Ana Blandiana

Ana Blandiana (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈana blandiˈana]; pen name of Otilia

Valeria Coman; born 25 March 1942, in Timișoara) is a Romanian poet, essayist, and
political figure. She is considered one of the leading contemporary Romanian authors.
[1] She took her name after Blandiana, near Vințu de Jos, Alba County, her mother's
home village.

In October 2017, she was announced as The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry's
twelfth recipient of their Lifetime Recognition Award.[2]

Literary career
Coman's parents were Gheorghe (1915-1964), an orthodox priest and former member
of the fascist Iron Guard[3] who spent years in Communist prisons and died in an
accident weeks after his release in a general amnesty, and Otilia (Diacu), an
accountant. Her sister Geta was born in 1947. In 1960 she married the writer Romulus
Rusan.

After her debut in 1959, in Tribuna, Cluj, where she signed for the first time as Ana
Blandiana, she was published in the anthology 30 de poeți tineri ("30 Young Poets").
In 1963, after a four-year interdiction due to her father's status, she again published in
Contemporanul (edited by George Ivașcu).

Her editorial debut took place in 1964 with the booklet of poems Persoana întâia
plural ("First Person Plural"), with a Foreword written by Nicolae Manolescu. She
became known for her Calcâiul vulnerabil ("Achilles' Heel", 1966) and A treia taină
("The Third Secret", 1969). In 1966, Blandiana appeared for the first time at the
International Poem Contest (in Lahti, Finland).

In 1967, she settled in Bucharest; until the following year, she was one of the editors
for Viața studențească, and then (until 1975) worked as editor for Amfiteatru. She
gave two televised readings in 1969, in the company of Andrei Șerban and the actors
Irina Petrescu, Mariana Mihuț and Florian Pittiş.

Between 1975 and 1977, she was a librarian at the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest.
In 1976, her works were first printed in a French translation, in Croisière du Club des
Poètes by fr:Jean-Pierre Rosnay (Paris); in 1978, she took part in the First
International Festival of Poetry in Paris organized by the famed Club des Poètes.

In the late 1980s, assuming risks of reprisals of the communist regime, Blandiana
started writing protest poems, in answer to the increasingly harsh demands of the
system in general.

In 1984 Blandiana's poem 'Totul' ('Everything') was briefly published in the literary
magazine Amfiteatru. 'Totul' was a list of elements of everyday life in Bucharest at
the time, composed as a comment on the contrast between the official view of life in
Romania and the alternative perception of its monotonous shabbiness. The critical
nature of the poem led to the edition of Amfiteatru being withdrawn within hours of
publication with the editors being dismissed. Nevertheless, the poem appeared in
translation in Western media and also had limited underground circulation in
Romania.[1]

In 1987 she published at the Sport-Turism Publishing House the book "Orașe de
silabe" ("City of syllables") where she writes about all the countries and cities of the
world where she traveled in spite of the communist dictatorship: over 100. The same
year, 1987, she is published in USSR, at Raduga Publishing House from Moscow,
with the Russian title Stihotvorenia, rasskazî, asse. Even though the secret services of
Ceaușescu ('Securitate') attribute her a dissident status, in 1989 the Minerva
Publishing House is publishing in the most popular mass collection "Biblioteca Pentru
Toți" ("Library for all people") an anthology of her poems. Her friends sustain that the
book never seen the bookshelves of the libraries. However, "Poezii" ("Poems") has a
'Foreword' written by Eugen Simion.[2]

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, she entered political life, campaigning for
the removal of the communist legacy from administrative office, as well as for an
open society. She left literary work in the background, although she did publish
Arhitectura valurilor ("Waves' Architecture", 1990), 100 de poeme ("100 Poems",
1991), and Sertarul cu aplauze ("The Drawer of Applause", prose, 1992). In 1992 she
advocates for the released from prison of old time Party member Gheorghe 'Gogu'
Radulescu, a former member of the Executive Political Committee of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party and protector of herself during the communist
period.

Ana Blandiana has also published: 50 de poeme, ("50 Poems"), 1970: Octombrie,
Noiembrie, Decembrie ("October, November, December"), 1972; Întâmplări din
grădina mea (Occurrences in My Garden), 1980; Ora de nisip ("The Hour of Sand"),
1984; Întâmplări de pe strada mea (Occurrences on My Street), 1988; În dimineața de
după moarte ("On the Morning After Dying"), 1996; La cules îngeri ("Angel
Gathering"), 1997; Cartea albă a lui Arpagic ("Arpagic's White Book"), 1998. She has
also authored 6 books of essays and 4 books of other prose writings. Her work was
translated into 16 languages.

Ora de nisip ("The Hour of Sand") has been translated into English by Peter Jay and
Anca Cristofovici.[4]