Andrei Codrescu

Andrei Codrescu (Romanian pronunciation: [anˈdrej koˈdresku]; born December 20, 1946) is a Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio.[1] He is the winner of the Peabody Award for his film Road Scholar and the Ovid Prize for poetry. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009.

Andrei Codrescu
Codrescu in 2009
Born (1946-12-20) December 20, 1946
Romania
OccupationNovelist, poet, essayist, journalist, screenwriter, commentator
GenrePoetry, screenwriting, journalism, fiction, non-fiction

Biography

Codrescu published his first poems in Romanian under the pen name Andrei Steiu. In 1965 he and his mother, a photographer and printer, were able to leave Romania after Israel paid US$2,000 (or US$10,000, according to other sources[2]) to the Romanian communist regime for each of them.[3][4] After some time in Italy, they moved to the United States in 1966, and settled in Detroit, where he became a regular at John Sinclair's Artists and Writers' Workshop. A year later, he moved to New York, where he became part of the literary scene on the Lower East Side. There he met Allen Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan, and Anne Waldman, and published his first poems in English.

In 1970, his poetry book, License to Carry a Gun, won the "Big Table Poetry Award".[5][6] He moved to San Francisco in 1970, and lived on the West Coast for seven years, four of those in Monte Rio, a Sonoma County town on the Russian River. He also lived in Baltimore (where he taught at Johns Hopkins University), New Orleans and Baton Rouge, publishing a book every year. During this time he wrote poetry, stories, essays and reviews for many publications, including The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Harper's, and the Paris Review. He had regular columns in The Baltimore Sun, the City Paper, Architecture, Funny Times, Gambit Weekly, and Neon.

Codrescu has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio's news program, All Things Considered, since 1983. He won the 1995 Peabody Award for the film Road Scholar, an American road movie that he wrote and starred in, and is a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize.[7] His book So Recently a World: Selected Poems, 1968-2016 was a National Book Award nominee.

In 1989, Codrescu covered the Romanian Revolution of 1989 for National Public Radio and ABC News's Nightline. His renewed interest in the Romanian language and literature led to new work written in Romanian, including Miracle and Catastrophe, a book-length interview conducted by the theologian Robert Lazu, and The Forgiven Submarine, an epic poem written in collaboration with poet Ruxandra Cesereanu, which won the 2008 Radio România Cultural award. His books have been translated into Romanian by Ioana Avadani, Ioana Ieronim, Carmen Firan, Rodica Grigore, and Lacrimioara Stoie. In 2002 Codrescu returned to Romania with a PBS Frontline World video crew to "take the temperature" of his homeland and produced the story, "My Old Haunts".[8] In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious international Ovidius Prize (also known as the Ovid Prize), previous winners of which include Mario Vargas Llosa, Amos Oz, and Orhan Pamuk.

In 1981, Codrescu became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He is the editor and founder of the online journal Exquisite Corpse,[9] a journal of "books and ideas". He reigned as King of the Krewe du Vieux for the 2002 New Orleans Mardi Gras season. He has two children, Lucian and Tristan, from his marriage to Alice Henderson. He is currently married to Laura Cole Rosenthal.

Codrescu's archives and much of his personal library are now part of the Louisiana State University Libraries Special Collections,[10] Iowa State University library, New Orleans Historical Society, and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Family

His first wife was Aurelia Munteanu,[11] and his second wife was Alice Henderson,[2] the mother of his two sons, Lucian Codrescu[12] and Tristan Codrescu.[13] His third wife, Laura Rosenthal[14] (née Cole), was an editor at Exquisite Corpse: a Journal of Books & Ideas and coeditor of three poetry anthologies.

Awards and honors

Works

Books
  • 2019: no time like now: Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press)[15]
  • 2017: Submarinul Iertat by Ruxandra Cesereanu & Andrei Codrescu Anniversary Edition with Epistolary (Bucharest: Editura Charmades)[16]
  • 2016: The Art of Forgetting: new poems, translated into Romanian by Alexandru Oprescu, (Editura Caiete Silvane)[17]
  • 2013: Bibliodeath: My Archives (With Life in Footnotes) (ANTIBOOKCLUB, ISBN 978-0-9838-6833-0)[18]
  • 2013: So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems, translated into Swedish by Dan Shafran (Coffee House Press)[19]
  • 2011: Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments (Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-1-4008-3801-1)[20]
  • 2010: The Poetry Lesson (Princeton University Press)[21]
  • 2009: The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess (Princeton University Press)[22]
  • 2008: Jealous Witness: New Poems (with a CD by the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars) (Coffee House Press)[23]
  • 2007: Submarinul iertat, with Ruxandra Cesereanu, Timişoara, Romania: Editura Brumar; translated by Andrei Codrescu, as The Forgiven Submarine, Black Widow Press, 2009.[24]
  • 2007: Femeia neagră a unui culcuş de hoţi, Bucharest: Editura Vinea.[25]
  • 2006: New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writing from the City, New York and Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books.[26]
  • 2006: Miracol şi catastrofă: Dialogues in Cyberspace with Robert Lazu, Timişoara, Romania: Editura Hartman.
  • 2005: Instrumentul negru. Poezii, 1965-1968, (Editura Scrisul Romanesc)[27]
  • 2004: Scandal of Genius: How Salvador Dali Smuggled Baudelaire into the Science Fair (Dali Museum)[28]
  • 2004: Wakefield: a novel, New York and Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books.[29]
  • 2003: It Was Today: New Poems Minneapolis: Coffee House Press[30]
  • 2002: Casanova in Bohemia, a novel New York: The Free Press[31]
  • 2001: An Involuntary Genius in America’s Shoes (and What Happened Afterwards), Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, Re-issue of The Life & Times of an Involuntary Genius, 1976, and In America's Shoes, 1983, with new forward and coda-essay.[32]
  • 2000: The Devil Never Sleeps & Other Essays. New York: St. Martin's Press. Essays.[33]
  • 2000: Poezii alese/Selected Poetry, bi-lingual edition, English and Romanian Bucharest: Editura Paralela 45.[34]
  • 1999: A Bar in Brooklyn: Novellas & Stories, 1970-1978 Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press.[35]
  • 1999: Messiah, a novel. New York: Simon & Schuster.[36]
  • 1999: Hail Babylon! Looking for the American City at the End of the Millennium. New York: St. Martin's Press 1999, New York and London: Picador, 1999. Essays.[37]
  • 1999: Ay, Cuba! A Socio-Erotic Journey. With photographs by David Graham. New York: St. Martin's Press, New York and London: Picador. Travel/Essay.[38]
  • 1997: The Dog With the Chip in His Neck: Essays from NPR & Elsewhere. New York: St. Martin's Press, New York and London: Picador.[39]
  • 1996: Alien Candor: Selected Poems, 1970-1995, Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press.[40]
  • 1995: The Muse Is Always Half-Dressed in New Orleans. New York: St. Martin's Press. New York and London: Picador, 1996. Essays.[41]
  • 1995: The Blood Countess. New York: Simon & Schuster. New York: Dell.[42]
  • 1995: Zombification: Essays from NPR. New York: St. Martin's Press. New York and London: Picador.[43]
  • 1994: The Repentance of Lorraine, New York: Rhinoceros Books. Reprint with new introduction of 1976 Pocketbooks edition by Ames Claire)[44]
  • 1993: Belligerence, Minneapolis: Coffee House Press.[45]
  • 1993: Road Scholar: Coast to Coast Late in the Century, with photographs by David Graham. A journal of the making of the movie Road Scholar. New York: Hyperion.[46]
  • 1991: The Hole in the Flag: a Romanian Exile's Story of Return and Revolution (New York: Morrow. New York: Avon.[47]
  • 1991: Comrade Past and Mister Present, Minneapolis: Coffee House Press.[48]
  • 1990: The Disappearance of the Outside: a Manifesto for Escape. Boston: Addison-Wesley Co.1990; reissued by Ruminator Press, 2001[49]
  • 1988: A Craving for Swan, Columbus: Ohio State University Press.[50]
  • 1987: Monsieur Teste in America & Other Instances of Realism, Minneapolis: Coffee House Press.[51]
  • 1987: Raised by Puppets Only to Be Killed by Research, Boston: Addison-Wesley.[52]
  • 1983: In America’s Shoes, San Francisco: City Lights.[53]
  • 1983: Selected Poems 1970-1980, New York: Sun Books.[54]
  • 1982: Necrocorrida. San Francisco: Panjandrum Books.[55]
  • 1979: The Lady Painter, Boston: Four Zoas Press.[56]
  • 1978: For the Love of a Coat, Boston: Four Zoas Press.[57]
  • 1975: The Life & Times of an Involuntary Genius. New York: George Braziller.[58]
  • 1974: The Marriage of Insult & Injury. Woodstock: Cymric Press.[59]
  • 1973: The History of the Growth of Heaven. New York: George Braziller.[60]
  • 1973: A Serious Morning. Santa Barbara: Capra Press.[61]
  • 1971: Why I Can’t Talk on the Telephone, San Francisco: kingdom kum press.[62]
  • 1970: License to Carry a Gun. Big Table Poetry Award. Chicago: Big Table/Follet. reprinted, Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University Press.[63]

Editor/founder
  • 1983-1997 Exquisite Corpse: a Journal of Books and Ideas
  • 1997-2011 corpse.org, the online version
  • 2009-2011: The Exquisite Corpse Annual[64]

Anthologies edited
  • 2019: Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn (Princeton University Press)[65]
  • 2000: Thus Spake the Corpse: an Exquisite Corpse Reader 1988-1998. Volume Two, Fictions, Travels, and Translations. Co-edited with Laura Rosenthal, Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press.[66]
  • 1999: Thus Spake the Corpse: an Exquisite Corpse Reader 1988-1998. Volume One, Poetry and Essays. Co-edited with Laura Rosenthal, Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press.[67]
  • 1996: American Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century. Co-edited with Laura Rosenthal, New York: 4 Walls/8 Windows Press.
  • 1988: American Poetry Since 1970: Up Late. New York: 4 Walls/8 Windows Press[68].
  • 1990: The Stiffest of the Corpse: an Exquisite Corpse Reader, 1983-1990. San Francisco: City Lights Books.[69]

As translator
  • 2019: In Praise of Sleep: Selected Poems of Lucian Blaga (Commonwealth Books, Black Widow)[70]
  • 1989: At the Court of Yearning: Poems by Lucian Blaga, translation. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.[71]

Controversial comments

On the December 19, 1995, broadcast of All Things Considered, Codrescu reported that some Christians believe in a "rapture" and four million believers will ascend to Heaven immediately. He continued, "The evaporation of 4 million who believe this crap would leave the world an instantly better place."[72]

NPR subsequently apologized for Codrescu's comments, saying, "Those remarks offended listeners and crossed a line of taste and tolerance that we should have defended with greater vigilance."[73][74]

Further reading
gollark: Android is really a pretty terrible platform if you go off the "happy path" of Google services everywhere, Play Store apps, shiny recent phones which actually get software updates, and not wanting to tweak anything beyond, well, wallpapers.
gollark: By 2030 phone backs will just be entirely cameras.
gollark: <@151391317740486657> Please explain thyself.
gollark: What's wrong with it?
gollark: Maybe dimensional doors rifts?

References
  1. John J. O'Connor (March 20, 1995). "Television Review; Romanian Kerouac Is Back". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-18.
  2. Leydon, Joe (August 8, 1993). "Cover Story: Road Trip! : Andrei Codrescu is your basic droll Transylvanian poet and social commentator who was given a '68 Caddy and a mission: Find America and its soul". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  3. "Diaspora in direct" (in Romanian). Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  4. "A Refugee Among Refugees". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  5. Big Table Poetry Award
  6. York, Carnegie Corporation of New. "Andrei Codrescu". Carnegie Corporation of New York. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  7. , Bruce Allen. (Aug. 12, 1983) "Pushcart Anthology review". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  8. PBS Frontline World "My Old Haunts" Oct. 31, 2002
  9. "Exquisite Corpse - Journal of Letters and Life". corpse.org. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  10. LSU Libraries Special Collections website
  11. Pricop, Constantin. "Interviu cu Andrei Codrescu - "Sensul diferentei a fost cu mine de cind m-am ascut"" (in Romanian). memoria.ro. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  12. Lucian Codrescu
  13. Tristan Codrescu
  14. Laura Rosenthal
  15. "No Time Like Now". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  16. "Submarinul Iertat Anniversary Edition". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  17. "The Art of Forgetting: new poems". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  18. "Bibliodeath: My Archives (with Life in Footnotes)". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  19. "So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  20. "Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  21. "The Poetry Lesson". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  22. "The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  23. "Jealous Witness". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  24. "The Forgiven Submarine/Submarinul Iertat". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  25. "Femeia neagra a unui cucus de hoti". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  26. "New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writing from the City". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  27. "Instrumentul Negru: Poezii 1965-1968". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  28. "Scandal of Genius: How Salvador Dali Smuggled Baudelaire into the Science Fair". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  29. "Wakefield: a novel". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  30. "It Was Today: New Poems". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  31. "Casanova in Bohemia/Casanova in Boemia". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  32. "An Involuntary Genius in America's Shoes (and What Happened Afterwards)". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  33. "The Devil Never Sleeps & Other Essays". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  34. "Selected Poetry/Poezii Alese". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  35. "A Bar in Brooklyn: Novellas & Stories, 1970-1978". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  36. "Messiah, a novel". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  37. "Hail Babylon! In Search of the American City at the End of the Millennium". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  38. "Ay, Cuba!". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  39. "The Dog With the Chip in His Neck: Essays from NPR & Elsewhere". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  40. "Alien Candor: Selected Poems, 1970-1995". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  41. "The Muse Is Always Half-Dressed in New Orleans: and Other Essays". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  42. "The Blood Countess, a novel". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  43. "Zombification". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  44. "The Repentance of Lorraine". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  45. "Belligerence, poems". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  46. "Road Scholar: Coast to Coast Late in the Century". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  47. "The Hole in the Flag: a Romanian Exile's Story of Return and Revolution". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  48. "Comrade Past & Mister Present". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  49. "The Disappearance of the Outside: a Manifesto for Escape". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  50. "A Craving for Swan". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  51. "Monsieur Teste in America & Other Instances of Realism, stories". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  52. "Raised by Puppets Only to Be Killed by Research". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  53. "In America's Shoes". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  54. "Selected Poems 1970-1980". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  55. "Necrocorrida". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  56. "The Lady Painter". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  57. "For the Love of a Coat". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  58. "The Life & Times of an Involuntary Genius". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  59. "The Marriage of Insult and Injury". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  60. "The HISTORY of the GROWTH of HEAVEN". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  61. "A Serious Morning". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  62. "Why I Can't Talk on the Telephone". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  63. "license to carry a gun". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  64. Exquisite Corpse Annual
  65. "Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn". Princeton University Press. 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  66. "Book on Amazon". amazon.com. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  67. "Book on Amazon".
  68. "eBook American poetry since 1970: Up late download". popular world e-books - carnevalemanfredonia.it. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  69. "Book on Amazon". amazon.com. Retrieved 2020-05-11.
  70. "In Praise of Sleep". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  71. "At the Court of Yearning: Poems by Lucian Blaga". Andrei Codrescu. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  72. "NPR apologizes for Codrescu's remark that 'crossed a line of tolerance'". Current. Washington, D.C. 1996-01-15.
  73. "NPR replies to 40,000 complaints about Codrescu broadcast". Current. Washington, D.C. 1996-05-27.
  74. "Andrei Codrescu". NPR. 2010. Archived from the original on 26 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-22.
  75. (in Romanian) https://edituratracusarte.ro/2019/10/16/proza-lui-andrei-codrescu-spatii-intre-realitate-si-imaginar-de-cristina-matilda-vanoaga/. Retrieved 2020-05-07. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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