In The Shadow Of The Ark

Anne Provoost (born 26 July 1964 in the Belgian town of Poperinge, is a Flemish author who now lives in Antwerp with her husband and three children.
Anne Provoost grew up in a family of four children in West Flanders and went on to pursue Germanic studies at the linked universities of Kortrijk and Leuven. Although she had been writing stories since childhood, she thought nothing of it until she began to win competitions while a student. She continued her education with a one-year course in pedagogics and then, having married Manu Claeys, went to join him in Minneapolis, where he was studying American literature. During this time, she started contributing to Belgian and American children's newspapers and also wrote her first novel, My Aunt is a Pilot Whale (1991), which is set in the USA. She returned to Belgium in 1989 and worked part-time for an international exchange organisation, but after the success of her second novel, Falling, she decided to become a full time writer.
Anne Provoost is known for remaking myths, folk tales, fairy tales, and bible stories. Once a year, she writes a letter to Hans Christian Andersen answering one of his stories. Apart from being a novelist, Provoost also writes essays on literature and children's literature as well as short stories. Her work, originally published in Dutch, has been translated into many European languages as well as Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic and Turkish.
She was made a member of The Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature in 2003. In June 2007, she was a candidate for the Senate for the Flemish Green Party.