Radu Pavel Gheo
Radu Pavel Gheo | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 3, 1969 Oraviţa |
| Occupation | novelist, short story writer, essayist, translator (from English) |
| Nationality | Romanian |
| Period | 1993- |
| Genre | Realist, satire, parable, essay |
| Literary movement | Neorealism, Postmodernism |
Radu Pavel Gheo (born Pavel Gheorghiță Radu on October 3, 1969) is a Romanian fiction writer and essayist. Gheo is a member of PEN Club from Romania (since 2005) and of the Romanian Writers' Union (since 2003).
Biography
Gheo was born in Oraviţa, Caraş-Severin County. He graduated from the West University of Timișoara, Faculty of Letters, in 1994, and holds a Ph.D. in Philology from the same institution (2014). He taught English language for five years in Timişoara and, later on, in Iași. Between 1999 and 2001 he worked as a radio editor for Radio Iași. Gheo was a member of the Romanian young writers' group CLUB 8 from Iași, together with Constantin Acosmei, Șerban Alexandru, Radu Andriescu, Michael Astner, Emil Brumaru, Mariana Codruţ, Gabriel Horațiu Decuble, Florin Lăzărescu, Dan Lungu, Ovidiu Nimigean, Dan Sociu and Lucian Dan Teodorovici.[1] Afterwards, he lived for a year in the American city of Bellevue, Washington, whence he returned to Timișoara, where he currently lives.
Literary activity
Gheo has published so far several volumes of short stories, essays, and two novels. He is also the author of a play entitled Hold-УП Akbar sau Toti în America (Hold-УП Akbar or Everybody in America). The play has been put on stage by the National Theatre „Mihai Eminescu” from Timișoara, starting July 2007.[2] He has published several hundred essays and studies in some of the major cultural magazines from his country and in some cultural magazines from abroad: Timpul, Dilema (veche), 22, Orizont, Observator cultural, Lettre International, Amphion, Korunk, Wienzeile (Vienna, Austria), Dialogi (Maribor, Slovenia), Sarajevo Notebooks (Sarajevo, Bosnia), Libertatea (Vojvodina, Serbia) Au Sud de l’Est (Paris, France), Lampa (Warsaw, Poland), Herito (Kraków, Poland), Courrier Internationale (France), Cultures d’Europe Centrale (France) etc. He has also been included in several literary anthologies from Romania and abroad, with short stories or essays. As a translator from English, he has translated around twenty volumes, mostly fiction.
2003 essay
Upon his return from the United States in Romania, Gheo published in 2003 Adio, adio, patria mea, cu î din i, cu â din a (approx. Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell...), a description of the United States from an immigrant's perspective, and a book where "the critical eye that demoted Romania also demotes America".[3] The Romanian essayist and literary critic Mircea Iorgulescu appreciated it as "an entirely amazing book in the contemporary Romanian literature... It should compete simultaneously for the title The Book of the Year in many categories: essay, journalism, fiction, even poetry, as long as Gogol’s Dead Souls is a poem".[4]
2010 novel
The topic of immigration is also approached in Gheo's 2010 novel Noapte bună, copii! (Good Night, Children!). The novel deals with the childhood spent in the Romanian Communist regime, where the children's imagination is suffused with the obsession of an idealized Western world. As the obsession grows, the main characters risk their lives in an illegal border crossing.[5] The literary critic Daniel Cristea-Enache defined Noapte bună, copii! as "the novel of a generation",[6] the generation of the so-called "decreţei". The novel was published in 2016 in Italian translation.
Bibliography (Romanian works)
- Valea Cerului Senin (The Valley of the Clear Blue Sky), Athena, 1997 – short stories;
- Despre science fiction (On Science Fiction) – Omnibooks Satu-Mare, 2001, first edition; Tritonic, Bucharest, 2007, second edition – literary studies;
- Adio, adio, patria mea, cu î din i, cu â din a (approx. Farewell, My Homeland, Farewell...), Polirom, 1st edition – 2003, 2nd edition – 2004, 3rd edition - 2013, essays;
- Românii e deștepți (Romanians IS Smart), Polirom, 1st edition – 2004, 2nd edition – 2006, 3rd edition - 2014, essays;
- Fairia – o lume îndepărtată (Fairia – A Land Faraway), Polirom, 1st edition – 2004, 2nd edition – 2016, novel;
- DEX-ul și sexul (DEX and sex), Polirom, 2005 – essays;
- Radu Pavel Gheo, Dan Lungu (eds.) – Tovarășe de drum. Experiența feminină în comunism (Fellow Travellers. The Feminine Experience in Communism), Polirom, 2008 (collection of essays);
- Numele mierlei (The Name of the Blackbird), Polirom, 2008 (short stories).
- Noapte bună, copii! (Good Night, Children!), Polirom, 2010 (novel).
- Disco Titanic, Polirom, 2016 (novel).
Translations
- Fake, in the anthology Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails, ed. Philip O Ceallaigh, The Stinging Fly Publishing House, Dublin, Ireland, 2010
- Lijepa naša and Pripreme za svadbu, in the anthology Nabokov u Brašovu. Antologija rumunjske postrevolucionarne kratke priče, ed. Marina Gessner, Luca-Ioan Frana, Ivana Olujić, Meandar Publishing House, Zagreb, 2010
- Radu Pavel Gheo, Dan Lungu (eds.), Compagne di viaggio. L'esperienza femminile nel comunismo (transl. Anita Bernacchia, Mauro Barindi, and Maria Luisa Lombardo), Sandro Teti Editore, Roma, 2011
- Radu Pavel Gheo, Buona notte, bambini! (transl. Mauro Barindi; Maria Luisa Lombardo), La Zisa, Palermo, 2016
Titles and awards
- Romanian Writers’ Association (Timișoara) Award for Adio, adio, patria mea cu î din i, cu â din a – 2003;
- "Pro-Cultura Timisiensis” Award for Cultural Merits, granted by the Timiș County Council – 2005;
- Romanian Writers’ Association (Timișoara) Award for DEX-ul si sexul – 2006;
- Excellence in Arts, title granted by Timișoara City Council – August 2007;
- Romanian Writers' Association Award for English translations Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea – May 2008;
- “Eminescu-1868-Oravița” Award for the novel Noapte bună, copii! – January 2011;
- National Fiction Award „Ziarul de Iași” for the novel Noapte bună, copii! – April 2011;
- Romanian Writers’ Association (Timișoara) Award for the novel Noapte bună, copii! – November 2011;
- 2010 Best Romanian Novel, title granted by the cultural magazine Tiuk! for the novel Noapte bună, copii! – November 2011;
References
- ^ "Mircea Iorgulescu, Un grup literar ieşean: Club 8, in 22 magazine, July 2003.
- ^ Geanina Jinaru, Teatru la cumpărături, in Bănățeanul, July 25, 2007.
- ^ C. Rogozanu, Poliromii, in Observator cultural, no. 198, December 2003.
- ^ Mircea Iorgulescu, Din Far East în Far West şi înapoi, in 22 magazine, no. 711, October 2003.
- ^ Bianca Burţa-Cernat, Romanul high-definition, in Observator cultural, no. 528, June 2010.
- ^ Daniel Cristea-Enache, Romanul unei generaţii, in Observator cultural, no. 535, July 2010.
- Aurel Sasu, Dicţionarul biografic al literaturii române, I-II, Paralela 45, Piteşti, 2007.
- Academia Română, Dicţionarul general al literaturii române, Univers Enciclopedic, Bucharest, 2007.
External links
- Radu Pavel Gheo at Contemporary Romanian Writers (English)
- Radu Pavel Gheo at literati.net (English)
- Radu Pavel Gheo at scrittoriromeni (Italian)
- Radu Pavel Gheo, Bila jednom jedna zemlja (essay), in Sarajevske sveske, no. 8-9, 2005, Sarajevo, Bosnia.