“Reading can make us better” – An interview with Romanian-Moldovan writer Liliana Corobca

Born in the Republic of Moldova, LILIANA COROBCA is a novelist, essayist, and playwright whose work explores the fragile boundaries between history and memory, exile and belonging, censorship and resistance. She debuted with Negrissimo (2003), winner of multiple prizes, followed by A Year in Paradise (2005), Kinderland (2013), and The Old Maids’ Empire (2015). Her bold theatrical monologue Censorship for Beginners (2014) has been staged internationally, while The Censor’s Notebook (winner of the 2023 Oxford‑Weidenfeld Translation Prize), Kinderland, and her latest novel, Too Great a Sky, … Continue reading “Reading can make us better” – An interview with Romanian-Moldovan writer Liliana Corobca

Europe Calling: Liliana Corobca at European Literature Night 2025 in NYC

What do you get when you mix a night of high-caliber literary conversation with the kind of international flair only New York can deliver? European Literature Night, of course—a gathering that’s part salon, part cultural dispatch, and fully a feast for the mind. Now in its 7th edition, this annual celebration of storytelling returns to the city in a couple of days, spotlighting some of Europe’s … Continue reading Europe Calling: Liliana Corobca at European Literature Night 2025 in NYC

A Romanian Voice for Truth and Beauty: Radu Vancu Joins PEN World Voices 2025

At the beginning of May, as the literary world descends on New York City for the 2025 edition of PEN World Voices, a forceful voice from Eastern Europe will ring out among the crowd. Radu Vancu, one of Romania’s most compelling contemporary poets, prose writers, diarists, essayists, and public intellectuals, is set to join the prestigious festival, bringing with him a body of work that … Continue reading A Romanian Voice for Truth and Beauty: Radu Vancu Joins PEN World Voices 2025

Ioana Nicolaie: “There’s a continuum of intensity and lived life in all my books”

One of the most original and powerful voices in contemporary Romanian literature, IOANA NICOLAIE is the author of six novels, five volumes of poetry, and ten children’s books, which have won her numerous literary awards. Her novel, Cartea Reghinei / The Book of Reghina was the winner of the 2020 Radio Romania Cultural Award, Observator Lyceum Prize, National Prose Prize Iași, and Book Agency Award. … Continue reading Ioana Nicolaie: “There’s a continuum of intensity and lived life in all my books”

Happy Birthday, Norman Manea!

Norman Manea, the doyen of Romanian writers in the diaspora, turns 88 today, and congratulations and tributes have been pouring in for several days, in the press and on social media. A survivor of the two evils of the 20th century, Nazism and Communism, who has spent part of his life in exile in the United States, Norman Manea is not only one of the … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Norman Manea!

“I translate for pleasure, as an intellectual challenge” – Interview with translator Gabi Reigh

GABI REIGH moved to the UK from Romania at the age of 12 and currently teaches English at a college in Hampshire. She won the Stephen Spender Prize 2017 for her translation of Marin Sorescu’s poem “Călătorul” and was shortlisted for the Tom-Gallon Society of Authors short story award. Her translations, original fiction and articles have been published in Modern Poetry in Translation, World Literature … Continue reading “I translate for pleasure, as an intellectual challenge” – Interview with translator Gabi Reigh

“To become a translator takes infinite work” – Interview with award-winning translator Sean Cotter

SEAN COTTER is Professor of Literature and Literary Translation at The University of Texas at Dallas. He has translated numerous important works of Romanian literature, including Wheel with a Single Spoke and Other Poems by Nichita Stănescu, for which he received the Three Percent Best Translated Book Award 2013, Blinding: the Left Wing by Mircea Cărtărescu (Archipelago Books, 2013), Curl by T.O. Bobe (Wakefield Press, 2019), a finalist for the Derek Walcott Prize … Continue reading “To become a translator takes infinite work” – Interview with award-winning translator Sean Cotter