- Was the first city poet or Municipal Poet of Antwerp (followed by Ramsey Nasr). This means he wrote poems about and for Antwerp for an entire year. One of the poems was hanged from the 'Boerentoren', a tower in the centre of Antwerp. Afterwards, the gigantic poem was cut in pieces and auctioned for a good cause (Quator du livre), bringing up more than 20,000 euros. His partner René Los bought the word 'me', which made Tom say: "René bought me".
- Was the first gay man to register a life partnership contract with his long-term partner René Los in Antwerp, Belgium on 20 January 1996, despite the protest.
- Writes very politically engaged columns for the Flemish magazine 'Humo', and even succeeded to boycot actions of the extreme right, xenophobe party 'Vlaams Blok'(nowadays Vlaams Belang). This party wanted to publish a 'black book' with all the names of all left people, so they could boycot them. Tom asked his readers to all write fake letters about 'lefties'. So many fake letters reached the Vlaams Blok that they had to blow the whole action off.
- He is one of the most widely read and honoured authors in his language area (the Netherlands and Flanders), and makes regular appearances at all the major European theatre festivals.
- His literary work has been published and/or performed in over fifteen languages.
- On 10 January 2014 translator Alain van Crugten wins the Les Phares du Nord prize for his translations of Lanoyes work, especially La Langue de ma Mère (Sprakeloos).
- Lanoye has made an impression as a contemporary dramatist abroad with his 12-hour verse adaptation of eight of Shakespeare's history plays entitled Ten Oorlog (To War) (1997). It has been performed in German at the Salzburg Festival.
- In 2012, Les Boîtes en carton (Kartonnen dozen) was published. Thirty years after The Sorrow of Belgium (1983) by Hugo Claus, a Flemish novel is once again in the top ten of francophone Belgium literature.
- Lanoye's work in theatre consists of over a two dozen plays. Usually, they are typical ensemble plays for over six, and in some cases over fifteen actors.
- Lanoye was the youngest son of a butcher.
- In autumn 2012 Lanoye was a visiting lecturer at the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he gave six lectures on Flemish and Dutch literature.
- Several of his works have been played at great festivals in Avignon, Amsterdam, Vienna, and the Ruhr.
- In 2012 the Royal Academy for Dutch Language and Literature awarded its Five-Yearly Prize for Playwriting for the 2007-2011 period to Tom Lanoye for Atropa. De wraak van de vrede (2008).
- Het Goddelijke Monster, a series broadcast on Eén, and based on Lanoye's De Monstertrilogie, received a double nomination for the Golden Panda Awards at the Sichuan TV Festival. The director of the series, Hans Herbots wins the Golden Panda for Best Director.
- Tom Lanoye self-published his first work. In his own words, 'Just like all the punk bands did in those days: out of dissatisfaction with the existing structures, and to learn the trade from the inside out'.
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