Povestirile unui oras ciudat

As a matter of fact, I am not the greatest fan of gathering the outcome of creative writing workshops into volumes. Some other Faculties of Letters already did that and those books seemed to me rather artificial, if not completely awkward. I, too, have been coordinating creative writing workshops and I wrote about the strategies involved. So I am not a layman.

To my surprise, artificiality wasn't the flaw here. Actually, the more solid argument in favour of this collection is the gorgeous quality of the English used: so versatile, rich, fresh, and flexible! Every text may have been written by native English…speakers. This is astonishing! Secondly, there is maturity in the act of writing. The texts I read don't slip into mawkishness or into teenage, far-fetched coolness. The young authors don't want to be cool, but authentic, exact and efficient. No need of jetty or flowery figures of speech! The classical simplicity with which the common life is rendered enhances the innermost artistical side of this literature. Besides, the approaches and the topics are so varied  apart from other creative writing collections which were variations on a pre-established theme  that the reader encounters life and not makeshift crude experiments.

I heartily congratulate professor Silvia Osman (a poetess herself), the coordinator of this project, and I keep my fingers crossed for the burgeoning writers  sooner or later there will come the moment when they face the pitiless, harsh literary battlefield.
 

Conf. univ. dr. Felix Nicolau