WED, October 3, 6.30 pm I Poets House, Kray Hall, 10 River Terrace, NYC
Wheel with a Single Spoke: an evening of poetry in honor of Nichita Stănescu
A celebration of the Romanian poet who “blasted open the prison gates of Socialist realism”
Archipelago Books and RCINY are happy to present at the prestigious Poets House in NYC a special evening of poetry in honor of Nichita Stănescu, marking the launch of Wheel With a Single Spoke, an anthology in English of selected poems by "the greatest contemporary Romanian poet" (Tomaž Šalamun), published by Archipelago Books, with a translation by Sean Cotter funded through the Romanian Cultural Institute's Translation and Publication Support (TPS) program. With readings by actor Vasile Flutur and Sean Cotter, in conversation with poet and playwright Saviana Stănescu.
Winner of the Herder Prize and a Nobel Prize nominee, Nichita Stănescu was one of Romania's most celebrated contemporary poets. This dazzling collection of his poems—the most extensive collection of his work to date—reveals a world in which heavenly and mysterious forces converse with the everyday and earthbound, where love and passion and a quest for truth are central, and urgent questions flow. His startling images stretch the boundaries of thought. His poems, at once surreal and corporeal, lead us into new metaphysical and linguistic terrain.
Sean Cotter's translations from the Romanian include Liliana Ursu's Lightwall and Nichita Danilov's Second-hand Souls. His essays, articles, and translations have appeared in Conjunctions, Two Lines, and Translation Review. He is Associate Professor of Literature and Literary Translation at The University of Texas at Dallas, Center for Translation Studies. Cotter's translation of Mircea Cărtărescu'sBlinding is forthcoming from Archipelago Books.
Vasile Flutur earned his MA in Acting from the National University of Theater and Film in Bucharest, Romania. He has appeared in the shorts A Woman in the Sun, In the Forest, and When Men Truly Become Free, and has translated plays by Harold Pinter, Noel Coward, Sam Shepard, and Patrick Shanley into Romanian.
Saviana Stănescu is an award-winning Romanian-American poet, playwright, and journalist. She is currently the NYSCA playwright-in-residence for Women's Project, writer-in-residence of East Coast Artists, and Director of the New Drama Program for the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. She teaches at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and holds an MA in Performance Studies (Fulbright fellow) and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU.
Praise for Nichita Stănescu:
"The greatest contemporary Romanian poet." - Tomaž Šalamun
"At the time I started writing, about thirty years ago, I was obsessed with Romanian poetry. Today, I still think that Stanescu is one of the most important poets of the 20th century." —Semezdin Mehmedinovic
"For those – sadly most of us – unacquainted with this brilliant post-World War II Romanian poet’s prolific accomplishment, this selection should prove a revelation. During a historical period of all-too-familiar repression and enforced orthodoxy, his work surged off the page with that liberty only the most gifted and courageous artists possess, giving the lie to the lies around him, and the slant truths of poetry to his listeners." —Michael Palmer
more
icrny.org/422-Wheel _With_a_Single_Spoke.html
Romanian Cultural Institute New York
