Dorin Tudoran (born June 30, 1945) is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n poet,

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, and

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

. A resident of the United States since 1985, he has authored more than fifteen books of poetry, essays, and interviews.

Biography

Early life

Born in

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

, he attended the Mihai Viteazul High School 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 ...

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

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

, obtaining a B.A. degree in 1968. Tudoran made his debut in 1973 with a volume of poetry, ''Mic tratat de glorie''. He was an editor at '' Flacăra'' (1973–1974) and '' Luceafărul'' (1974–1980). From 1977 to 1981, he belonged to the ruling council of the

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 Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The Writers' Union of Romania was created by the communist regime by takin ...

. In March 1982, he resigned from the

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 ...

(an extremely rare act at the time). András Bozóki, ''Intellectuals and Politics in Central Europe'', New York:

Central European University Press Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, 1999. On April 7, 1984, Tudoran asked to emigrate from

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania (, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 (see Revolutions of 1989). From 1947 to 1965, the state was ...

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

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

. After being threatened with legal proceedings, he started a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...

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 are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

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 (November 23, 1925 – November 21, 2006) was a Romanian priest and dissident. He was born in Mahmudia, Tulcea County. Beginning with his teens, Calciu-Dumitreasa was involved in the activity of the fascist Iron G ...

In the United States

In the United States, Tudoran founded and ran two magazines, ''Agora'' (funded by the

Foreign Policy Research Institute The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is an American think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that conducts research on geopolitics, international relations, and international security in the various regions of the world and on eth ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 1987–1992) and ''Meridian'' (

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

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

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

. He was also a guest lecturer at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

(1986), and a research fellow at

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily ...

(1987).Biography
at IFES He then started working for the International Foundation for Election Systems (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'', ''20 Minutes'',

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, ABC,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France, for international English-speaking readers. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' starting in 1967, but its ...

'', ''

Partisan Review ''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a left-wing small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affi ...

'', ''

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's International Forum for Democratic Studies. It covers the study of democracy, democratic regi ...

'', ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American Conservatism, conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on Politics of the United States, national politics. Its broadsheet daily edit ...

'', '' Orbis'', ''

The Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven an ...

'', ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'',

Index on Censorship Index on Censorship is an organisation campaigning for freedom of expression. It produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association wit ...

, ''

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,Tatyana ShvetsovaAfter word to the epoch of Nikita Khrushchev PAUL GRAY. THE SEVEN D ...

'',

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the State media, state-owned international radio news network of France. With 59.5 million listeners in 2022, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world ...

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, ARD-Munich, VPRO-Amsterdam, and

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

Back to Romania

After the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

of 1989, Tudoran returned to Romania in 1990 as an envoy of

IFES The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is an international, non-profit organisation founded in 1987. Based in Arlington, Virginia, United States, the organization assists and supports elections and electoral stakeholders. Sin ...

; he later worked as country director for the IFES office in

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

. He helped launch two

Non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

s in the region—CENTRAS (Romania) an
ADEPT
Moldova)—and serves on their boards of directors. In recent years, Tudoran was an editorialist for ''

Jurnalul Național ''Jurnalul Național'' is a Romanian newspaper, part of the INTACT Media Group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular television station Antena 1. The newspaper was launched in 1993. Its headquarters is in Bucharest Buchares ...

''. 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 (; born September 25, 1946), also known as ''"Varanul"'', lit. 'the Monitor lizard', or "Felix Voiculescu", is a Romanian politician and businessman. He is the founder and former president of the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), la ...

, for his past association with the

Securitate The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...

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

Ziua ''Ziua'' ('', The Day'') 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 , eventually becoming foreign-owned ...

''. A part of Tudoran's Securitate file was published in Romania in 2010 under the title ''Eu, fiul lor'' (English: ''I, Their Son''), just around 500 pages among the nearly 10,000 pages in his file found in the

archives.Gabriela Glăvan, "Infernal Archives. The Securitate Files on Writers." ''Philologica Jassyensia'' XV:1 (2019) pp. 157-163. https://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/XV_1_Glavan.pdf

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. In 2020, in honor of his 75 birthday,

Romanian President The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

Klaus Iohannis Klaus Werner Iohannis (; ; born 13 June 1959) is a Romanian politician, physicist, and former teacher who served as the fifth president of Romania from 2014 until his resignation in 2025. Prior to entering Politics of Romania, national politics, ...

awarded him the

Order of the Star of Romania The Order of the Star of Romania (Romanian: ''Ordinul Steaua României'') is Romania's highest civil Order and second highest State decoration after the Order of Michael the Brave. It is the oldest Order of Romania. It is awarded by the Preside ...

, Knight rank.Comunicat de presă - Nr. 178 Data: 30.06.2020 - Decret de decorare semnat de Președintele României, domnul Klaus Iohannis - Departamentul Comunicare Public He is a member of the French and American PEN Clubs, 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 Timișoara."Cetățeni de onoare ai Timișoarei"
Timișoara City Hall, July 2005

Works

* ''Mic tratat de glorie'', Bucharest:

Cartea Românească Cartea Românească ("The Romanian Book") is a publishing house in Bucharest, Romania, founded in 1919. Disestablished by the communist regime in 1948, it was restored under later communism, in 1970, when it functioned as the official imprint of t ...

, 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),

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 170 miles southwest of the state capital of Montgomery. The 2020 United Sta ...

: Europa Media Inc., 1988. * ''Kakistocrația'', Chișinău: Editura ARC, 1998. * ''Optional future: selected poems'' (translated into English by Marcel Cornis-Pope), Bucharest: Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House, 1999. * ''Tînărul Ulise: antologie'', Bucharest: Polirom, 2000. * ''Absurdistan: o tragedie cu ieșire la mare'',

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

: Polirom, 2006. * ''Eu, fiul lor. Dosar de securitate'', 2010 * ''Pisicuț (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 Național de Poezie "Mihai Eminescu" – Opera Omnia'' ("Mihai Eminescu National Poetry Prize")

References

External links

* Constantin Ciopraga
"Dorin Tudoran - Singurătate sonoră"
'' Convorbiri Literare'', February 2007.
Dorin Tudoran biography
at the Foreign Policy Research Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Tudoran, Dorin 1945 births Catholic University of America faculty American magazine editors American public radio personalities Living people Writers from Timișoara 20th-century Romanian poets Romanian male poets Romanian magazine editors Romanian dissidents Romanian male bloggers Romanian expatriates in the United States Romanian Communist Party politicians University of Bucharest alumni Catholic University of America people Romanian male essayists 20th-century Romanian essayists 20th-century Romanian male writers Knights of the Order of the Star of Romania Mihai Viteazul National College (Bucharest) alumni