Marin Sorescu

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Marin Sorescu (February 29, 1936 - December 8, 1996) was a Romanian poet, playwright, and novelist.

[edit] Biography

Born to a peasant family in Bulzeşti, Dolj County, Sorescu was educated at the University of Iaşi, where, in 1960, he graduated with a degree in modern languages. His first book, a collection of parodies in 1964 entitled Singur printre poeţi ("Alone Among Poets"), was widely discussed. He himself called them "sarcastic and awkward". Ten volumes of poetry and prose followed; he grew so popular that his readings were held in football stadiums.

On his poetry, Sorescu said, with characteristic irony: "Just as I can't give up smoking because I don't smoke, I can't give up writing because I have no talent." He often claimed a sense of alienation, saying "the spoken word is a crossed frontier. By the act of saying something, I fail to say many other things." On censorship, he said, after his last, post-1989 Revolution volumes were delayed, "we have won our freedom, so I mustn't complain. O censors, where are you now?"

Sorescu's collection of Censored Poems comprised poems could not be published until the end of the Nicolae Ceauşescu Communist dictatorship; of these, the best known is House under surveillance.

He disappointed some of his admirers by allowing himself to be made Minister of Culture by the unpopular National Salvation Front government between 1993 and 1995.

Ill with cirrhosis and hepatitis, he died from a heart attack at the Elias Hospital in Bucharest.

[edit] Awards

• Romanian Academy prize, 1968, 1977
• The Gold Medal for Poetry "Napoli ospite", Italy, 1970
• The Prize of the Romanian Academy for Drama, 1970
• "Le Muse", granted by Accademie delle Muse, Florence, 1978
• The International Poetry Prize "Fernado Riello", Madrid, Spain, 1983
• The International Herder Prize, granted by the University of Vienna in 1991 for his entire activity
• Romanian Writers' Union prize (6 times, for poetry, drama, and literary criticism)

[edit] Affiliations

• 1983 - Member of Mallarmé Academy, Paris
• 1992 - Member of the Romanian Academy
• Member of the International Writing Program, Iowa, Iowa City, United States

[edit] References

• Hands Behind My Back: Selected Poems, trans. Gabriela Dragnea, Adriana Varga, & Stuart Friebert (Oberlin College Press, 1991). ISBN 0-932440-58-4