Book Launch: An Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Poetry "The Vanishing Point That Whistles"

Edited by Paul Doru Mugur with Adam J. Sorkin and Claudia Serea

Join us for a special evening of poetry at RCINY on the occasion of the launch of the anthology "The Vanishing Point That Whistles". The anthology represents a joint effort to bring one of the most significant recent Eastern European literary phenomena - Romanian post-1989 poetry - to U.S. readers. Published by Talisman House, with funding from RCI's Translation and Publication Support Program, the volume coordinated by Paul Doru Mugur gathers 40 contemporary Romanian poets. With this new release, Talisman House continues in 2012 its line of publishing Romanian authors in translation.

On February 8 editor Paul Doru Mugur, translators Adam J. Sorkin and Claudia Serea will be joined by Edward Foster, the founding editor of Talisman House for the book launch at RCINY. Poets Ştefan Bălan and Adina Dabija, both having texts in the anthology, will also be present at the event. The evening will feature a poetry reading (both in English and Romanian) by actors Aaron Schroeder, Caitlin McInerney and Caroline Gombe. This event is presented by RCINY under the auspices of The Day of Romanian Culture.

Contemporary Romanian poetry is one of the most significant literary phenomena in Eastern Europe of the post‐communist decades. With an almost reckless urgency, young Romanian poets reject the verbal games of the self‐conscious postmodernism of their predecessors, the infinite textual mirrors of deconstruction, by dropping any pretense to a privileged, high‐culture poetic discourse. [...] The only solution for contemporary poets is to renounce poetry; miraculously, from its vanishing point, poetry arises anew like the phoenix, grown livelier, more honest, freer than ever. (from the Publisher)

The Poets: Cristian Popescu, Ioan Es. Pop, Mihail Gălăţanu, Daniel Bănulescu, Floarea Ţuţuianu, Radu Andriescu, Simona Popescu, Emilian Galaicu-Păun, Ruxandra Cesereanu, O. Nimigean, Constantin Acosmei, Nicolae Coande, Mihai Ignat, Marius Ianuş, Dumitru Crudu, Adina Dabija, Ştefan Bălan, Teodor Dună, Ruxandra Novac, Mugur Grosu, George Vasilievici, Ioana Nicolaie, Radu Vancu, Andrei Peniuc, Dan Sociu, Adrian Urmanov, Răzvan Ţupa, Claudiu Komartin, Elena Vlădăreanu, Dan Coman, Miruna Vlada, V. Leac, Svetlana Cârstean, T.S. Khasis, Gabi Eftimie, Marius Conkan, Andrei Gamarţ, Michel Martin, Aida Hancer, Anonymous.

Most of the translations were prepared specifically for this edition by Adam J. Sorkin and Claudia Serea, with biographical notes and essays by the authors, Adam J. Sorkin and Mona Momescu.

Collaborative translations are by Adam J. Sorkin and Radu Andriescu, Ştefan Bălan, Cristina Cîrstea, Gabi Eftimie, Mihail Gălăţanu, Irma Giannetti, Mugur Grosu, Petru Iamandi, Ioana Ieronim, Claudiu Komartin, Michel Martin, Alina Miron, David Morley, Paul Doru Mugur, Roxana Muscă, Mihaela Niţă, Alina Savin, Dan Sociu , Saviana Stănescu, Bogdan Ştefănescu, Aura Ţeudan, Răzvan Ţupa, Adrian Urmanov, Radu Vancu, Lidia Vianu, Oana Zamfirache.

The poetry included in this volume reflects the alienation and the crisis of communication brought by the so‐called “transition” period of the last twenty years in Romania from the beginning of the post‐communist period in 1990 to the close of the first decade of the twenty‐first century. This twenty‐year span was defined not only by uncertainty and fears, social inequities and misery, but also by both an enthusiasm and a hope for the future that the recent inclusion of Romania in the European Union made real. (from the introduction by Paul Doru Mugur)

"It’s a major project for Romanian poetry [...] It’s the first anthology that publishes exclusively the young poets in Romania today… After the Romanian revolution everything in the country changed. The communist system was demolished and the poets were very quick to abandon all the lyrics and the symbols that had to with the aesthetics of the generation before. Now they’re trying to cut their own way… and express the anxiety of a modern society that struggles towards finding its way in the European Union." (Claudia Serea in an interview for North.Jersey.com)