Vilan van de Loo

Vilan grew up in a family with three daughters, where she was the middle one. From an early age she cherished the dream of becoming a writer, and at primary school she started writing articles for the school newspaper.

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After high school, she studied Dutch language and literature at Leiden University, where she graduated cum laude in 1993 in Indic Literature. Her dissertation dealt with the first Indian best-selling author, Melati van Java. 

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During her studies, she delved further into Indo-European history and literature by reading Indo-European women's novels, which inspired her to write books based on research into the history of the former Dutch colony of the Dutch East Indies.

She regularly visited the Tong Tong Fair, where she had her own talk show, and in 2008 she visited Indonesia at the invitation of the Halin Foundation. She is the initiator of the Indo-Dutch Writing School, which aims to record stories of Indo people and events from the former East Indies.

With her authentic sense of humor, Vilan gives a practical workshop on how to write your own family history.