Jean Marie Spitaels

Jean Marie Spitaels who writes mainly in French under the pen name of Jean Cornet was born in 1939 in Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). His first poem, a sonnet composed in response to a challenge by one of his teachers, was published when he was fourteen in l’Essor du Congo, a daily newspaper for which his mother wrote a weekly chronicle. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1964, worked in Congo and then in Durban as a Lecturer at medical school. Joining the Live Poets Society (LiPs) was for him a driving force to write poetry in English. His poetry throws a disillusioned glance at today’s world without ignoring its fragile beauty. Dust on the Road, his book of poems and drawings, was published by Poets Printery, South Africa, in July 2011.