Mircea Cărtărescu

Mircea Cărtărescu (Romanian pronunciation: [mirˈt͡ʃe̯a kərtəˈresku]; born 1 June 1956) is a Romanian poet, novelist and essayist.

Biography

Born in Bucharest, he graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters, Department of Romanian Language And Literature, in 1980. Between 1980 and 1989 he worked as a Romanian language teacher, and then he worked at the Writers Union and as an editor at the Caiete Critice magazine. In 1991 he became a lecturer at the Chair of Romanian Literary History, part of the University of Bucharest Faculty of Letters. As of 2010, he is an associate professor.^[1] Between 1994–1995 he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Amsterdam.

Works

His debut as a writer was in 1978 in România Literară magazine.

Poetry

• Faruri, vitrine, fotografii..., ("Headlights, shop windows, photographs...") Cartea Românească, 1980 – Writers Union Prize, 1980
• Poeme de amor ("Love Poems"), Cartea Românească, 1982.
• Totul ("Everything"), Cartea Românească, 1984.
• Levantul (The Levant), Cartea Românească, 1990 – Writers Union Prize, 1990, republished by Humanitas in 1998.
• Dragostea ("Love"), Humanitas, 1994.
• 50 de sonete de Mircea Cărtărescu cu cincizeci de desene de Tudor Jebeleanu ("50 Sonnets by Mircea Cărtărescu With Fifty Drawings by Tudor Jebeleanu"), Brumar, 2003

Prose

• Desant '83 (volum colectiv/collection), Cartea Românească, 1983.
• Visul ("The Dream"), Cartea Românească, 1989 – Romanian Academy Prize, 1989; translated into French and Spanish; Latin Union Prize nominee.
  • Le rêve, Climats, 1992, ISBN 2-907563-55-6 – nominated for the Medicis prize (Best foreign book).
• Nostalgia ("Nostalgia"), full edition of "Visul", Humanitas, 1993.
  • New Directions Publishing Corporation, Translation by Julian Semilian, Introduction by Andrei Codrescu 2005, ISBN 0-8112-1588-1
• Travesti, Humanitas, 1994 – Writers Union Prize 1994; ASPRO Prize 1994; translated into French, Dutch and Spanish
• Orbitor (Blinding), vol. 1, Aripa stângă (Volume 1, "The Left Wing"), Humanitas, 1996
  • Gallimard, Translation (French) by Alain Paruit, 2002, ISBN 2-07-042265-8
• Jurnal ("Diary"), Humanitas, 2001, ISBN 973-50-0095-4
  • Jurnal I, 1990–1996, Humanitas, 2005, 2nd Ed., ISBN 973-50-0985-4
• Orbitor (Blinding), vol. 2, Corpul (Volume 2, "The Body"), Humanitas, 2002
• Enciclopedia zmeilor (The Encyclopedia of Dragons), Humanitas, 2002
• De ce iubim femeile (Why We Love Women), Humanitas, 2004, ISBN 973-50-0869-6
• Jurnal II, 1997–2003, ("Diary II, 1997–2003"), Humanitas, 2005, ISBN 973-50-0986-2
• Orbitor (Blinding), vol. 3, Aripa dreaptă (Volume 3, "The Right Wing"), Humanitas, 2007
• Frumoasele străine (Beautiful Strangers), Humanitas, 2010
• Solenoid, Humanitas, 2015

Essays

• Visul chimeric (subteranele poeziei eminesciene) ("Chimerical Dream – The Underground of Eminescu's Poetry"), Litera, 1991
• Postmodernismul românesc ("Romanian postmodernism"), Ph.D. thesis, Humanitas, 1999
• Pururi tânăr, înfăşurat în pixeli ("Forever young, wrapped up in pixels"), Humanitas, 2003
• Baroane! ("You Baron!"), Humanitas, 2005

Audiobooks

• Parfumul aspru al ficţiunii ("The Rough Fragrance of Fiction"), Humanitas, 2003

Awards and honours

• 1980 Romanian Writers' Union Prize
• 1989 Romanian Academy's Prize
• 1990 Romanian Writer's Unions Prize, Flacăra magazine Prize, Ateneu magazine Prize, Tomis magazine Prize, Cuvântul magazine Prize
• 1992 Le Rêve nominee for: Prix Mèdicis, Prix Union Latine, Le meilleur livre étranger
• 1994 Romanian Writer's Union Prize, ASPRO Prize, Moldavian Writers' Union Prize
• 1996 ASPRO Prize, Flacăra magazine Prize, Ateneu magazine Prize, Tomis magazine Prize, Cuvântul magazine Prize
• 1997 Flacăra magazine Prize, Ateneu magazine Prize, Tomis magazine Prize, Cuvântul magazine Prize
• 1999 Orbitor's French translation nominee for Prix Union Latine
• 2000 Romanian Writers Association Prize
• 2002 ASPRO Prize, AER Prize
• 2006 Grand Officer of the Cultural Merit Order (Ordinul "Meritul cultural" în grad de mare ofiţer), awarded by Romanian Presidency
• 2011 Vilenica Prize
• 2012: International literatur prize „Haus der Kulturen der Welt 2012”, Berlin ^[2]
• 2013: Spycher – Literary Prize Leuk, Switzerland^[3]
• 2013: Grand Prix of the Novi Sad International Poetry Festival^[4]
• 2014 Best Translated Book Award, shortlisted for Blinding, translated from the Romanian into English by Sean Cotter ^[5]
• 2014 Premio Euskadi de Plata to the Best Book of 2014 for Las Bellas Extranjeras (Frumoasele străine), translated from the Romanian into Spanish by Marian Ochoa de Eribe (Editorial Impedimenta)
• 2015 Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding for Blinding ^[6]
• 2015 Austrian State Prize for European Literature ^[7]
• 2016 Premio Gregor von Rezzori for Blinding ^[8]

Presence in anthologies

Testament – Anthology of Modern Romanian Verse (1850–2015) second edition – bilingual version English/Romanian. Daniel Ionita – editor and principal translator, with Eva Foster, Daniel Reynaud and Rochelle Bews. Minerva Publishing House. Bucharest 2015. ISBN 978-973-21-1006-5

References

External links

• Excerpt from The Roulette Player (original title: "Ruletistul"), story from Nostalgia, by Mircea Cărtărescu, at WordsWithoutBorders.org
• Mircea Cărtărescu's page at Humanitas publishing house
• Mircea Cărtărescu's page at Zsolnay/Hanser Verlage publishing house
• A review of Nostalgia by Joshua Cohen at New Haven Review
• Cartarescu meets his readers at the International Book Fair of Turin, Italy