Tineke Van der Eecken now considers Walyalup (Fremantle, Western Australia) home. Her Flemish-Australian heritage strongly influences her work, which is often multilingual: she writes in English, Dutch, French, and sometimes in other languages. Her writing is also informed by experiences in Burundi, Zambia, Madagascar and the UK.

 

All the places that mean something to Tineke Van der Eecken have been damaged by colonial history, and her writing often examines the struggles of human connection within this context. Her memoir Traverse (Wild Weeds Press 2018) was shortlisted for the TAG Hungerford Award, and follows Café d'Afrique (Tineke Creations 2012).

 

Her poems have appeared in various media, including the UK journal The Lake, the New Zealand magazine Blackmail Press, and Australian journals such as Going Down Swinging, Grieve, Famous Reporter, Oxygen and Tamba, and in the 2023 anthology of Western Australian Poets: cuttlefish.  

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Listen to her conversation with Writing WA CEO William Yeoman on Podstreet. 

 

As well as writing, she creates works in fine metal and other visual art. Find out more here.