Norman Manea (born July 19, 1936) is a Romanian writer, of Jewish origin, living in the United States, author of short fiction, novels, and essays preoccupied with the holocaust, the daily life in a communist state and exile. He is Francis Flournoy Professor of European Culture and writer in residence at Bard College.His most acclaimed 2003 book The Hooligan’s Return is an original novelistic memoir, encompassing a period of almost 80 years, from the pre-war period, through the Second World War, the communist and post-communist years to the present.Norman Manea has been known and praised as an international important writer since early 1990s, and his work have been translated into more than 20 languages.He has received more than 20 awards, including the 1984 Literary Prize of the Romanian Writer’s Union (withdrawn by the Communist authorities), the 1992 Guggenheim Fellowship Award (USA) the 1992 MacArthur Fellows Award, the 1993 Literary Medal of the New York Public Library, the 2002 Nonino International Literary Prize (Italy), the 2006 election in the Berlin Academy of Art, the 2006 Prix Medicis Etranger (France), the 2007 Order of Cultural Merit by the President of Romania, the 2008 Honorary Degree in literature by the Bucharest and Cluj universities (Romania), the Legion of Honor (France).
Born in Burdujeni-Suceava (Bukovina, Romania), Norman Manea was deported as a child, in 1941, by the Romanian fascist authorities, allied with Nazi Germany, to the concentration camp of Transnistria in the Ukraine with his family and the entire Jewish population of the region. He returned in 1945 to Romania with the surviving members of his family and graduated with high honor the high school (liceu) Stefan cel Mare (Stephan the Great) in his home town Suceava. He studied engineering at the Construction Institute in Bucharest and graduated with master’s degree in hydro-technique in 1959, working afterwards in planning, fieldwork and research. He has devoted himself only to writing since 1974.
Norman Manea’s literary debut took place in Povestea Vorbii (The Tale of Word, 1966), an avant-garde and influential magazine that appeared in the early years of cultural “liberalization” in communist Romania and was suppressed after six issues. Until he was forced into exile (1986) he published in Romania ten volumes of short fiction, essays and novels. His work was an irritant to the authorities because of the implied and overt social-political criticism and he faced a lot of trouble with the censors and the official press. At the same time that sustained efforts were made by the cultural authorities to suppress his work, it had the support and praise of the country’s most important literary critics.After the collapse of the Ceausescu dictatorship, several of his old and new books started to be published in Romania. The publication in the Romanian democratic press of his essays Happy Guilt, appeared in the US (The New Republic, august 1991) on Mircea Eliade and his former fascist connection provoked a big scandal in the entire Romanian press and hysteria in the nationalistic newspapers. Echoes of this scandal can be still be found in some articles of the current Romanian cultural press.Meantime, in the United States and in the European countries, Norman Manea’s writing was received with great acclaim. Over the past two decades he has been proposed as a candidate for the Nobel Prize of Literature by literary and academic personalities and institutions in the United States, Sweden, Romania, Italy and France. Important contemporary writers expressed admiration towards the author’s literary work and his moral stand before after the collapse of communism: the Nobel laureates Heinrich Boll, Gunther Grass, Octavio Paz., Orhan Pamuk, as well as Philip Roth, Claudio Magris, Antonio Tabucchi, E. M. Cioran, Antonio Munoz Molina, Cynthia Ozick, Louis Begley and others.
1979 - Literary Prize of the Bucharest Writers’ Association (Romania)1984 — Literary Prize of the Romanian Writer’s Union (with drawn by the Communist authorities)1987 — DAAD Berliner Kunstler Programm Grant (Germany)1988 — Fulbright Scholarship, Catholic University, Washington D. C. (USA)1989-1992 — International Academy for Scholarship and the Arts Fellowship, Bard College (USA)1992 — Guggenheim Fellowship (USA)1992 — MacArthur Fellows Award (USA)1993 — The National Jewish book Award (USA)1996 — The Marie Syrkin Jerusalem Fellowship in Letters (Israel)1997 — The Bukovina Literary Prize (Romania)2002 — The Nonino International Literary Prize (Italy)2004, 2005 — American Academy Fellowship in Berlin (Germany)2004 — The Napoli Literary Prize for foreign novel (Italy)2005 - Holtzbrinck Prize of the American Academy in Berlin (Germany)2005 — El Regreso del Huligan / The Hooligan’s Return, Best foreign book in Spain2006 — Lux Mundi, the Cultural Award of Radio Romania Cultural2006 — Elected jury member of the International Nonino Prize (Italy)2006 — Finalist, Femina Prize (France)2006 — Prix Medicis Etranger (France)2006 — The Cultural Prize of Romanian International; Television (Romania)2006 — Elected member of the Berlin Academy of Art (Germany)2007 — Finalist, The Latinity Prize by the Association of Latin Countries2007 — Awarded the Order of Cultural Merit (in rank of Commander) by the President of Romania (Romania)2008 — Honorary Degree in Literature, University of Bucharest (Romania)2008 — Honorary Degree in Literature, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj (Romania)2009 — The Literary Award of the Fondation du Judaisme Francais (France)2009 — Finalist of the Literary Prize of Fundacion Principe de Asturias (Spain)2009 — The Observator Cultural life time Award Opera Omnia (Romania)2009 - Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres - Legion of Honor (France)
1969 Noaptea pe latura lunga / Night on the Long Side (short fiction), Editura de stat pentru literatura (The State Publishing House for Literature), Bucharest
1970 Captivi / Captives (a novel), Bucharest, Cartea Romaneasca (The Romanian Book Publishing House), Bucharest
1974 Primele porti / First Gates (short fiction), Albatros Publishing House, Bucharest
1977 Cartea Fiului / Book of the Son (novel), Eminescu Publishing House, Bucharest
1979 Anii de ucenicie ai lui August Prostul / The Apprenticeship Years of Augustus the Fool (documentary novel), Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, Bucharest; 2005, Polirom Publishing House, Iasi
1984 Pe Contur / On the Edge (essays), Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, Bucharest
1986 Plicul negru / The Black Envelope (novel), Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, Bucharest ; 1996, The Cultural Foundation’s Publishing House, Bucharest ; 2003, Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, Bucharest ; 2006 Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, (translated into English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Norwegian, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Mexican)
1997 Despre Clovni: Dictatorul si Artistul / On Clowns: The Dictator and the Artist (essays) Apostrof Publishing House, Cluj ; 2005 Polirom, Iasi, (translated into English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Chinese, Polish, Greek)
2004 Plicuri si portrete / Envelopes and Portraits (essays), Polirom, Iasi
2006 Textul nomad / The Nomad Text (interviews), Hasefer Publishing House, Bucharest
2008 Vorbind pietrei / Talking to a Stone (poem) — accompanied by translations into ten languages, Polirom, Iasi, (translated into English, French, German, Hebrew, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Hungarian, Polish)
2008 Inaintea despartirii / Before Parting (Conversation with Saul Bellow), Polirom, Iasi
2008 Variante la un autoportret / Variationss to a Self-Portrait (short fiction), Polirom, Iasi
