Carmen-Francesca Banciu (born October 25, 1955) is a Romanian novelist and lecturer.

Biography

Born in Lipova,

Arad County Arad County () is an administrative division ( județ) of Romania roughly translated into county in the western part of the country on the border with Hungary, mostly in the region of Crișana and few villages in Banat. The administrative cente ...

, she was the daughter of a high-ranking

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

and government official. Banciu studied church

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

painting and

foreign trade International trade is the exchange of Capital (economics), capital, goods, and Service (economics), services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.) In most countr ...

at schools in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. In 1985, she won the International Short Story Prize of the city of

Arnsberg Arnsberg (; ) is a town in the Hochsauerland county, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg (region), Arnsberg administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Ho ...

, Germany, an achievement which prompted a

publication ban A publication ban is a court order which prohibits the public or media from disseminating certain details of an otherwise public judicial proceeding. In Canada, publication bans are most commonly issued when the safety or reputation of a victim ...

in Romania. In 1990, after the fall of the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

in Romania (the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily within the Eastern Bloc. The Romanian revoluti ...

), Banciu moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and since 1996, she has not only written in

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, but also in German. In addition to writing, she works as a freelance editor and commentator for various news media and regularly teaches seminars on

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

. In 2005, Banciu was writer-in-residence at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

.Rutgers Department of Germanic, Russian and Eastern European Languages
, accessed 24 October 2006

Works

* ''Manual de Întrebări'' ("Manual of Questions"), 1984 * ''Fenster in Flammen'' ("Windows in Flames", 1992 * ''Filuteks Handbuch der Fragen'' ("Filutek's Manual of Questions"), 1995 * ''Vaterflucht'' ("Flight from Father"), 1998 * ''Ein Land voller Helden'' ("A Land Full of Heroes"), 2000 * ''Berlin ist mein Paris'' ("Berlin Is My Paris"), 2002 * ''Deborah'' (radioplay), 2005 * ''Das Lied der traurigen Mutter'', ("The song of the sad mother"), 2007

Awards

* Arnsberg International Short Story Prize (1985) for ''Das strahlende Ghetto'' (trans. "The Beaming Ghetto") * ''Luceafărul'' Literature Prize

References

External links

* ("The Beaming Ghetto") in the ''Brooklyn Rail'' (April 2005)
Carmen-Francesca Banciu on www.rom2.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banciu, Carmen-Francesca 1955 births Living people People from Lipova, Arad Romanian dramatists and playwrights German people of Romanian descent Romanian novelists Romanian women short story writers Romanian short story writers Romanian women novelists Romanian women dramatists and playwrights Romanian expatriates in Germany