California-based novelist Bogdan Suceavă is the first Romanian author to feature in the RCI's series of literary encounters that will take place at the European Bookshop off Piccadilly Circus. The author will converse with poet and editor Stephen Watts, a refined connoisseur of Romanian prose and verse, about 'Miruna, a Tale', recently published in English translation by Twisted Spoon Press. A collection of autobiographical and folk tales set in the Carpathians, the book is a fascinating family history.
Set in a village in the Carpathian Mountains, one of the last outposts of pre-modernity, an elderly man, sensing his time is short, tells his young grandchildren tales that weave a family saga covering the real history from the 1870s to the time of the telling. One of the children, now grown, is the re-teller of these tales, while the other, Miruna, perhaps has the gift of second sight. Blending the autobiographical and historical with the marvelous, 'Miruna, a Tale' is a novel whose core is the exploration of the imaginary themes and motives that informed traditional society in the mountainous regions of Romania, a world that was radically transformed into virtual extinction over the course of the 20th century. Described by critics as a "literary jewel whose strange and singular spell holds the reader in its thrall," the novel received the Bucharest Writers Association Fiction Award in 2007.
The event is a celebration of Romania's literary legacy, set in the context of the newly opened Romanian section in the heart of London. The Romanian section is the result of close collaboration between the Romanian Cultural Institute in London and European Schoolbooks Ltd, one of the biggest providers of foreign books in the UK, and it comprises more than 100 titles in the original - from the great classics to the latest bestsellers, from dictionaries and manuals to children's books and poetry. The books are also available for sale at www.romanianbookshop.co.uk.
Bogdan Suceavă was born in Curtea de Argeș, Romania, in 1969. He attended the University in Bucharest and then moved to the United States in 1996 to pursue graduate studies, ultimately receiving his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Michigan State University. An author of five novels and two collections of short stories, his work has appeared in English in numerous journals - such as Absinthe, Red Mountain Review, Review of Contemporary Fiction, and Two Lines - and anthologies. His novel 'Coming from an Off-Key Time', in Alistair Ian Blyth's translation, was published by Northwestern University Press in 2011, and 'Miruna, a Tale' by Twisted Spoon Press at the beginning of this year. Bogdan Suceavă is currently a Professor of Mathematics at California State University, Fullerton.
Stephen Watts was born in London in 1952. He is a poet, editor and translator, with family roots in the Italian Alps. Stephen published several books of poetry: 'Gramsci & Caruso' (2004), 'The Blue Bag' (2005), 'Mountain Language'/ 'Lingua di montagna' (2009), 'Ancient Sunlight' (2014), and edited several anthologies: 'Voices of Conscience' (an international anthology of censored poets, Iron Press, 1995), 'Mother Tongues' (a special issue of Modern Poetry in Translation, 2001), and 'Music While Drowning' (an anthology of German Expressionist poems that accompanied an exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, Tate Publishing, 2003). He has read at international literary festivals, worked extensively as a writer in schools and hospitals and communities, and currently works independently as a poet, translator, editor and bibliographer.
When: Wednesday 14 May 2014, 7 pm
Where: The European Bookshop, 5 Warwick Street, London W1B 5LU
Admission is free, but places are limited. Please confirm your attendance at T: 020 7752 0134, E: office@icr-london.co.uk
