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“It’s much easier to make a woman scandalous, still to this day” – interview with Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant – with whom we met during the International Literature Festival in Bucharest (December 2013) – is one of the most famous British writers and, even though she started as a crime fiction author, she became interested in historical fiction and her most recent novel, Blood and Beauty (2013; translated in Romanian by Carmen Săndulescu, at Humanitas Fiction Publishing House) explores the Renaissance and the scandal surrounding the Borgias, from a new perspective, trying to rehabilitate the image of women as conveyed by history. During the interview, we spoke about her interest in history, about the light and darkness of Renaissance and about history from a feminine/feminist perspective, without anger or the tendency of victimization. Citeşte tot articolul

“Freedom means to be able to use the full richness of your life”- interview with Hanne Ørstavik

Hanne Ørstavik – who was invited in Bucharest to speak about her book Love (Iubire), on the 19th of March – is one of the most representative contemporary Norwegian writers. She wrote nine novels and she is best known for Love (translated in Romanian at Univers Publishing House), which made it on the sixth position at the literary contest organized by Dagbladetpe magazine in Norway, with the topic The best Norwegian books of the last 25 years. We talked with Hanne Ørstavik about the way her novel took shape, about the various aspects of the notion of “love”, about how she managed to be a single mother and to make a career out of writing and how supportive is Norwegian society of young mothers who want to write. Citeşte tot articolul

“Writing is in my genes”. Interview with Zeruya SHALEV

Alongside Amos Oz, Zeruya Shalev is the most well known Israeli writer, whose books, such as Love Life, Husband and Wife, Thera, The Remains of Love, are bestsellers all around the world. We met her at the International Literature Festival in Bucharest 2013, and we talked about what influenced her as a writer, how it is to live in a Jerusalem, and what made her speak, in her latest book, The Remains of Love, about the relationship between parents and children. Citeşte tot articolul

„The worst thing for you as a writer is to begin to plagiarize yourself”. Interview with Kei MILLER

Born in Jamaica, Kei Miller now teaches creative writing at the University of Glasgow. In 2006 he published his first poetry book, Kingdom of Empty Bellies (Heaventree Press), then a collection of short stories, The Fear of Stones. He is also the editor of the anthology New Caribbean Poetry (Carcanet Press, 2007). In Bucharest, as a guest at the International Literature Festival, we had the chance to speak with him about his activity as writer and as a teacher, about written verse vs. spoken verse and also about how he thinks a writer should reflect Jamaica in literature. Citeşte tot articolul

Interview with Andrei Kurkov: ”I decided to be a writer when I found out that writers don’t go to work”

Andrei Kurkov was one of the special guests at the International Festival of Literature and Translation from Iași. Then, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with him, who is one of the best known Ukrainian authors, who mostly writes in Russian. He has so many stories to tell, some of them seem fantastic, and others make a strong impression on you. We spoke about his most recent book translated in Romanian, A matter of death and life, about how he chooses his themes, about writing, being a writer, about spaces, identity, translations and so many more. I invite you to discover all of them in the following lines.  Citeşte tot articolul

„It becomes harder to make jokes about political injustice”. Interview with Jonathan Coe

The first night of the International Literature Festival in Bucharest (5-8 December 2012) was dedicated to Will Self and Jonathan Coe, who made quite an impression. While Will Self was very flamboyant and colourful, Jonathan Coe displayed a somewhat cold, elegant, but witty attitude. Jonathan Coe is best known for novels such as What a Carve Up!, The House of Sleep or The Rain before it Falls. He is also passionate about music and explains why it is important for a writer to get his inspiration from the reality surrounding him. Citeşte tot articolul


Parinoush Saniee (interview) – “I wanted to introduce a generation of Iranian women with all the difficulties they encounter”

Reading My Shares, I always wondered how is the female author who wrote it. How does Parinoush Saniee live in Iran? How was she able to publish such a book? How did she manage to write such a complex story, on so many levels, which reflects perfectly an epoque from the woman's perspective, one human being that, as we well know, doesn't have a very happy fate in Iran?

So I took her an interview in which I asked her many things about women, Iran, rights, about politics, society, but especially about literature. Citeşte tot articolul


„It mattered more «what» you were, than «who» you were”. Interview with Saša Stanišić

We had the chance to speak with Saša Stanišić at The International Book Fair (29 May – 2 June 2013), when he was among the special guests of the event „Three countries, one language”. Saša Stanišić was born  in Visegrád (now, Bosnia) and in 1992 he emigrated with his parents in Germany. He is best known for his novel How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, nominated for the prestigious Deutscher Buchpreis, in 2006. We spoke with him about war experience and how much it influenced his writing.

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„If we where to be judged by what we think, then the worst and most horrible people in the world would be writers”. Interview with Mikkel Birkegaard

One of the most unique Danish contemporary writers, Mikkel Birkegaard, who actually works in IT, made his debut with the novel Libri di Luca (2007), which immediately became a bestseller, and in 2009 published his second novel, Death Sentence. He writes fantasy-mystery novels, with twists that remind of detective novels, so we talked about the relationship between reality and fantasy, about responsibility and about the unseen power of the books. Citeşte tot articolul

Interview: Michele Mari, the author of Rosso Floyd

The Italian writer Michele Mari wrote a unique book - that is a fictional biography of the band Pink Floyd, centered around the influence which Syd Barrett had upon the history of the band. It is a game played on different levels, mixing the biographic reality with fiction. Both the members of the band and the important people who had contact with Pink Floyd appear in Rosso Floyd. We talked with Michele Mari about literature and, of course, music.  Citeşte tot articolul

Luzinterruptus, an interview

Luzinterruptus is a group of Spanish urban artists who became known by the Romanian public through the street event organized by the newspaper Ring and Litera Publishing House called The night of the open books. The whole event was based on an idea taken without credit to Luzinterruptus, to whom it belongs.  Citeşte tot articolul

Sofi Oksanen – “It was quite obvious for me that I’d never marry an author”

Sofi Oksanen, novelist and playwright, is probably the most famous Finnish contemporary writer. The novel Purge (2008) was translated in 43 languages and won many distinctions, as Prix Femina Etranger (2010), The European Book Prize (2010), Le Prix du Roman FNAC (2010). She also wrote Stalin's Cows (2003, her debut), Baby Jane (2005) and When the Doves Disappeared (2012, the most recent book published by her).  Citeşte tot articolul