A celebratory three-part video, featuring 30 writers, academics, and diplomats
Famous author and public intellectual, Norman Manea, one of the best-known Romanian writers in the world and a Holocaust survivor, turns 86 on July 19, 2022. To mark this special day, 30 writers, academics, and diplomats from both sides of the Atlantic have come together, in a celebratory video in three parts, to evoke the beloved doyen of Romanian-American writers and wish him their best. Join us for this worldwide celebration and contribute to this impressive outpouring of love and admiration by adding your own “Happy Birthday!” or simply by reading a page from Norman’s book that you like the most!
The three episodes of the film, Norman Manea 86, will premiere on July 19 on the online platforms of the Romanian Cultural Institute (Bucharest), Romanian Cultural Institute in New York and throughout the global network of Romanian cultural institutes, as well as the Facebook pages of the Romanian Embassy in the US and the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest (MNLR).
Norman Manea 86 (created by Alex Boda and Johnny Vacar and co-produced by RCI New York and MNLR) features Gabriela Adameșteanu, Chloe Aridjis, Homero Aridjis, Paul Bailey, Merrie Blocker, Leon Botstein, Robert and Peg Boyers, Nicolas Cavaillès, Magda Cârneci, Andrei Corbea-Hoișie, Caius Dobrescu, Luca Formenton, Angela Furtună, Olivier Guez, Elianna Kan, Ion Bogdan Lefter, Lea Wakeman, Cella Manea, Alberto Manguel, Mercedes Monmany de la Torre, Carmen Mușat, Doru Pop, Michael Shafir, Claudiu Turcuș, Matei Vișniec, and Ernest Wichner. With special messages from Andrei Muraru, the Ambassador of Romania to the US, Liviu Jicman, the President of the Romanian Cultural Institute, and Dorian Branea, the Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York.
NORMAN MANEA is a Holocaust survivor and one of the most celebrated Romanian, and Romanian-American, authors of the past decades. He is Francis Flournoy Professor Emeritus in European Studies and Culture and Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College, New York and author of a long series of novels, volumes of short fiction, and essays. Originally written in Romanian and published in 30 languages, the following titles are also available in English: October Eight O’Clock (short fiction, 1992), On Clowns: The Dictator and the Artist (essays, 1992), Compulsory Happiness (novellas, 1993), The Black Envelope (novel, 1995), The Lair (novel, 2012), The Fifth Impossibility (essays, 2012), The Hooligan’s Return (novel, 2003; 2nd edition, 2013), Settling My Accounts Before I Go Away. An Interview with Saul Bellow (2013), Paradise Found: An Interview with Hannes Stein (2013), Captives (2015).
Norman Manea was granted, among others, The Guggenheim Fellowship (1992), The McArthur Fellowship (1993), The National Jewish Book Award (1993), The New York Public Library Literary Lion Medal (1993), The Nonino International Prize for “Opera Omnia” (2002), Napoli Prize for Fiction (2004), Prix Médicis Étranger (2006), Nelly Sachs Prize (2011), The National Prize for Literature awarded by the Romanian Writers’ Union (2012), the FIL Grand Prize for Literature in Romance Languages (2016), and the Alianța Arts and Letters Award (2018). He is a member of Berlin Academy of Art (Germany, 2006), a honorary member of The Royal Society of Literature (United Kingdom, 2011), and was awarded the title Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2009), the Romanian “Cultural Merit” Order in the rank of Commander (2006), and the National Order “Star of Romania” in the rank of Grand Officer (2016).
Photo credit: Johnny Vacar
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