Biography

Was the first city poet or Municipal Poet of Antwerp (followed by Ramsey Nasr). This means he wrote poems about and for Antwerp for an entire year. One of the poems was hanged from the 'Boerentoren', a tower in the centre of Antwerp. Afterwards, the gigantic poem was cut in pieces and auctioned for a good cause (Quator du livre), bringing up more than 20,000 euros. His partner René Los bought the word 'me', which made Tom say: "René bought me".

Was the first gay man to register a life partnership contract with his long-term partner René Los in Antwerp, Belgium on 20 January 1996, despite the protest.

Writes very politically engaged columns for the Flemish magazine 'Humo', and even succeeded to boycot actions of the extreme right, xenophobe party 'Vlaams Blok'(nowadays Vlaams Belang). This party wanted to publish a 'black book' with all the names of all left people, so they could boycot them. Tom asked his readers to all write fake letters about 'lefties'. So many fake letters reached the Vlaams Blok that they had to blow the whole action off.

He is one of the most widely read and honoured authors in his language area (the Netherlands and Flanders), and makes regular appearances at all the major European theatre festivals.

His literary work has been published and/or performed in over fifteen languages.