Aura Christi

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Aura Christi (b. 12 January 1967, Chișinău, USSR, currently the Republic of Moldova) is a Romanian poet, novelist, essayist, publicist and translator.

Biography

She is the daughter of Semion Potlog, an elite air force officer born on 14 November 1933 in Zgărdești (Telenești). Her father came from a family of teachers and intellectuals born in territories belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empiree. He graduated from the Military Aviation School of Dvinsk. A tragic accident wrecked his military career prematurely and he became a retired invalid at 28. Her mother, Liuba Potlog (born Karaman, on 24 May 1945), came from a wealthy family from northern Moldova. Following the establishment of the communist party, the families of Aura Christi’s parents were expropriated by the communist authorities. Aura Christi graduated from “Gh. Asachi” Romanian-French Secondary School in Chișinău (1984) and the Faculty of Journalism of the State University (1990). Her first works were published on October 23 1983 by Tineretul Moldovei newspaper. As a student, she became an editor and later the coordinator of the culture section of this newspaper. (1988-1991). She was editor-in-chief of the Galaxia Gutenberg periodical (1991-1992). In 1993, she re-acquired her Romanian citizenship and settled in Bucharest. Her poems have been translated and published in Germany, France, England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Israel, the Russian Federation, the USA, Bulgaria, Albania, Turkey, Wales, Macedonia, China etc. Her novels and essays describe human destinies under foreign occupation, her favourite motif being home – in exile. The recurrent theme of her books is the geographical exile and the desire to find her homeland in poetry, which “she signs with... a foreign name. While the former is an irreparable trauma, poetry, albeit under an adopted name, offers her a homeland.” Aura Christi has done tours, public recitals and lectures as a guest of festivals, symposia, book fairs and congresses in Israel, Greece, Moldova, China, the Russian Federation, Italy, Spain, Macedonia, France, Germany etc. She is the editor-in-chief of Contemporanul periodical. She is a member of the Writers’ Union of Romania and the Writers’ Union of Moldova.

Poetry

• De partea cealaltă a umbrei (The Other Side of the Shadow), 1993
• Împotriva mea (Against Myself), 1995
• Ceremonia orbirii (The Blinding Ceremony), 1996
• Valea Regilor (Valley of the Kings), 1996
• Nu mă atinge (Do Not Touch Me), anthology, 1997, 1999
• Ultimul zid (The Last Wall), 1999
• Elegii nordice (Northern Elegies), 2002
• Cartea ademenirii (The Book of Enticement), anthology, 2003
• Ochiul devorator (The Devouring Eye), anthology, 2004
• Grădini austere (Austere Gardens), 2010 (with a CD of poems recited by the poet)
• Sfera frigului (The Sphere of the Cold), 2011
• Tragicul visător (The Tragic Dreamer), anthology, (2013)
• Orbita zeului (The Orbit of the God), 2016
• Psalmi (Psalms), anthology, 2016
• Geniul inimii (The Genius of the Heart), a novel in verse, 2017
• Prose
• Vulturi de noapte (Night Eagles) Tetralogy
• Sculptorul (The Sculptor), vol. I, 2001, 2004
• Noaptea străinului (Night of the Stranger), vol. II, 2004, 2016
• Marile jocuri (The Great Games), vol. III, 2006
• Zăpada mieilor (Spring Snow), vol. IV, 2007
• Casa din întuneric (The House in the Dark), 2008, 2018
• Cercul sălbatic (Wild Circle), 2010, 2018

Essays

• Fragmente de ființă (Fragments of Being), 1998
• Labirintul exilului (The Exile Labyrinth), 2000, 2005
• Celălalt versant (The Other Slope), 2005
• Religia viului (The Religion of the Living), 2007
• Trei mii de semne (Three Thousand Signs), 2007
• Exerciții de destin (Exercises of Destiny), 2007
• Foamea de a fi (Hunger for Being), 2010
• Nietzsche și Marea Amiază (Nietzsche and the Great Noonday), 2011
• Dostoievski – Nietzsche. Elogiul suferinței (A Tribute to Suffering), 2013
• Acasă – în exil (Home – In Exile), 2016
• Din infern, cu dragoste (From Hell, with Love), 2017

Photo albums with commentaries

Europa acasăBulleted list item (Europe Home) (2010) Planeta Israel (Planet Israel) (2010) Uriașul Gorduz (Gorduz the Giant) (2011)

Poems in translated books and anthologies

* Geflüster/Șoptirea (The Whisper), bilingual anthology of poems, German version by Christian W. Schenk, Dionysos Verlag, Germany, 1994
* Une anthologie de la poésie moldave, anthology of poems by eight Romanian poets, translated into French by Alain Paruit și Odile Serre, L’Esprit des Péninsules, Paris, 1996
* Vid tystnadens bord/La masa tăcerii (At the Table of Silence), anthology of poems by Romanian poets translated into Swedish by Ion Miloș, Brutus Östlings Bokförlag, Symposion Stockholm, Stehag, 1998
* Crini Imperiali/Imperial Lilies, bilingual anthology of poems, English version by Antuza Genescu, Augusta Publishing, Timișoara, 1999
* 28 poetek rumunskich, Wybom dokonala Denisa Comănescu, poems translated by Kazimierz Jurczak, Ewa Rossi, Universal Dalsi, Bucharest, 1999
* Elegien aus der Kälte/Sfera frigului, poems translated into German by Edith Konradt, Pop Verlag, Germany, 2008 
* Arkitektura e natës/Arhitectura nopții (Architecture of the Night), anthology of poems translated into Albanian by Kopi Kyçyku, Albania, 2008
* Lăsați fluturii să zboare/Let the Butterflies Go, anthology of poetry translated into English by Olimpia Iacob and Jim Kacian (with Peter Thabit Jones), Timpul, Iași, 2014
* Cineva din noapte/Someone in the Night, poems translated into English by Cristina Tătaru, Tribuna, Cluj, 2014
* Sfera frigului · Din infern, cu dragoste/La sfera del freddo· Dall'inferno con amore (The Sphere of the Cold · From Hell, with Love), poems, autobiographic prose and essays translated into Italian by Maria Floarea Pop, Rediviva, Milano, Italy 2015
* Sfera frigului · Sphere du froid (The Sphere of the Cold), bilingual anthology of poems, French version by Claudiu Soare, Junimea, 2016
* Elegie nordiche · Elegii nordice (Northern Elegies), poems, Romanian-Italian edition, Italian version by Geo Vasile, Aracne, Roma, 2017
* Orbita zeului · Στο μάτι του θεού, poems, Romanian-Greek edition, Greek version by Victor Ivanovici, Gavrielides, Athens, 2017 
* Schmucklose Gärten/ Grădini austere (Austere Gardens) poems translated into German by Hans Dama, Pop Verlag, 2018 (Germany)
* Exercices d'obscurité – Exerciții de întuneric (Exercises of Darkness), poems, editions in French and Romanian, French version by Sorin Barbul, Vinea, 2018
* Jardines austeros · Grădini austere (Austere Gardens), poems, Romanian-Spanish edition, Spanish version by Dana Oprica, éride ediciones, Madrid, 2018 
* Orbita del Dio · Orbita zeului (The Orbit of the God), Romanian-Italian edition, Italian version by Ștefan Damian and Francesco Corsi, Aracne, Roma, 2018

Awards and honours

* Ministry of Culture Award for Poetry, 1993
* Romanian Academy Award for Poetry, 1996
* Writers’ Union and Vinea Publishing House Award for Poetry, 1997
* Writers’ Union of Moldova Award for Essay, 1998
* “Ion Șiugariu” Award for Poetry, 1999
* “Tomis” Periodical and Dobrogea Branch of the Writers’ Union Award for Novel (Sculptorul – The Sculptor), 2001
* “Antares” Periodical Award for Poetry, 2003
* “Convorbiri literare” Periodical Award for Novel, (Noaptea străinului – Night of the Stranger) 2004
* Author of the Year Award given by the Association of Literary Publications and Publishing Houses of Romania, 2007
* “Poesis” Periodical Award for Novel (Casa din întuneric – The House in the Dark), 2008
* “Opera Omnia” Award for Poetry at the “Roland Gasparic” Romanian-Canadian Festival, 2009
* “Opera Omnia” Award, “Gheorghe Cristea” Romanian University of Sciences and Arts and Comunic@rts Research Centre, 2014
* “Nichita Stănescu” International Poetry Festival, 29th ed., Award given by Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology, 2017
* Man of the Year 2017 Award and Anniversary Medal “Israel 70”, given by the Association of Israeli Writers of Romanian Language and the Israeli-Romanian Cultural Centre 2018 
* 

References

   1. „Poeta Aura Christi a vorbit despre rănile Basarabiei la Târgul de Carte de la Madrid” (Poet Aura Christi spoke about the suffering of Bessarabia at Madrid Book Fair), 25 May 2018–10 June 2018, https://www.icr.ro/bucuresti/poeta-aura-christi-a-vorbit-despre-ranile-basarabiei-la-targul-de-carte-de-la-madrid
   2. Credință și cultură azi. Poezie, frumusețe și adevăr (Faith and Culture Today. Poetry, Beauty and Truth) (23.07.2017),  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy4hl5BWgr4
   3. Virgil Nemoianu, Răsfoind literatura recentă (Browsing Recent Literature), in “Convorbiri literare”, 18 April 2017, http://convorbiri-literare.ro/?p=7757
   4. Sorin Alexandrescu, in Une anthologie de la poésie moldave, bilingual edition, French version by Odile Serre and Alain Paruit, English version by Cornelia Golna, L’Esprit des Péninsules, Paris, 1996
   5. Nicolae Balotă, Un destin literar (A Literary Destiny), in “Flacăra” 7/2000
   6. Nicolae Breban, Atracția adâncurilor (Attraction of the Depths), in “România literară” 46, November 2012
   7. Ion Simuț, Ascensiunea unei edituri (The Rise of a Publishing House), in “România literară” 2, 18 January 2008; 
   8. Ștefan Borbély, Un roman de formare (A Bildungsroman), in “Contemporanul. Ideea Europeană” 7, 2009;
   9. Nicolae Breban, Splendidul travaliu al adorației (The Great Labour of Adoration), in “Cultura”, 21 iulie 2011; 
   10.  Maria-Ana Tupan, Moarte și transfigurare (Death and Transfiguration), in “Contemporanul” 2, February 2012;  
   11. Irina Petraș, Golul de-plin al frigului (The Void of the Cold), in “România literară” 24, 2012

External links

   1. “La poetessa Aura Christi incontra il pubblico lettore a Roma”, 13 June 2017,  http://culturaromena.it/la-poetessa-aura-christi-incontra-il-pubblico-lettore-a-roma/
   2. Retiro Book Fair. Aura Christi Seen from Spain, Héctor Briosos, professor at Alcalá de Henares University of Madrid, in “Adevărul”, 7 June 2018, https://adevarul.ro/cultura/carti/targul-carte-retiro-aura-christi-vazuta-spania-1_5b190762df52022f75dfa006/index.html 
   3. Aura Christi’s Poetry in the Peninsula, in “Adevărul”, 15 July 2017, https://adevarul.ro/cultura/carti/aura-christi-poezia-peninsula-1_596a37f55ab6550cb8245022/index.html 

4. Web site. http://aurachristi.ro 5. English presentation. http://aurachristi.ro/biografie/english-presentation

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