Els Demerlier is a Belgian novelist and translator whose work explores love across language, craft, and class. Born in Bruges and educated in Romance languages at KU Leuven, she later lived in Apulia, where she apprenticed with a bookbinder and fell for the acoustics of lemon groves and white-stone towns. Her translations of contemporary Italian poetry have appeared in European journals and on public radio features.
Demerlier's earlier novels include Salt on Marble and The Vine That Climbs the Sky, the latter shortlisted for the Flanders New Voices Prize and a finalist for the European Romantic Fiction Award. Her essays on restoration, foodways, and the ethics of heritage have been featured in cultural magazines, and she has lectured on narrative ethics at literary festivals in Antwerp and Matera.
Els Demerlier lives in Ghent and spends part of each year in Ostuni. She teaches a summer seminar on sensory detail and setting, collects antique nibs and vellum scraps, and can parallel-park a dove-blue Vespa on a sunbaked vicolo. When she's not writing, she volunteers with arts-education nonprofits and is learning to distinguish olive varietals by scent alone.
