Merlich Saia / Life Anew. Writers Imagine the World after the Pandemic II

As the world seems eager to bounce back from isolation and fear, the pandemic remains a menacing presence and the new reality of our future life is still pretty much the realm of imagination. We have invited some of the most important Romanian contemporary authors to share their take on how they think the world would look like when the ordeal is over. 

The next guest in our long-running exercise in auctorial foresight is poet and visual artist Merlich Saia, who took the Romanian literary world by storm with a fulminant debut in 2014.  

Bilingual reading. English version of the text by Bucharest-based American academic, translator and poet, Andrew K. Davidson.  

Watch on our Facebook, YouTube, IGTV and Website on Tuesday, September 7, 2 p.m. EST or any time later. 

Merlich Saia (born 1982 in Bucharest) is the literary pseudonym of Eugen Vuțescu, a Romanian medical doctor, poet, and visual artist. His debut volume, the guard of the body, published in 2014 at Tracus Arte Publishing House, Bucharest, won some of the most prestigious Romanian literary prizes (the "Mihai Eminescu" National Prize for Debut, Botoșani, 2014, the "Mihai Eminescu" Prize, Chișinău, 2015, "Mircea Ivănescu" Prize, Sibiu, 2015) and was nominated for the Awards of the Writer’s Union of Romania. As a visual artist, Eugen Vuțescu works in a variety of mediums: photography, painting, and installation art. Personal exhibitions: "Transfer of Memory", Halucinarium Gallery Bucharest (2018), "EVVE", together with the painter Ene Vladimir, "Căminul Artei" Gallery Bucharest (2017), "Destrupări", Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest (2010), "Destrupări", "Lina" Gallery, Bistrița (2009).

"Life Anew. Writers Imagine the World after the Pandemic" is a program of bilingual readings created together with the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest. The next authors in the series are Diana Bădica,  Mihok Tamas, Chris Tănăsescu, and Lucian-Dan Teodorovici.