Andrei Codrescu

Codrescu’s father was an ethnic Romanian engineer; his mother was a non-practicing Jew. Their son was informed of his Jewish background at age 13.[2] 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[3]) to the Romanian communist regime for each of them.[4][5] 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".[6][7] 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 was a regular commentator on National Public Radio's news program, All Things Considered, from 1983 until 2016.[8] 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.[9] 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".[10] 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,[11] 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,[12] University of Iowa Libraries, New Orleans Historical Society, and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

His first wife was Aurelia Munteanu.[13] His second wife was Alice Henderson,[3] the mother of his two sons, Lucian Codrescu[14] and Tristan Codrescu.[15] His third wife, Laura Rosenthal[16] (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[17]
• 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

• Carmen Firan; Paul Doru Mugur, eds. (2006). Born in Utopia (An Anthology of Romanian Modern and Contemporary Poetry). Talisman House Publishers. ISBN 978-1584980506.
• Daniel Ioniță, ed. (2017). Testament - Anthology of Romanian Verse - American Edition. Australian-Romanian Academy Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9953502-0-5.
• Daniel Ioniță, ed. (2019). Testament - 400 Years of Romanian Poetry - 400 de ani de poezie românească. Editura Minerva. ISBN 978-973-21-1070-6.
• Daniel Ioniță, ed. (2020). Romanian Poetry from its Origins to the Present. Australian-Romanian Academy Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9953502-8-1.

Codrescu was a commentator for NPR,[62] and 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."[63]

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."[64]

• Vănoagă, Cristina-Matilda, ed. (2019). Proza lui Andrei Codrescu. Spații între realitate și imaginar. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Gheo, Radu Pavel (2017). Străin în țară străină: Literatura română şi graniţa identitară în proza Hertei Müller şi a lui Andrei Codrescu. Archived from the original on November 1, 2021. Retrieved May 7, 2020. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Strugaru, Oana (2013). Exilul ca mod de existenţă. Andrei Codrescu în spaţiul textual al dezrădăcinări. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Lazu, Robert (2005). Miracol si catastrofa. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

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" Archived May 31, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, 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.