Ioan Es. Pop

(Romania, 1958)

Biography

Ioan Es. Pop was originally a teacher in Ieud, a village in the county of Maramureş, before he started writing poetry. He was born on 27 March 27 1958 in Vărai, Maramureş. He received his B.A. in 1983 in Romanian language and literature from the university in Baia Mare. This quiet village became the starting point of his first volume of poetry. Since 1989, Pop has lived in Bucharest and works as a journalist and editor.

Pop made his debut with the volume ieudul fără ieşire (no way out of hadesburg, 1993), which almost immediately became a cult book of the 1990s – and has remained so for subsequent generations of Romanian poets. This book is an autobiographical report of life under the communist regime of Romania. The angsty, existentialist poems are closed, hermetic and dark, without ever leaving the critical gaze behind. Pop has remained a critical and socially engaged poet; he is known as an analyst of communist and post-communist Romania; his political and personal work can be seen as an alternative history of a troubled country.

His prominent status in Romanian poetry was confirmed by his other collections of poetry: porcec (1996), pantelimon 113 bis (1999), podul (the bridge, 2000), rugăciunea de antracit (the anthracite prayer, 2002), petrecere de pietoni (pedestrian feast, 2003), lumile livide (the livid worlds, 2004), no exit (2007), unelte de dormit (sleeping tools, 2011), and căderea-n sus a corpurilor grele (the upwards fall of heavy bodies, 2012).

Bibliography

Poetry
Ieudul fără ieșire (No way out of Hadesburg). Ed. Cartea Românească, 1993
porcec. Ed. Cartea Românească, 1996
pantelimon 113 bis. Ed. Cartea Românească, 1999
podul (bridge). Ed. Cartea Românească, 2000
Rugăciunea de antracit (Anthracite prayer). Dacia, 2002
Petrecere de pietoni (Pedestrian feast). Paralela, 2003
Unelte de dormit (Sleeping tools). Ed. Cartea Românească, 2011
căderea-n sus a corpurilor grele (the upwards fall of heavy bodies). 2012

In translation
Ieud utan utgang. Tranan Publishing House, Stockholm, 2009
Sans issue. L'Oreille du Loup Publishing House, Paris, 2010
No way out of Hadesburg. University of Plymouth Press, Plymouth, 2011
El Ieud sin salida. Baile del Sol Publishing House, Tenerife, 2011
No exit. Baile del Sol Publishing House, Tenerife, 2011
Nem mertem kialtani soha. AB-ART Publishing House, Slovakia, 2012
Nicăieri.ro. Ştiinţa Publishing House, Kishinew, 2012
Ieud bez wyjscia i inne wiersze. Fundacja Pogranicze, 2013

Literary prizes
The Poetry Prize of the Union of Writers from Romania and Republic of Moldavia, 1994
The Poetry Prize of the Union of Writers from Romania, 1999
The Poetry Prize of the City of Bucharest, 1999
The Poetry Prize of the Romanian Academy, 2001
The ASPRO Prize, 2003
The Prize ‘Niram Art’, Madrid, 2010
The Prize ‘Cartea anului’ (Book of the year), Bucharest, 2012
The Prize ‘Primăvara Poeţilor’, Kishinew, Republic of Moldavia, 2012

Links
Book page for No way out of Hadesburg (English translation) at the University of Plymouth Press