Andrei Codrescu

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.

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.

• MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English, Louisiana State University
• Peabody Award for Road Scholar
• Ovid Prize
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for poetry; editing; radio
• Big Table Poetry Award
• Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Excellence in Travel Journalism
• Towson State University Literature Prize
• General Electric Foundation Poetry Prize
• ACLU Freedom of Speech Award; Mayor's Arts Award, New Orleans
• Literature Prize of the Romanian Cultural Foundation, Bucharest

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]

• Vanoaga, Cristina-Matilda (2019). Proza lui Andrei Codrescu[75]. Spații între realitate și imaginar . Tracus Arte.
• Gheo, Radu Pavel (2017). Străin în țară străină: Literatura română şi graniţa identitară în proza Hertei Müller şi a lui Andrei Codrescu. Editura Universitatii de Vest.
• Strugaru, Oana (2013). Exilul ca mod de existenţă. Andrei Codrescu în spaţiul textual al dezrădăcinări. Editura Muzeul Literaturii Romane
• Olson, Kirby (2006). Andrei Codrescu and the Myth of America. McFarland Press. ISBN 9780786491438.
• Lazu, Robert (2005). Miracol si catastrofa. Hartmann

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Andrei Codrescu

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andrei Codrescu.

• Andrei Codrescu's webpage
• Exquisite Corpse, Codrescu's online literary magazine
• "Andrei Codrescu", NPR Biography
• 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
• Voices on Antisemitism - Interview with Andrei Codrescu from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Andrei Codrescu is a regular contributor to Mineshaft magazine.