A year later she met the Flemish writer and poet Herman de Coninck with whom she lived in Berchem, Antwerp.

Hemmerechts reported about this loss in the biographical Taal Zonder Mij (1998) which also contains some analyses of de Coninck's poetry.

Hemmerechts currently is a professor in English literature at the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel (KUB), and an instructor of Creative Writing at the Herman Teirlinck Instituut in Antwerp.

Kristien Hemmerechts published her debut in 1986 with the collection First Fictions, Introduction 9 which was written in English.

A recurring theme in Hemmerechts' work is man's incapability to give direction in life.

Characters are faced with the incapability of communicating with others which leads to the inability of creating meaningful human relationships.