Margot Vendertauten © Tom Van Nuffel
Margot Vanderstraeten [Belgium]
Born in 1967 in Hasselt, Belgium, Margot Vanderstraeten is a writer and journalist. She earned international fame through her book Mazzel Tov! (2017) in which she uses her experience as a private teacher inside a Jewish Orthodox family to describe a large worldstory about unique persons behind all socio-economical, cultural and religious differences. Difficult connection is part of life, at a small and large scale. Mazzel tov, but also Margot Vanderstraeten other novels and interviewbooks, make a moving plea for openness and tolerance, while at the same time she never denies the difficulties: living together is living with collsions.
In January 2018 Queen Mathilde, Belgiums Queen, did select Mazzel tov as her favorite book. Mazzel tov (and also other books from Vanderstraeten) won several Prizes and Awards.
Vanderstraeten went to primary school at the very multicultural Meulenberg coleminers school, because her mother was a teacher in that school. She spent the first twelve years of her live in a very diverse environment. When she left that school, the colemines were already closing. As a child she was witness from the social unrest in the region. Her grandfather was a coleminer. She studied translation French-Spanish at the Higher Institute for Translators and Interpreters in Antwerp. After her studies, it soon became clear that she could never become a translator, as she could rarely resist the urge to completely rewrite the original text.
She began to write stories for the written press. Her articles quickly caught the attention of Flanders two quality newspapers. As a freelancer she mainly worked for De Standaard en De Morgen: long storys and in-depth interviews became her speciality. In addition to her journalistic work she wrote – untill today- twelve novels and litarary non-fiction books. Mazzel tov and Minjan have been translated into several languages. Us, Romany, a rare glimpse into a closed world, is her last. It was published in August 2024.
Vanderstraeten is said to have re-invented non-fiction literature, whether the genre is called literary journalism or journalitic literature. The writer herself is convinced this genre is a necessary way to provide nuance to the polarized and hasty voices of today. The writer was the first woman to receive a column on the front page of daily newspaper De Morgen, in a dayly rotation with a male columnist.
She became a member of the council of the Dutch Language Union. She was a ‘practice assisentent’ interviewtechnqiques at the University of Ghent.
Her journalism also found its way to the television: the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the bankruptcy of the Belgian airline Sabena, Vanderstraeten conceived the idea of making a documentary series about the history of aviation in her country, which was also a history of aviation worldwide; She did the research, sought out witnesses, conducted the interviews and co-wrote the screenplay. The five-part documentary series Sabena aired on Canvas and was very succesfull.
Vanderstraeten resides in Antwerp.