New Romanian literature in English in the spotlight
Writers Carmen Firan and Adrian Sângeorzan, the prolific power couple of Romanian-American letters, have turned the long days of the pandemic into a fertile ambiance that allowed them to finish some long-in-the-waiting literary projects. Join us on April 29 (7 pm) for the launching of their newest books in English: The Lost Shadow, a novel by Carmen Firan (New Meridian Arts, 2022), and A Circus in Front of My House, a novel by Adrian Sângeorzan (New Meridian Arts, 2022), which bear the marks of their praised storytelling prowess and poetic flair. The two writers will also be reading from their jointly authored collection of poetry entitled Quarantine Songs - Poems Written during the Pandemic (New Meridian Arts, 2021).
The Lost Shadow, a novel by Carmen Firan. English version by Alexandra Carides
"Firan portrays so convincingly and vividly a world in which her characters are attempting to live (often unsuccessfully) in two cultures simultaneously. Mimi embraces so completely the American dream, while Fred can't ever be at home, no matter where he is. It's a brilliant and artful examination of love and exile and culture." - Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno
A Circus in Front of My House, a novel by Adrian Sângeorzan. English version by Paul Boboc
"Adrian Sângeorzan wrote a Holden Caulfield novel with an extra-political dimension. The beauty and magic of childhood defends itself with all its might from the duplicity and charmless world of adults and over time it creates a real protection for innocence. It is a literary castle built of branches, found pieces and circus ropes, but the reader of these memories will step into the circus world with a new sense of freedom and the feeling that he can (as long as the charm lasts) breathe freely." - Andrei Codrescu
Romanian-American author Carmen Firan has published twenty-eight books in her native country and in the United States. Since 2000 she has been living in New York. Among her recent books and publications are Changing Your Sign, Changing your Destiny – An Immigrant’s Horoscope (New Meridian Arts, 2019), Interviews and Encounters (Poems and Dialogue with Nina Cassian, Sheep Meadow Press, 2016), Rock and Dew (poems, Sheep Meadow Press, 2013), Words and Flesh (essays, Talisman Publishers, 2008), In the Most Beautiful Life (poems with photographs by Virginia Joffe, Umbrage Editions, 2002), and three other collections of poetry: Afternoon With An Angel, The First Moment After Death, and Accomplished Error. She edited Born in Utopia: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Romanian Poetry (Talisman House), and co-edited the anthology Stranger at Home. Contemporary American Poetry with an Accent (Numina Press, Los Angeles). Her work appears in translation in France, Israel, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Poland. Firan is a member of the Pen American Center and the Poetry Society of America, and serves on the editorial board of the international magazine Interpoezia (New York). The Romanian Academy granted her the collection One Hundred and One Poems (2020).
Romanian-American author Adrian Sângeorzan graduated from the Medical School at the University of Cluj-Napoca and worked as a doctor in communist Romania until 1990 when he immigrated to the United States. He lives in New York and works as a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology. His volume of memoirs and fiction titled Between Two Worlds – Tales of a Women's Doctor was published in two editions and got the Prize for Fiction in Romania. The book came out in the US with the title Exiled from the Womb – Tales of a Women's Doctor. He is the author of several novels and collections of short stories: Vitali, Among Women, The Tap on the Shoulder, and collections of poetry: Over the Lifeline, Voices on a Razor’s Edge (exquisite corpse poems with Carmen Firan), The Anatomy of the Moon, The Span of Memory, Masked World, all bilingual Romanian-English editions. His poetry was translated in German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Bengali, French, Uzbek etc. He is co-translator of Naming the Nameless / Locul Nimănui – An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. He is a member of the Romanian Writers Guild and the American International Library of Poets.
Photos by Paul Buciuță
UPDATE - Photos from the RCINY event: