Dear Guest,
My dear brother, Ludo Cammaert, who is the builder of this website died last year in September and it has taken me some time to redirect my artistic endeavours without him there supporting me, helping me, and working with me. He is missed by all those who had the benefit of his love. His legacy lives on, in the artwork he left behind. He also lives on in his children and grandchildren, who are very dear to me. Manu, Ludo’s oldest son, has generously offered to take over the management of my website.
< 10.2018
I continued to be productive in my work.
I was judge in the short story contest at the Elora Writers Festival and the poetry contest at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival. I continue to be active with Guelph’s Vocamus Writers Community. On 19 September 2018 I was the featured artist at Silence Open Mic.
I placed three poems in ArtAscent. Little Hands, Art Ascent, April 2018, Quinten’s Song, Art Ascent, December 2017 and Lepanto, Art Ascent, June 2017
I placed the poems Ar***t Macht Frei and Longing in the 2017 and 2018 The Rhapsody Anthology and I also placed a poem in the 2017 volume of The Banister.
Last spring I completed my Creative Writing Certificate with the University of Guelph. I also continued to take on-line courses in creative writing with the University of Iowa and the California Institute of the Arts.
You can also find a new folder in my Dark Room: Lost Dreams. If you enjoy my picture, you can follow me on Instgram.
Longing
Bieke Stengos
Wish I too could bend
my course, on a calm sea
and reach without effort
where rays slant
to a distant horizon.
Wish I too could gather
stars, shimmering on the water
and reach without effort
what has been polished
by rougher waves.
Wish I too could sail
away, under heavenly clouds,
and reach without effort
my longed for
destination.
< 06.2017
The last few months have been productive…
Check out the June 2017 ArtAscent issue. It has my poem "Lepanto 2016”
on page 74: www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1308750
I was reading poetry
at Guelph Spoken Word. Grounded: Relationships With Out Land Base
and at the In The Soil, Arts Festival, Mahtay Café, St. Catharines, ON
• The Best Woman was
published in ArtAscent, Arts
& Literary Journal, August
• Young Girl staring out to the
North Sea was published in
Rhapsody, 2016, Vocamus
Press
• Old Love was published in
The Banister, Niagara Poetry
Anthology, 2016
• Adagio was published in
Xaggera, Fall, 2016
• A Last Gift was published in You are not alone, 52 Stories of Hope, One Thousand
Trees, 2016
• A Morning Like Any was published in the Writers Abroad Magazine, The Third Space,
Issue 5, November 2016, writersabroad.com
‘Aunt Ida’ was conceived after I found the photograph in a family album. It needed a story. That much I knew, but I couldn’t quite find a way until I went to the launch of Felylalanine Publishing, a publishing company that exists on line only. The idea of the sequence of Aunt Ida verses was born. You can find it on Facebook but you can also order hard copies. $5 Canada and USA / $10 overseas (Canadian dollars). Just send me an email and I’ll ship it to you: bieke.stengos@icloud.com
This is what one reader said: ‘Thank you for the pleasure of ‘Aunt Ida’. Your deconstruction of the image pieced together through words formed the perfect sentence/story. It has stayed on my mind. Beautiful.’ ● Barbara Robinson
‘I love ‘Aunt Ida’. Such a picture we get, in a few words and a picture worth over a thousand! Hints of a life full of domestic drama and moment - and yearning for the genius deferred.
I hope her reaching hands eventually got back to the beloved, abandoned piano.’ ● Mary Taslimi
‘Tant’Ida’, a Dutch translation of Aunt Ida, Fenylalanine Publishing, 2016, FP22
I took two courses in Creative Writing
I finished my third certificate course, How Writers Write Fiction, Storied Women, a MOOC of The University of Iowa NovoEd.
and I finished also my third course toward a certificate in Creative Writing with the University of Guelph.
You also can find a lot of new pictures in My Dark Room
• Tinos, the Greek island where the writing of poets is on the walls, and doors,
< 09.2016
My story ’Leia’s Choice’ won an honourable mention in the 2016 Ten Stories High competition of the Canadian Authors Association -Niagara branch. It has been published in the Ten Stories High Anthology Volume 16. You can order a copy from their website.
Nocturne
This poem is published by
Quick Brown Fox.
Young Girl Staring
Out to the North Sea
This poem is published by
Vocamus Press, Guelph.
Reading at Eden Mills
Writers Festival 2015.
13 August 2015
Reading at
Jordan Art Gallery.
14 February 2016
Photo: Harold Sikkema
You can follow me on:
Photo Bieke: Tim Walsh
Webdesign and photo header: Ludo Cammaert / Antwerp
Copyright: Bieke Stengos / Guelph
A bit about myself
I grew up in Flanders, Belgium. As a young adult I came to Canada and adopted the English language. I live in Guelph, Ontario, where together with my husband I raised three children. Between work and raising a family, I attempted to honour my creative impulse. Amongst the jobs that had their deepest impact on me were a stint at a home for developmentally delayed adults and a decade and a half at a couple of shelters for abused women and their children.
Besides holding a Belgian degree in Social and Cultural Work, I attained a Master's of Arts from Queen's University. My subject: literature of the English speaking world.
I attained a Master of Arts (English) at Queen’s University. I also have a Certificate of Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and I have taken on-line creative writing courses with the University of Iowa. I am also active in Guelph’s writing community through Vocamus Press.
I would love to hear from you:
Stories
