Andrei Guruianu is a Romanian-born writer living in Vestal, New York. He is the author of three previous collections of poetry: Front Porch World View (Main Street Rag, 2009), Days When I Saw the Horizon Bleed (FootHills Publishing, 2006), and It Was Like That Once (Pudding House, 2008).

A powerhouse saxophonist and a consummate showman Mr. Harding is considered by the critics as “the new voice on baritone saxophone, the carrier of the great legacy of Harry Carney, Pepper Adams and Hamiet Bluiett”.

Ms. Hasnas'  (b. 1954) compositions are mostly chamber pieces for a wide range of instruments such as string quartet, trio for oboe, piano and cello and quintet for piano, cello, violin, viola and clarinet.

Marianne Hirsch was born in Romania and immigrated to the United States with her parents in 1962. For the last two decades, she has been writing about cultural memory, particularly about the inherited memory of the Second World War and the Holocaust.

A freelance journalist, Mr. Joe Lauria has covered the UN for sixteen years, including for The Boston Globe, The Johannesburg Star, The Montreal Gazette and other foreign newspapers.  

In his home town of Bucharest, Romania, Petre Inspirescu aka Pedro has long been a pivotal figure alongside his frequent accomplices Raresh and Rhadoo.

Vera Ion graduated in 2007 from the Theatre Directing Department of the National University of Theatre and Film (UNATC) in Bucharest. She is also author of poetry and plays.

Ioana Ieronim was born in 1947, worked as an editor for many years, and became a diplomat in 1992, serving as Cultural Counsellor in the Romanian Embassy in Washington until 1996, and then as the Fulbright programme director in Bucharest.

IRLO (Laurentiu Alexandrescu) is well known across Romania for his “astonished worm” (viermu), an unmistakable trace and the expression of constant joy in discovering the world. Another distinctive mark is IRLO’s use of text – colliding invented words and syntagmas, ironical or deadly serious.

Radu Jude was born in Bucharest. He directed the short films Wrestling (03), The Black Sea (04), The Tube with a Hat (06), In the Morning (07) and Alexandra (07). He won the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award in 2008. The Happiest Girl in the World (09) is his first feature film.