Andrei Codrescu

Andrei Codrescu in 2009. Photo by Eduard Koller Photography. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Andrei Codrescu (born December 20, 1946) is a Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio.

Life

Born Andrei Perlmutterin Sibiu, Romania, he published his first poems in the Romanian language under the pen name Andrei Steiu. In 1965 he left the country to escape from the communist regime. After time in Italy, he emigrated 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.

He moved to San Francisco in 1970, and lived on the West Coast for 7 years, 4 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, and actively participating in literary life by writing 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. He has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio’s news program, All Things Considered, since 1983. He has been called “one of our most magical writers” by The New York Times.

In 1981, Codrescu became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009.

In 1989, Codrescu's coverage of the Romanian Revolution of 1989 for National Public Radio and ABC News’ Nightline, was critically acclaimed, and his renewed interest in 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 Romania Radio Cultural award. His books were translated into Romanian by Ioana Avadani, Ioana Ieronim, Carmen Firan, Rodica Grigore, and Lacrimioara Stoie.

He is the editor and founder of the online journal Exquisite Corpse, 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, and is currently married to Laura Cole.

Controversy

On the December 19, 1995, broadcast of All Things Considered, Codrescu reported that some Christians believe in a "rapture" and that 4 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."

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

Recognition

In 1970, his poetry book, License to Carry a Gun, won the "Big Table Award". He is also a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize.

He won the 1995 Peabody Award for the film Road Scholar, an American road saga that he wrote and starred in.

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.

Publications

Poetry

• License to Carry a Gun. Chicago: Big Table, 1970.
• A Serious Morning. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1973.
• Secret Training. San Francisco: Grape Press, 1973.
• The History of the Growth of Heaven. New York: G. Braziller, 1973.
• The Lady Painter. Boston: Four Zoas Press, 1977.
• The Marriage of Insult & Injury. Poems. New York: Cymric Press, 1977.
• For the Love of a Coat. Boston: Four Zoas Press, 1978.
• Necrocorrida. Los Angeles, CA: Panjandrum Press, 1980.
• Diapers on the Snow. Ann Arbor, MI: Crowfoot Press, 1981.
• Selected Poems, 1970-1980. New York: Sun, 1983.
• Comrade Past and Mister Present: New poems and a journal. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1986.
• Belligerence: New poems. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1991.
• Alien Candor: Selected poems, 1970-1995. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow, 1996.
• Poezii Alese / Selected Poetry (bi-lingual, English & Romanian). Bucharest: Paralela 45, 2000.
• It Was Today: New poems. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2003.
• Submarinul iertat, (with Ruxandra Cesereanu) (long poem), Timişoara, Romania: Editura Brumar, 2007.
  • translated by Codrescu as The Forgiven Submarine. Boston: Black Widow Press, 2009.
• Jealous Witness: Poems. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2008.
• So Recently Rent a World: New and selected poems, 1968-2012. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2012.

Novels

• Aggressive Hospitality: A story. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1990.
• The Repentance of Lorraine. New York: Masquerade, 1993.
• The Blood Countess. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995; Dell, 1996.
• Messiah: A novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
• Casanova in Bohemia. New York: Free Press, 2002.
• Wakefield. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2004.

Short fiction

• Why I Can't Talk on the Telephone: Stories. San Francisco: Kingdum Kome Press, 1971.
• Monsieur Teste in America, and other stories of fiction. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1987.
• A Bar in Brooklyn: Novellas and stories, 1970-1978. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow, 1999.
• Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Non-fiction

• The Life and Times of an Involuntary Genius. New York: G. Braziller, 1975; New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1987.
• In America's Shoes. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1983.
• The Hole in the Flag: a Romanian exile's story of return and revolution. New York: Morrow, 1991.
• Road Scholar: Coast to coast late in the century (photos by David Graham). New York: Hyperion, 1993.
• Ay, Cuba! A socio-erotic journey (photos by David Graham). New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999; New York: Picador, 2001.
• An Involuntary Genius in America’s Shoes (and What Happened Afterwards) (re-issue of “The Life & Times of an Involuntary Genius,” 1976, and “In America’s Shoes,” 1983, with new forward and coda-essay). Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 2001.
• The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin play chess. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
• ''The Poetry Lesson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
• ``Bibliodeath: My archives with life in footnotes. Austin, TX: Antibookclub, 2012.

Essays

• A Craving for Swan. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1986.
• Raised by Puppets, Only to Be Killed by Research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.
• The Disappearance of the Outside: A manifesto for escape. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1990.
• The Muse Is Always Half-Dressed in New Orleans, and other essays. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995; New York: Picador, 1996.
• Zombification: Stories from National Public Radio. New York: St. Martin's, 1995; New York: Picador, 1996.
• The Dog with the Chip in his Neck: Essays from NPR and elsewhere. New York: St. Martin's, 1996.
• Hail Babylon! Looking for the American City at the End of the Millenium. New York: St. Martin's, 1998.
• The Devil Never Sleeps, and other essays. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.
• New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty years of writing from the city. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006.

Translated

• Lucian Blaga, At the Court of Yearning. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1989.

Edited

• American Poetry Since 1970: Up late. New York: Four Walls, Eight Windows. 1988.
• The Stiffest of the Corpses: an Exquisite Corpse Reader, 1983-1990. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1990.
• American Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century (edited with Laura Rosenthal). New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1996.
• 'Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse reader 1988-1998. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow.
  • Volume One: Poetry and essays, 1999
  • Volume Two, Fictions, Travels, and Translations, 2000.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

References

• Olson, Kirby. Andrei Codrescu and the Myth of America. McFarland Press, 2006. A book-length study of Andrei Codrescu and his work. Includes five interviews with Codrescu and a scholarly chapter by a Romanian professor about Codrescu from the Romanian perspective.

External links

Template:Sister

Poems

• Three poems by Andrei Codrescu at 3 a.m.
• Andrei Codrescu b. 1946 at the Poetry Foundation

Audio / video

• Video: Andrei Codrescu - The Posthuman DADA Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess, presentation in Portland, Oregon, on April 30, 2009, from the recent book tour.
• Andrei Codrescu at YouTube

About

• Andrei Codrescu at NPR
• Andrei Codrescu in the Houghton Mifflin Chronology of U.S. Literature
• Andrei Codrescu Official website
• "Random Access Memories: The poetry of Andrei Codrescu" at the Best American Poetry weblog.
• An interview with Andre Codrescu at Bookslut
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Andrei Codrescu from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Etc.

• Exquisite Corpse, Codrescu's online literary magazine