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The international house of literature Passa Porta is a unique, multilingual meeting place. Every two years Passa Porta draws about 100 national and international writers, thinkers and artists to Brussels. The Passa Porta Festival is the only multilingual literary event on this scale in Europe. Scattered throughout the city, authors and readers gather to share their experiences.
L’intime festival focuses not only on literature but also its intersection with photography, music, visual arts and film. Each field is introduced by experts including comedians, illustrators, musicians and writers. This multi-disciplinary festival, initiated by the artist Benoît Poelvoorde, takes place in several locations in the city of Namur.
The Poetik Bazar is a project led by a collective of non-profit organizations which aims to promote contemporary poetry through poets, artists and publishing houses to an intergenerational audience. A rich program consisting of workshops, meetings, readings, books signings and other events enables the audience to rediscover the vitality of the contemporary poetry scene. The fair takes place at Les Halles de Schaerbeek in Brussels.
The BD (Bande Dessinée) Comic Strip Festival, formerly Fête de la BD, is a comic strip festival held in September in Brussels since 2010. The program of the BD Comic Strip Festival focuses on comics and includes exhibitions, meetings, signing sessions, guided tours, conferences, games and the awarding of the Atomium Prize.
Aware of its social responsibility as a non-profit organization promoting reading, the Brussels Book Fair in April is committed to breaking down the barriers around books. The Fairs program is aimed at an audience whose access to literature is not always guaranteed. The location Tour & Taxis (a large industrial site in Brussels) is the meeting place for all those involved in the book industry: authors, illustrators, publishers, distributors, booksellers, critics, librarians and readers.
Awarded for the first time in 1997, this annual prize rewards an author for a first published work, regardless of its literary genre. It is awarded by the Association of French-language Writers (ADELF) and aims to promote the work of writers who express themselves in French throughout the world. The prize is endowed with 5000 EUR.
Initiated in 1924, the literary prizes of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles reward both first-time and already established authors. Besides common literary forms in French and regional languages, the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles also awards prizes for comics and children’s literature. The prizes each have their own specificity and the juries that propose them are composed of experts and specialists in the fields considered.
Established in 1971, the Prix Saint-Michel is one of Europe’s oldest awards, focused on comics. In 2002, the Prix Saint-Michel experienced a new vitality when the organizing team of the Comics-Festival of Brussels took over the organization of this annual event. Composed of a jury of professionals from all sectors of the comics industry, the current committee meets several times a year to assess key trends in the illustrated literature sector, to award an author and his work.
Founded in 1920, the Académie royale is a major agent of intellectual life at community, national and international level. The Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium awards its literary prizes each year, in several categories. The prizes honor, among others, poetry, prose and progressive literary works in general.
Established in 1938 by the newspaper Le Soir in memory of Victor Rossel, the Prix victor Rossel is the most prestigious literary prize awarded for a Belgian novel or a collection of short stories. Since 2001, the Prix Victor Rossel de jeunes has been awarded by a jury of adolescents, and the Prix Victor Rossel de la bande dessinée has honored comic strips since 2019. The Prix Victor Rossel is endowed with 5,000 EUR and a lithograph by Royer.
As an international house of literature, the Passa Porta is a cultural institution that hosts poetry, art and culture in Brussels. Every year Passa Porta offers residence to nine foreign authors in Brussels. The institution creates the ideal work environment for literary projects and writing. Writers are enabled to stay for a minimum of four and a maximum of eight weeks in a spacious apartment and are involved in the Belgian cultural life and the network of the house of literature.
Supported by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation with the aim of promoting the translation of French-speaking Belgian letters and encouraging the circulation of Belgian authors abroad, the residency provides translators from all over the world with an ideal environment. The duration of the stay is between two weeks minimum and one month.
La Bellone offers several residencies in all literary disciplines. There is a residency for works of dramaturgy, research, creation and writing. Residency formats are aimed at artists from different niches: artists coming out of schools, young artists and established artists. For each resident and according to their specific needs, a workspace will be provided, lunch will be taken care of and a partnership will be set up with the Documentation Centre and the team of La Bellone.
The Maison de la poésie d’Amay is a non-profit organization which hosts residencies for poets from all over the world for stays ranging from two weeks to two months. The program aims to give writers the chance to devote themselves to a poetic project. The writers in residence are provided with a studio. Projects that are close to completion are accepted as well as new ideas.
In 2009, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation entrusted the CED-WB (Centre des écritures dramatiques Wallonie-Bruxelles) with the cultural and practical management of a theatrical writing residency, in partnership with the Royal Museum of Mariemont. The Mariemont residence is mainly intended to welcome a playwright (Belgian or foreign) for a period of two to eight weeks at a location near the Mariemont Museum.
