Novelist and Poet Ana Maria Sandu Remembers Her "First American"

We are thrilled to announce the launching of our newest online series, entitled “My First American: Transatlantic Encounters and Portraits”, where some of the best-known contemporary Romanian writers recall through vivid vignettes and memorable portraits their momentous encounter with the very first American seen in flesh and blood. The opening episode of this year-round program features a young Ana Maria Sandu, sometime before her well-deserved breakthrough, frozen in awe in front of the charismatic Romanian-American literary star, Andrei Codrescu. English version of the text by Andrew Davidson-Novosivschei.

Watch on our Facebook, YouTube, IGTV and Website on Tuesday, April 19, 2 p.m. EST or any time later.

“My First American: Transatlantic Encounters and Portraits” is an online program developed in partnership with the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest. Next authors in the series: Bogdan Coșa, Adriana Babeți, Florin Lăzărescu, Elena Vlădăreanu, and Caius Dobrescu. 

Author and journalist Ana Maria Sandu had her literary debut in 2003 with a book of poems entitled From the Memories of a Chelbasan (Paralela 45 Publishing House). In 2006 she published her first novel, The Girl From the Oblong House, followed by Kill me! (2010), Run (2013), and Thin Walls (2017), all at Polirom Publishing House. In 2019 she published Mother Tells Me I Have a Beautiful Life, a collection of articles which she had authored over the years. In 2021 she wrote the highly acclaimed fictionalized biography of one of the most important Romanian female writers, Hortensia Papadat Bengescu, entitled The Stranger. She published various texts in anthologies such as The Book with Grandparents, The Kitchen of Books and Images, Love 13 or The First Time. Since 2011 she has been an editor for the Dilema Veche weekly magazine. Since 2016, together with poet Svetlana Cârstean, she has been organizing ”The Reading Incubator”.

Photo by Ema Cojocaru