In times of calamity and social distress, it was often the writers who were called to imagine how the world would heal its wounds and begin again. Inspired by the creative examples of the past, we have summoned an extraordinary ensemble of authors and translators and challenged them to picture by way of prose and poetry how life re-emerging from the black silence of the pandemic may look like. Our series, created together with the National Museum of Romanian Literature, continues with New York-based poet, novelist, playwright and translator, CARMEN FIRAN, a captivating chronicler of Romanian-American life.
Carmen Firan is a Romanian-born New York-based poet, novelist, playwright, translator, and screenwriter. Her writings have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies in France, Israel, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Canada, U.K., and the U.S. She is a member of the editorial board of the international magazine Lettre Internationale and associate editor of Interpoezia Magazine. She is a member of the PEN American Center and The Poetry Society of America. Her recent books in English include:Words & Flesh. Selected Works of Fiction & Essays (Talisman Publishers, 2008),The Second Life (short stories, Columbia University Press, 2005),The Farce (Spuyten Duyvil, 2003). In 2006, she co-edited Born in Utopia: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Romanian Poetry (Talisman House), and in 2008 the anthology Stranger at Home. Contemporary American Poetry with an Accent (Numina Press, Los Angeles).