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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.
About the author
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.
