Mother's Letters: Pure Caviar (Paperback or Softback)

Ion Monoran is a powerful voice of Romania’s 1980s poetry generation. His poetic legacy continues to take shape even at over thirty years after his passing. Monoran’s biography emerges as the story of a life devoted to poetry but also as a fight for freedom, with his book Dragă poezie (Dear Poetry) (a substantial collection of his work published in 2023, by the prestigious Humanitas publishing house). He was one of the leaders of the anti-communist revolution that began in Timișoara, on December 16, 1989. This small selection of Monoran’s work and the remarkable translations by Marius Surleac and Marc Vincenz, introduces his work to the English-language audience for the first time.

A great poet who wrote poetry with his life, and to keep it from being stolen!
—Marcel Tolcea

A poet with a wild social and civic calling whose literature was never minimized by his activism.
—Claudiu Komartin

Like the Dostoievskian men of Timișoara / one with a burning heart was among them / a beast with the inner force of a grizzly.
—Ruxandra Cesereanu

Born in Petroman Village, Timiş, Romania, Ion Monoran (1953-1993) was a poet and publisher. His first poems were published in 1976 in Forum studenţesc magazine. He lectured at the Pavel Dan literary circle of the Student Culture House in Timișoara, and collaborated and published with Orizont, Amfiteatru, Echinox, Luceafărul literary journals. None of his books were published during his lifetime. Monoran is considered to be one of the most representative poets of the '80s generation, a visionary ahead of his time. He also became a cultural hero of the revolution. In 1990, he was a founding member of Ziarul Timișoara and Societatea Timișoara.Ion Monoran's prizes include the Orizont Poetry Prize (1987), the Nichita Stănescu Prize for Contemporary Poetry (1987), and the Literary Union Debut Prize. He is an Honorary Citizen of the Municipality of Timișoara. In December 2024, Monoran became the first writer nominated posthumously as a member of PEN Romania.In 2019, the first annual Ion Monoran International Poetry Festival took place in Timișoara, Romania. A poetry festival in commemoration of the December Revolution of 1989 that opens a dialogue, every year, including discussions and lectures on contemporary poetry, activism, freedom and, more recently, also awarding The Ion Monoran Prize to an artist who has done and continues to do a great deal for poetry.