Tag: interview

Elias Khoury: “Literature is the history of ordinary people” (interview)

I met Mr. Elias Khoury in Bucharest just before he presented his last book, The Children of the Ghetto - My name is Adam, at Bookfest, an international book fair held annually not only in the Romanian capital, but also in other cities across the country. His novel was recently translated in Romanian by Polirom Publishing House, and I was very honored to ask Mr. Khoury several questions about his book, about how he conceives literature, its meaning, its relation to reality and act of writing itself. Citeşte tot articolul


Anna Axfors: “Loneliness can arrive suddenly, but you shouldn’t use it to make your life more boring or sadder than it already is”

One of the most important events of this summer, especially for the young public, was the "Zona nouă" International Student Festival in Sibiu. Organized by the editors of the magazine with the same name and supported by the "Lucian Blaga" University, the festival, which reached its third edition this year, aims to promote young poets both from Romania and from abroad. The readings and the debates included in this edition's official program managed to create not only an intercultural dialogue between the guests and the audience, but also an engaging atmosphere, proving that poetry can still be, and not just for only a few people, an actual way of life. Citeşte tot articolul


Interview with Guillermo Arriaga: „Stories never die”

Guillermo Arriaga was a guest at the International Literature and Translation Festival from Iași, Romania. He was invited to meet with the Romanian public in the second evening of the festival, on the scene of the „Vasile Alecsandri” National Theater, accompanied by the Romanian literary critic Marius Chivu, who addressed him many good questions. The public fell immediately in love with the Mexican author, screenwriter, director and producer. He was the sensation of the festival. Citeşte tot articolul

interviu cu Lars Saabye Christensen si recenzie la cartea Frati pe jumatate

Lars Saabye Christensen: “If you write one extra word in the sex scene it becomes extremely embarrassing for everybody” – interview

Lars Saabye Christensen is one of the most representative contemporary Norwegian writers. Even though he also wrote children's books, scripts, plays, poetry, he is best known as a novelist. He published over twenty novels, out of which Beatles and The Half Brother were sold in over 500 000 copies together and have been translated in many languages. For The Half Brother Christensen won the The Nordic Council's Literature Prize, the most important distinction for works of literature written in one of the languages of the Nordic countries. He is also a member of the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature. Citeşte tot articolul

Interview with Mike Ormsby: ”Writing a novel is like being in a band or a sports club: you need a good team”

Mike Ormsby is a British writer and former BBC journalist, World Service trainer and musician. In December 2013 he published his first novel, Child Witch Kinshasa, about so-called child witches in Kinshasa, Congo - as seen mainly by Frank Kean, a journalist who lands in a strange place and tries to discover its "secrets", to understand a completely different world (see synopsis and excerpts here). As I was reading this, absorbed, the second part of his novel was published - Child Witch LondonCiteşte tot articolul

“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

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

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.

Citeşte tot articolul


„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