Vanity doubled by vitality, vulnerability mixed in with force, and the fear of dissolution intimately linked with the desperate pride of defeating historical time confer upon Romanian literature a special tension, born from wandering and threat. The 81 writers gathered in "Romanian Writers on Writing" explore this unsettling tension and exemplify the powerful, polyphonic voice of their country's complex literature. The "Writer's World" series features writers from around the globe discussing what it means to write, and to be a writer, in other countries. The series collects a broad range of material and provides access for the first time to a body of work never before gathered in English, or, perhaps, in any language.
Vanity doubled by vitality, vulnerability mixed in with force, and the fear of dissolution intimately linked with the desperate pride of defeating historical time confer upon Romanian literature a special tension, born from wandering and threat. The 81 writers gathered in "Romanian Writers on Writing" explore this unsettling tension and exemplify the powerful, polyphonic voice of their country's complex literature. The "Writer's World" series features writers from around the globe discussing what it means to write, and to be a writer, in other countries. The series collects a broad range of material and provides access for the first time to a body of work never before gathered in English, or, perhaps, in any language.
Norman Manea left Romania in 1986, spent a year in West Berlin, and arrived in the United States in 1988. His literary work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He has received, among other awards, Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships in the United States, the Nonino International Literary Prize in Italy, the Nelly Sachs Prize in Germany, and the Prix Médicis Étranger in France. He is a member of the Berlin Academy of Art, has been honored by the French government with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of highest rank, and was inducted to the British Royal Society of Literature. His books in English include a memoir, The Hooligan's Return; a novel, The Black Envelope; the novellas collected in Compulsory Happiness; the short fiction collection October Eight O'Clock; and a collection of essays, On Clowns: The Dictator and the Artist. Manea lives in New York City and is Francis Flournoy Professor in European Studies and Culture at Bard College.
"A brilliant publishing enterprise. One of the best elements in American culture is a genuine, welcoming interest in writing from other languages. Beginning with essential writers from Ireland, Mexico, and Poland, the series fills a vital need. Edward Hirsch is absolutely the right general editor to guide the series. In a time of clouds, anxieties, disasters, and blunders regarding our place among the nations, here is a beacon."-- Robert Pinsky "These handsome, beautifully written, and thoughtfully edited volumes could not come at a more opportune moment. Even as our political borders are growing more rigid and fiercely defended, these welcome books remind us of the ways in which literature will always cross the most seemingly impermeable barrier, and leap the highest wall."-- Francine Prose "What an inspired way to engage other cultures: through the meditations of writers on the subject that they know best--writing. And what we discover in the essays collected in the Writer's World is that for all of our seeming differences and genuine divisions we are bound by words, which in every language offer windows through which to glimpse the heart of the matter: what it means to be alive." -- Christopher Merrill "The Writer's World is a wonderfully intriguing and exciting series. Each book is like a conference of great writers and thinkers brought together to consider matters essential to culture and society. There's nothing like it." -- C. K. Williams
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