Book Launch: TWENTY YEARS AFTER THE FALL.
Émigré and Immigrant Writers Reflect

Featured guests: Claudia Serea, Andrey Gritsman, Daniela Petrova, John Smelcer, Richard Milazzo, Valery Oişteanu, and anthology editor Andrei Guruianu

In this new anthology from Parlor City Press, Andrei Guruianu has edited the works of thirty-three writers who explore subjects as varied as immigration, abortion, the role of art, home and homeland, diversity, and assimilation. They take on the post-communist psychological trappings of collective, national traumas, redefining themselves in the face of domestic hardships, adopted cultures and languages. This collection of stories, poems, and memoirs, in the voices of doctors, teachers, students, sculptors, and journalists, bears witness to the damage wrought by oppressive regimes, while also testifying to an enduring and resilient human spirit.   

CONTRIBUTORS: Natalia Andrievskikh, Carmen-Francesca Banciu, Stefan Bolea, Mircea Catarescu, Karel Cispic, Andrei Codrescu, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Albert Fayngold, Carmen Firan, Andrey Gritsman, Andrei Guruianu, Eva Hoffman, Ioana Ieronim, Adrian Ionita, Norman Manea, Diana Manole, Irina Mashinski, Richard Milazzo, Valzhyna Mort, Raluca Musat, Valery Oisteanu, Ileana Alexandra Orlich, Daniela Petrova, D. R. Popa, Nicolae Prelipceanu, Stella Vinitchi Radulescu, Ksenia Rychtycka, Adrian Sangeorzan, Claudia Serea, Charles Simic, John Smelcer, Chris Tanasescu, Gene Tanta.

This "Retrospective in Poetry and Prose" is presented by the RCINY and will lead off the second season of an exciting series of book launches that began last year, all to take place at the RCINY Gallery/Cărtureşti Book Exhibition. Much like its original counterpart in Bucharest, Cărtureşti is an eclectic combination of books, music, art on display and tea, creating a unique gateway to Romanian literature in particular, and culture in general.

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). He teaches at Ithaca College and Binghamton University, where he is also pursuing a Ph.D. in English with a focus in creative writing. In 2009 he worked as guest editor of the Yellow Medicine Review and edited the anthology Twenty Years After the Fall: The Fall of the Iron Curtain—A Retrospective in Poetry and Prose. Guruianu is also the founder of the literary journal The Broome Review and currently serves as the Broome County, NY Poet Laureate 2009-2010.