Dimitri Verhulst

Dimitri Verhulst (born 2 October 1972) is a Belgian writer and poet. He is best known for his novels Problemski Hotel and The Misfortunates.

Biography Verhulst was an unwanted child in a violent home and spent his later childhood in a foster home and a family replacing home. He grew up Catholic. As a writer, he made his debut in 1994 with the self-published Assevrijdag. In 2001, Verhulst published Liefde, tenzij anders vermeld, a collection of poetry.

His breakthrough to the general public was in 2003, with Problemski Hotel (translated as Problemski Hotel), about residents of an asylum-seekers' centre in Arendonk (Belgium). The book was translated into more than ten languages. In 2006 his novel De helaasheid der dingen (translated as The Misfortunates) was published, and also the novella Mevrouw Verona daalt de heuvel af (translated as Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill). In 2008, Godverdomse dagen op een godverdomse bol ("Goddamn days on a goddamn globe") was published, for which Verhulst won the 2009 Libris Prize; in the Dutch daily Trouw it was called a "gruesome bible", with the interviewer questioning Verhulst about his use of terms such as "Final solution" in retelling the first five books of the bible. Verhulst responded that he used the "worldwide language of genocide".

Writing style Verhulst's writing style has been characterized as sarcastic but compassionate. His use of language can be explicit and hilarious. In this column by Verhulst, he claimed to quote Serge Gainsbourg writing that: " "Jood-zijn is geen godsdienst; er is geen enkele God die Zijn schepsels zo’n lelijke neus zou geven." (Translated: "Being Jewish is not a religion; there is no God who would give His creatures such an ugly nose.") According to The Times of Israel, this was not Gainsbourgs original quote and Verhulst accused Israeli Jews of various crimes in his columns. The Times of Israel stated the Forum of Jewish Organizations of Belgium's Flemish region accused Verhulst of expressing “rabid anti-Semitism” in his column and the Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs called the column “pure anti-Semitism."

The Forum of Jewish Organizations has withdrawn its decision to file criminal charges against writer and columnist Dimitri Verhulst. The Jewish umbrella organization announced this in a press release.

Published 7 October 2019 in a.o. Knack, De Standaard, VRT