Yelena Schmitz (1996) is a writer, playwright and audiomaker who graduated with an MFA from the Royal Conservatory Antwerp. In 2017 she won the 
Nieuwe Types Prize for the best thesis by a graduate of a Dutch-language writing programme in the Netherlands or Flanders and her work has also been awarded the Korte Golf Radio Prize and the Deus Ex Machina Prize. In 2021 she made her debut with the children’s novel Geroezemoes, published by De Eenhoorn. Throughout all her work Schmitz tries to discover poetic details in universal stories. She thoroughly enjoys cooperating with illustrators, choreographers, visual artists, dramatists and other writers.