brink

I write non-fiction and fiction, fortunately with a clear divide between the two.

My non-fiction focuses on environmental issues – on nature and on policy actions needed for a transition to an economy that respects people and planet. I believe that this generation has borrowed the planet from future generations and that we need to treat it accordingly. My day job focuses on this.

In any spare time that I can find, I write and read fiction – reading across most genres. My current favourites are Haruki Murakami and Neil Gaiman. I’ve been inspired by too many to note, but a few are: Ben Okri, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Garcia Marques, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ionescu, and Borges. Recent inspirations include Cees Nooteboom, Phillip Pullman, Scott Bradfield, Miranda Miller, Tracy K. Smith and Edwidge Danticat.

On writing, I’m proud to announce that The Circle: A Brussels Anthology that I edited is coming out on 14 October 2018 (with book launch at Waterstones in Brussels on the 22nd November). This collection houses 54 works by 34 authors from 19 countries – that has sprung from authors who are or have been members of The Brussels Writers Circle (BWC). BWC has proven a valuable touch-down ground for international arrivals and venue for integrating those with a passion for the written word.

My short story – The Apple – features in this collection. And my story – The Birdman – is in the first BWC collection: The Circle of Words. Both these books are published by Harvard Square Editions. My short story – The Taken – received an Honorable Mention by Glimmer Train in 2017, and 'Amelia Borgiotti' was published in 2018 by Coffin Bell Journal. My poem, ‘Zen Garden, Kyoto’, was one of the seven winners of the Dreamers Creative Writing Haiku Context.

I am currently putting the final touches to his fantasy-literary fiction cross-over trilogy—The Guardians of the Tides. I’m also writing (and trying to illustrate) travel poetry – on Japan, on the Galapagos and pulling together a collection of Urban Enigmas focusing on Brussels, where I live with my wife, two daughters, oh and a cat from a refuge. I grew up in Germany, Australia, Japan and England, and have also lived and studied in France and Mexico. This perhaps explains my eclectic tastes. Or maybe that is just me.