Jozef Adriaan Anna Geeraerts (23 February 1930 – 11 May 2015), better known as Jef Geeraerts, was a Belgian writer. He was born in Antwerp, Belgium. After completing his studies in political and government work at a university in Antwerp, he became a government worker in the Belgian Congo. When the Congo gained independence, he sent his wife and children back to Belgium and returned to Belgium himself in August 1960. For the next six years, the Belgian government provided him with financial support as part of a return program. After this time, he needed to find a job to support himself. He chose to become a writer and enrolled at the University of Brussels to study Germanic languages.

Career as a writer

After completing his studies, he wrote his first novel, Ik ben maar een neger ("I'm just a negro"), which made him very well known for being controversial. The book was based on his experiences as a soldier in the Congo. He wrote several other books about colonial issues before starting his Gangreen series. The series includes four books: Gangreen 1 (Black Venus), Gangreen 2 (De Goede Moordenaar), Gangreen 3 (Het Teken van de Hond), and Gangreen 4 (Het Zevende Zegel). These books contained explicit sexual content, which caused controversy in Belgium. Some people believed his books were racist and pornographic.

Later, Geeraerts became famous for writing detective stories. Today, he is a well-known crime novelist, and some of his books, such as De zaak Alzheimer and Dossier K, have been made into movies.

In total, Geeraerts wrote 35 novels, some plays, and a radio drama. Two of his books were adapted into films.

Private life

Geeraerts had three children from his first marriage, including his daughter Ilse. In 1978, he married Eleonore Vigenon. In his later years, he lived in Baarle (Drongen), which is part of Ghent. He died due to a heart attack in Ghent in May 2015.

Awards and recognitions

• 1967 – Received the Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord for his work De Troglodieten
• 1969 – Won the Staatsprijs voor verhalend proza
• 1986 – Received the Gouden Strop for the best Dutch crime novel

The town of Antwerp placed a memory plate on the house where Geeraerts was born. Additionally, the town purchased his handwritten archive to preserve it. An asteroid in the main belt, numbered 13027 Geeraerts (1989 GJ4), was discovered on April 3, 1989, by E. W. Elst at the European Southern Observatory. This asteroid was named after Jef Geeraerts.