Frank Adam writes plays, opera libretto’s as well as novels, poetry, fables and songlyrics. For adults, adolescents and children. He often adapts his books for theatre and performs them on stage himself.

            

Most of his theatre texts and his opera libretto ‘Urt!’ have been awarded and many of his own stage performances have been reckoned to the best theatre productions of the year.

With ‘Confidences to a Donkey’s Ear’ Adam has put new life into the genre of fables for adults.

            

What started as a series absurd fables for adults in the quality paper De Standaard in 2004 gradually became an immense artistic project with lots of branches.

2007 AD Confidences is a literary mark label, officially recognized by unanimous praising reviews and linked to the name of author-performer Frank Adam.

At present Adam publishes his absurd fables not only in quality newpapers (De Standaard and De Morgen), he also collects them in several Books, puts them on stage himself, and made a songcycle and cd entitled ‘Confidences!’

Spring 2007 his literary dokey surprised his spiritual father with a writer-in-residence invitation of the Villa Marguerite Yourcenar in France, where a jury selected Adam because of ‘the original, satirical and destructive humour of his absurd fables.

Another French invitation came from the Frech space agency ‘Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales’ and the literary organisator Les Lettres Européennes’.
In the context of het French chairmanship of the European Union 2008, they asked Adam to write a Confidence on the European Union and Space. Adam read his confidence at the European Parliament in Strasbourg the 22 Octobre 2008.

Spring 2009 Damme, the historic city of Adam’s tormented youth and the first Book Town in Flanders, organizes an exhibition ‘Confidences to a donkey’s ear, The absurd fables of Frank Adam’, which will afterwards go on a tour along Flemish libraries.

It will show the history of Adams fables by means of documentary items made by the national tv channels vrt and Ketnet, audio-fragments from Adam’s radio play ‘What the donkey saw’ (his price winning christmas tale) broadcast by the vrt-cultural radio channel Klara, Donkey Aphorisms, ‘Donkey Songs’ and illustrations by Klaas Verplancke.

More information and reviews about Frank Adam’s work on his website www.frankadam.be.

THE PRESS ABOUT ‘CONFIDENCES TO A DONKEY’S EAR’

‘A contemporary Candide’ (De Standaard der Letteren)

‘Hilarious, brilliant tales.
Frank Adam is a marvellous narrator’ (Radio 1)

‘Fifteen wisdomparables who seem to have run off
from the Book of One Thousand and One Nights’ (Knack)

‘Existential, scabrous, melancholy and perfectly balanced.
Full of humour and tristesse
Frank Adam is a borne performer’ (De Morgen)

‘Impressive, entertaining, humurous, and painful tales of all times,
with typical comtemporary ingredients’ (De Leeswolf)

‘A sensual celebration of the erotic imagination’ (De Standaard der letteren)

‘A flemish Thousand-and-One Night’ (Exit Magazine)

‘Unique contes philosophiques in the tradition of Voltaire ànd a mirror of modern time. (Greek philosopher Lambros Couloubritsis)

‘ A formula as strong as iron. A golden egg’ (vrt-culture radio Klara)

‘An Apuleius-like book’ (Volkskrant Comic Art-specialist Joost Pollmann)

‘In many meanings of the word: a many-couloured series’ (De Standaard)

‘The Confidences are perfectly balanced: substantial themes; razor-sharp language, razorsharp reasoning, and uninhibitedly cynical conclusions. Frank Adam is a master in the short-distance discipline. (Biblion)

‘During recent years Frank Adam has justly met with an exponential increase of his succes: this man is able to talk about the condition humaine in a funny, intelligent and relativating way, without lapsing into far too moral moralities or melodramas. These unique confession stories are an irresistible and masterly omnium gatherum of music and text, of daring humour wíth a critical note. (Zone 03)

Not only his stage adaption of his popular absurd Christmas tale ‘What the donkey saw’ was a huge succes (‘Even more wacko than the humour of Monty Python’ De Morgen), his radio play-adaption for the vrt-cultural radio Channel Klara, was selected by ‘Grenzeloos Geluid’, the festival for innovating revolutionary radio making in Amsterdam.

His adolescence novel ‘The Passion of the Adolescence, the Double Life and Sufferings of Young Josh’ was awarded Best Adolescence Novel Price 2006, and is being translated into Norvegian and German.

‘A book with an entirely original tone: sharp, witty satirical and written with great speed’ (Jury Best Adolescence Novel Price 2006)

‘A wacko book that has enriched youth literature with a nice anti-hero.’ (Standaard der letteren) from ‘a youth author with a new sound’. (De Morgen)

‘Josh’s story can compete with ‘The secret diary of Adrian Mole 13 ¾’ but it has a contemporary and original accent. (K + L)

Adam’s Stage Adaption of this book ‘The Boy that Fell out of his Body’ was awarded a theatre price too.

Adam’s poetry for children is popular, not only because he was appointed Ketnet-Poet on the childrens vrt-tv channel Ketnet a few years ago, but also because of his stage performance for kids ‘My mouth likes eating spinage, but I don’t’, which was described by critics as ‘a completely new way of dealing with poetry’ (Klara).