studied Germanic philology and became a highschool-teacher in Brueges, Belgium. Later on, she catalogued the manuscripts of the writer Guido Gezelle, wrote his biography and translated the works of Hugo Claus into english. Her own poetry has been published since 1948, for which in 1992 she received the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren. She is most known for the volume Onyx (1983). Her collected prose was published in 2004 as Uitgespaard zelfportret.