MAGDA CÂRNECI (ROMANIA)

MAGDA CÂRNECI is a writer, translator, cultural manager, and art historian. After actively participating in the December 1989 Revolution, she became involved in Romania’s political and cultural life. She earned a PhD in art history in Paris in 1997. Between 2001 and 2005, she worked as a visiting professor at INALCO University in Paris, and later served as director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Paris (ICR Paris) from 2006 to 2010.

As a socio-cultural activist, she was president of the Group for Social Dialogue (GDS) and of PEN Romania, both between 2011 and 2019. She is a member of the European Cultural Parliament (ECP) and the Parliament of Francophone Women Writers (PEF).

She has published numerous books of poetry, essays, fiction, and art history. Her poems have been translated into various languages and featured in numerous anthologies. She has published poetry volumes in French, Dutch, German, and Spanish, and in English she has two books: Chaosmos (2006) and A Deafening Silence (2017). Her feminist novel FEM was nominated for several awards in Romania, translated into French in 2018 and into American English in 2021. In 2022, it was a finalist for the PEN America Translation Award.

In 2019, she was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French State.

In Romanian, she has published the poetry volumes: Hipermateria (1980), O tăcere asurzitoare (A Deafening Silence, 1984), Haosmos (1992), Poeme politice (Political Poems, 2000), Haosmos și alte poeme (Haosmos and Other Poems, anthology, 2004), Poeme trans (2012), Viață (Life, 2016), Opera poetică (Collected Poetry, 2017), Vremea poemului înalt (The Time of the Elevated Poem, anthology, 2022), and Insurecții / Incantații (Insurrections / Incantations, audio book, 2023). She has also translated various authors from French and English.