Toon Tellegen, born in Den Briel in 1941, is considered one of Holland’s finest poets and his work has been awarded many literary prizes. He has published more than twenty collections to date. While he considers himself in the first place a poet, he is also a well-known children’s book writer, whose animal stories delight children and adults alike. In addition he has also written novels for adults and several plays. Tellegen works as a GP and lives in Amsterdam with his wife.
Translations of Tellegen’s poems have been published in reviews and anthologies in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Russia. His poetry has also been widely published in British and American journals, and has been very well received. One of Tellegen’s collections, In N.., was translated into English and published in 1993 by Cross-Cultural Communications in New York. A more recent collection of translations, About love and about nothing else, has just been completed and will hopefully find a publisher in the not too distant future.