Biography

Sollie was both a writer and poet as well as a draftsman and illustrator.

In 2007, he received the Flemish Cultural Prize for Children's Literature.

Awarded a Book Cub, a Book Plume and two Book Peacocks.

In 2000, Sollie and Ingrid Godon published the children's book Wachten op Matroos. They both won the Gouden Griffel award a year later for this book. The English translation of the book "Hello, Sailor" was published in 2003. The book is about a lighthouse keeper called Matt and his friend, Sailor, whom he deeply misses. The book caused controversy in England as it was argued that its inclusion in school curricula effectively forced schools to include books with homosexual characters.

He was awarded with the "Prijs van de Kinder- en Jeugdjury voor het boek in Vlaanderen" (= cultural prize from the Children and Youth Jury for the book in Flanders) in 1982 1986, 1991 and 1993.