Dorin Tudoran is a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, essayist, journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

, and dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

. A resident of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 since 1985, he has authored more than fifteen books of poetry, essays, and interviews.

Early life

Born in Timişoara

Timisoara

Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...

, he attended the Mihai Viteazul High School in Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

, graduating in 1963. He pursued his studies at the Faculty of Languages and Literature of the University of Bucharest

University of Bucharest

The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...

, obtaining a B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in 1968. Tudoran made his debut in 1973 with a volume of poetry, Mic tratat de glorie. He was an editor at Flacăra

Flacăra

Flacăra is a weekly magazine published in Bucharest, Romania, originally as a literary periodical....

(1973–1974) and Luceafărul (1974–1980). From 1977 to 1981, he belonged to the ruling council of the Writers' Union of Romania

Writers' Union of Romania

The Writers' Union of Romania , founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chişinău, Republic of Moldova...

. In March 1982, he resigned from the Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...

 (an extremely rare act at the time).

On April 7, 1984, Tudoran asked to emigrate from Communist Romania

Communist Romania

Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

, together with his family. Denied a response, he wrote a letter on August 1, 1984 to Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

. After being threatened with legal proceedings, he started a hunger strike

Hunger strike

A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...

 on April 25, 1985, asking for an audience at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest. The hunger strike lasted for 42 days. In response to pleas from human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 groups, he was allowed to leave Romania for the United States, on July 24, 1985, the same day as dissident priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa

Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa

Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa was a Romanian priest and dissident. He served 21 years in prison during the Communist regime. He was first imprisoned in 1948, but his 1978 imprisonment he claimed was harsher. He had criticized Nicolae Ceauşescu's repressions and became seen as an "enemy of the state"....

.

In the United States

In the U.S., Tudoran founded and ran two magazines, Agora (funded by the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Foreign Policy Research Institute

The Foreign Policy Research Institute is an American neoconservative think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is "devoted to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S...

 in Philadelphia, 1987–1992) and Meridian (Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, 1990–1991), and worked as an international broadcaster at the Voice of America

Voice of America

Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...

. He was also a guest lecturer at the University of Connecticut

University of Connecticut

The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...

 (1986), and a research fellow at The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

 (1987). He then started working for the International Foundation for Election Systems

International Foundation for Election Systems

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems is an international, non-profit organization founded in 1987. This Washington, D. C.-based development organization provides assistance and support for elections in new and emerging democracies...

 (IFES), a Washington, D.C.-based organization. From 2004 to January 2007, Tudoran was editor in chief of Democracy at Large, a publication of that organization; currently, he is Senior Director for Communications and Research at IFES.

He is a frequent editorialist, commentator and analyst in a wide variety of international media outlets, including The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

PBS NewsHour is an evening television news program broadcast weeknights on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States. The show is produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a company co-owned by former anchors Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, and Liberty Media, which owns a 65% stake in the...

, 20 Minutes

20 minutes

20 minutes may refer to:*20 minutes *20 minutes *20 minutos, Spanish newspaper...

, CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

, CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

, NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

, International Herald Tribune

International Herald Tribune

The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...

, Partisan Review

Partisan Review

Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...

, Journal of Democracy

Journal of Democracy

The Journal of Democracy is a quarterly academic journal established in 1990 and an official publication of the National Endowment for Democracy...

, Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

, The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, The Washington Times

The Washington Times

The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...

, Orbis

Orbis (foreign policy)

Orbis is a quarterly American journal on international relations and U.S. foreign policy. It is the flagship publication of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute , an international affairs think tank established in 1955....

, The Hartford Courant

The Hartford Courant

The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is a morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury...

, El Pais, Index on Censorship

Index on Censorship

Index on Censorship is a campaigning publishing organisation for freedom of expression, which produces an award-winning quarterly magazine of the same name from London. The present chief executive of Index on Censorship, since 2008, is the author, broadcaster and commentator John Kampfner, former...

, Kontinent

Kontinent

Kontinent was an émigré dissident journal which focused on the politics of the Soviet Union and its satellites. Founded in 1974 by writer Vladimir Maximov, its first editor-in-chief, it was published in German and Russian and later translated into English...

, C-Span

C-SPAN

C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...

, BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, Radio France Internationale

Radio France Internationale

Radio France Internationale was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial , Paris Mondial , Radio Paris , RTF Radio Paris and ORTF Radio Paris...

, Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...

, RAI

RAI

RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

, National Public Radio, ARD-Munich

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

, VPRO-Amsterdam

VPRO

The VPRO was established in the Netherlands in 1926 as a religious broadcasting organization. Falling under the Protestant pillar, it represented the Liberal Protestant current...

, and Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...

.

Back to Romania

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

, Tudoran returned to Romania in 1990 as an envoy of IFES; he later worked as country director for the IFES office in Chişinău

Chisinau

Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...

, Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

. He helped launch two Non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

s in the region—CENTRAS (Romania) and ADEPT(Moldova)—and serves on their boards of directors.

In recent years, Tudoran was an editorialist for Jurnalul Naţional

Jurnalul National

Jurnalul Naţional is a Romanian newspaper, part of the Intact media group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular TV station Antena 1....

. In July 2006, Camelia Voiculescu, the owner of the newspaper, asked for his resignation, following an editorial in which Tudoran criticized her father, Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former business man. He is the Vicepresident of the Romanian Senate and founding president of the Conservative Party in Romania. ....

, for his past association with the Securitate

Securitate

The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...

. Since August, 2006, Tudoran is an editorialist for Ziua

Ziua

Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

.

Recognition

Tudoran won the Writers' Union of Romania prize in 1973, 1977, and 1998; the grand prize of the Professional Writers' Association – ASPRO in 1998; the Writers' Union of the Republic of Moldova prize in 1998; the prize "Superlativele anului" from Cuvîntul in 1998; and the ALA prize in 2001.

He is a member of the French and American PEN Clubs

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

, the Romanian-American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Writers' Union of Romania; he is also an Associate Scholar with the Foreign Policy Research Institute. On March 25, 2005, he was conferred the title of "Citizen of Honor" by the Municipal Council of Timişoara.

Works

• Mic tratat de glorie, Bucharest: Cartea românească, 1973.
• Cântec de trecut Akheronul, Bucharest: Cartea românească, 1975.
• Frost or fear?: reflections on the condition of the Romanian intellectual (translated into English and with introduction by Vladimir Tismăneanu
  Vladimir Tismaneanu
  Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian and American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park...
  
  ), Daphne, Alabama
  Daphne, Alabama
  Daphne is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The city is located along I-10, 11 miles east of Mobile and 150 miles southwest of the state capital of Montgomery. The United States Census 2000 lists the population of the city as 16,581 making...
  
  : Europa Media Inc., 1988. ISBN 0936993502
• Kakistocraţia, Chişinău: Editura ARC, 1998. ISBN 997561051X
• Optional future: selected poems (translated into English by Marcel Cornis-Pope), Bucharest: Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House, 1999. ISBN 9735771934
• Tînărul Ulise: antologie, Bucharest: Polirom
  Polirom
  Polirom or Editura Polirom is a Romanian publishing house with a tradition of publishing classics of international literature and also various titles in the fields of social sciences, such as psychology, sociology and anthropology. The company was founded in February 1995. The first title...
  
  , 2000. ISBN 9736833887
• Absurdistan: o tragedie cu ieşire la mare, Iaşi
  Iasi
  Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
  
  : Polirom, 2006. ISBN 9734602411
• Eu, fiul lor. Dosar de securitate, 2010
• Pisicuţ (Somnografii), 2011.

Prizes

• 1992 – Premiul Special al Uniunii Scriitorilor din România ("Special Prize of the Romanian Writers' Union")
• 2001 – Premiul Adevărul Literar și Artistic (Literary and Artistic Truth Prize)
• 2009 – Premiul Naţional de Poezie „Mihai Eminescu” – Opera Omnia ("Mihai Eminescu National Poetry Prize")

External links

Constantin Ciopraga, "Dorin Tudoran - Singurătate sonoră", Convorbiri Literare, February 2007.

• Dorin Tudoran biography at the Foreign Policy Research Institute