Sara Eelen
- Belgium -
Sara Eelen (Antwerp, 1994) sees poetry in everything. She captures it through film, photography, audio, and text. Her debut collection Het nodige breken (Breaking What’s Necessary, Uitgeverij Vrijdag, 2022) was awarded the Debut Prize by the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letteren and nominated for the PrixFintroPrijs. In February 2025, her new collection Kratermond (Crater Mouth) was published by Querido. In Kratermond, Sara Eelen explores how our violent relationship with nature is mirrored in our human interactions.
Sara is one of the driving forces behind De Klimaatdichters (The Climate Poets) and an ambassador for Stop Ecocide NL. She enjoys working across disciplines and outside the boundaries of the page. In 2023, together with the Poëziecentrum and Bas Schaevers, she created the internationally nominated poetry film Laat alles hier aarden (Let Everything Be Grounded Here) as part of the European project ArtACT, co-funded by the European Union. Sara is currently working on a book about landscape grief.
Poetry as the voice of nature: The ecopoetic world of Sara Eelen
author: Elise Vos / translation: Poëziecentrum
Sara Eelen (1994) is a writer, poet, videomaker, and social worker. In her multidisciplinary practice, she seeks ways to intertwine human beings, language, time, and nature. Poetry forms the core of this practice—not only as text but also in the form of film, photography, and audio. This gives rise to video poems, graphic poems, and poetic audio experiments that are not only aesthetically engaging but also socially relevant.
Eelen has been published in various literary magazines, and her essays and prose have appeared in several renowned media outlets. She has performed at multiple festivals and events. Her work has been translated into English, French, German, and Polish.
Eco-activist projects
Eelen is one of the pioneers of De Klimaatdichters (The Climate Poets), a movement of Dutch-speaking word artists who aim to raise awareness about the climate crisis through poetry and spoken word. In collaboration with Poëziecentrum, she created the poetic short film Laat alles hier aarden (Let Everything Here Grounded, 2023), in which the landscape—threatened by human interference—literally gets a voice. Over the course of four seasons, natural materials were used to form a single word, collectively creating the sentence ‘Laat alles hier aarden’. Eight Climate Poets wrote four poems. The film was screened at, among others, the Watou Arts Festival.
Other projects also reflect this eco-poetic focus. In De vleermuizen slapen (The Bats Are Sleeping), part of Inter_Linie (a cultural project that artistically interprets the ring of forts around Antwerp), Eelen and climate poet Pieter Van de Walle explore what it is like to be a bat during a poetic wandering along the fortifications around Antwerp. The project combines a radio play with an interactive walk. Tijdrift is a listening triptych about the North Sea, created in collaboration with the saxophone collective Nordsoen, where the (North) Sea served as a muse to inspire this listening experience.
De vuurvlieg, de aardbei & de zeeschildpad (The Firefly, the Strawberry & the Sea Turtle) is a performance about light pollution. As usual, poetry is “picked” from nature in beautiful yet alarming bouquets of images that emphasize the urgency of the message. Young sea turtles orient themselves by the reflecting moonlight to find their way to the sea; fireflies use their bodies to emit light to find a mate, but they can only see this if it is dark enough. Strawberry plants growing near streetlights produce fewer fruits and are less frequently pollinated by insects. The performance focuses on light and darkness, and the consequences for plants and animals threatened by light pollution. Eelen attempts to poetically restore balance to humanity’s desire to avoid darkness too much.
In continuation of this focus on the current climate issues, Eelen is currently working on a book about landscape grief, a solo project to be published by Querido.
Poetic Oeuvre
Eelen’s debut collection Het nodige breken (Breaking What’s Necessary, Publisher Vrijdag, 2022) was awarded the Debut Prize by the Society of Dutch Literature and nominated for the PrixFintro Prize.
In this collection of poems, which defy formal constraints, the work is divided into four balanced cycles: “Time Joints,” “Space-Time,” “Black Holes,” and “Observation Horizon.” The vulnerability of the human being—specifically the woman—and her psyche form the canvas from which the poet departs. Time and the experience of time form a red thread throughout and are perceived as a physical condition. Corporeality is central—not so much in the classical sense of decay or deterioration, but rather as a form of “flexibility” with the risk of breaking.
In 2025, Kratermond (Crater Mouth), Eelen’s second poetry collection, was published by Querido. The vulnerability of humans is further extended to the impermanence of nature due to human interference. In these poems, she investigates how the aggressive interaction between humans and nature is also reflected in interpersonal relationships, including intimate partnerships. Individual violence against women, which can be framed within the intimate sphere, is mirrored in the global violence against Mother Nature.
Death occurs in Eelen’s poems. Nature and animals are the victims. Humans artificially introduce death through intervention. Yet there is also room for evolution throughout the collection: the focus gradually shifts from impermanence and death toward a glimmer of hope. The gaze turns toward the animal to avert the fatal course. Eelen weaves the animal realm naturally into her lines, ultimately allowing humans and nature to flow back together gradually, like a ruin being reclaimed by the wilderness. There is even a transformation in which animal and human merge.
Eelen’s poetry reminds us that humans have positioned themselves at the top of the pyramid. Language is the human construct by which we further subject nature: we organize the animal kingdom and nature, shape it, and make it comprehensible to ourselves.
Poetry
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BRAIDING / VLECHTEN
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FOLDING / VOUWEN
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GLASS CUTTER* / GLASSNIJDER
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CRATER MOUTH / KRATERMOND
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TAHLEQUAH / TAHLEQUAH
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BAPTISMAL FONT* / DOOPVONTSCHELP
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EL NIÑO / EL NIÑO
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LUNACY / MAANZIEKTE
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BLOOD GRASS / BLOEDGRAS
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ROLLERCOASTER / ROLLERCOASTER
