Daniel Bănulescu

Daniel Bănulescu, who maintains that he entered “Romanian literature as a protégée of skirts”, says of his own position within it: “Although he knows of hundreds of colleagues who are more talented than he is himself, the modest and gruff author sees only three great opportunities for Romanian literature: the poet Daniel Bănulescu, the novelist Daniel Bănulescu, and the dramatist Daniel Bănulescu.”

Originally, the first volume of poetry, Ziua în care am fost publicat (1987; The Day on which I was Published), was to appear in a magazine, but the censors were troubled by the sexual force of his texts. Only half of the original fifteen poems were printed. The missing poems were published in a second volume of poetry, Te voi iubi pân' la sfârşitul patulu (1993; I Will Love You until the End of the Bed), after the fall of the dictatorship. Daniel Bănulescu finally secured his reputation as the controversial enfant terrible of contemporary Romanian literature with his first novel, Te pup in fund, conducãtor iubit! (1994; Kiss your Ass, Adored Leader! 2005), for which he received the prize of the Association of Romanian Writers. The publication hit Romania like a bomb and earned nothing but elegiac criticism: “A novel with a completely new timbre and a new sound, written with magical-fantastic realism and infinite Balkanism”. For more information, visit the website of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm