I hope everyone will have the opportunity to read the amazing poems within, I cannot wait to get my copy! After all, life is about learning and it is also about love. Someone once said “You’re most alive when you love”(was it Rilke?) and I believe him. We love, and we also learn to forgive, move forward and love again.
Each month Visual Verse posts an image an invites writers to send their thoughts inspired by it. I wrote this poem inspired by the image for this month (the one above). My poem can be found on page 94 in the Visual Verse Anthology, Vol.9, Chapter 6.
Dust and mud cover cold fingers, Forging symbols, That create a civilization of which all of us are victims.
The waters turn red, From the blood of those trying to escape the bondage of chains, But how can they fight themselves free, When the other side of the swim means drowning?
I am here to speak to the ones that still have a soul: Be strong, They cannot seal the horizon, We will all be what we’re destined.
I no longer tremble; I no longer fear. I am no one, and I am everyone. Together we swell the numbers of those bearing the burdens, And they no longer crush us.
Out of the spirit of love, We burn incense to clear away the hate, And manage to escape it.
What now it’s red will turn into spring. There will be flowers, A landscape ennobled by the ones who hoped, By those who ceaselessly believed….
My poetry book “Love poems: insights into the complicated mystery of love” is available on Amazon. You can get it here. Please write a review if you get around it. I would really appreciate it.
I have recently realized an interview with Alina Costache, Niculescu Publishing House Bucharest, about my book “Under the Iron Curtain” that just came out this July 2021, in Romania. I have plans to publish this book in english version. I am not sure if youtube provides subtitles, because the interview is in Romanian language, but the link for it is below.
Va invit sa urmariti un interview realizat impreuna cu Alina Costache, Editura Niculescu Bucuresti, despre cartea “Sub Cortina de Fier” care a aparut in luna iunie a acestui an in limba romana. Cartea o puteti achizitiona de la librariile din tara, sau de pe site-ul Editurii Niculescu.
The pandemic has been unkind to our world but has also offered more time to ponder on different aspects of our lives and more time to write. Because I was able to work from home, I finished writing my first novel, “Under the Iron Curtain” which has now been published in Romanian edition, by Niculescu Oxford Publishing House, Bucharest in July 2021.
The novel presents a fictionalized account of the last 3 years of Ceausescu’s regime in Romania, 1986-1989, ending with the fall of the Iron Curtain. It follows a family, as it struggles living in a world led by a government that oppresses its people. Many historical truths are embedded within this book, as it recounts the struggles of daily lives during Ceausescu times, the woman’s condition in the communist societies, as well as important events in the Romanian history, such as the Brasov rebellion of November 1987 as well as the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Characterized as a transmodern literature, this is a story of moral courage, a story of parenthood and moral dilemmas, and a story about the resilience of the human spirit that shines through years of hardship.
Here are a few pictures from the official book launch.
And couple of TV shows where I had the pleasure to be invited.
My first novel it’s out! It was a long journey, as publishing the traditional way it’s a long process. The book is published in Romanian, by Niculescu Oxford Publishing House in Bucharest.
I am not going to tell you the plot, I will just say that throughout its 463 pages the story takes the reader through the most important events of the last 3 years of Ceausescu’s regime, 1986-1989, including the Chernobyl Disaster and the fall of the Iron Curtain. Besides being informative on that time period, this is a story of moral courage and of the beauty of human spirit that shines through years of hardship. It is also a story of millions of people, past and present, who have lived under oppressive regimes.
The sun above is scorching the playground, The child burns his fingers on the only swing, From outside the walls the eyes are watching, His every move, his everything. The camp keeps other people that fled from war- thorn place, The snipers are now far, but other jailors rule this space.
A sad national symbol that flies above the ground, Had stamped undocumented the boy’s and other souls And locked them up because they made it, While buried free the souls that drowned.
Pushing his legs the child is swinging higher in the sun, Oblivious to man-made rules that shouldn’t, Build cages for the lives of people like him, Or for the lives of anyone.
Perhaps one day the current faith in borders, Will dissipate just like the air under his swing, Leaving the truth, good morals, justice and good conscience, To document belonging to a society where fair will be the king.
My new poetry book “Love poems: insights into the complicated mystery of love” is available on Amazon. You can get it here. Please write a review if you get around it. I would really appreciate it.
Yesterday I had the pleasure to talk about the process of writing and about my new poetry book with Dr. Meena Singhal from Long Beach City College California. Below I am sharing with you the interview, which was very fun and a good opportunity to share with the audience my interest and love for literature.
If you are an educator (or someone that has discussion groups about literature and writing) , and would like to invite me to speak in your class, I would be happy to do so, if my time allows. I do not charge anything for it, I’m doing it out of my love for teaching and learning, for the young generations but also for people from all walks of life.
My new poetry book “Love poems: insights into the complicated mystery of love” is available on Amazon. You can get it here. Please write a review if you get around it. I would really appreciate it.
The bomb that fell flattened his world, And drew corridors of fire That led everywhere and nowhere, Toward a future that kept hanging.
The tearless silence was floating, Dressed with silk black cap, As faith was rewriting the lists For new havens.
His eyes were closed, but it was bright inside, He remembered the taste of chocolate And how he ran up and down the hills Over the desert.
He will soon hear the others, Crawling like him, on their canes of hope, Their skills got sharper every time.
He’ll join them in the quest for Their food for tomorrow: Wild mushrooms and rabbits. Sometimes they will go by the airfield, Wondering loud where the storks were, And why was their place taken by uniformed men.
He felt his body burning, Heard shouting, faint, then rising, He smelled his father pomade and felt the clutching of his arms. He was tired of running in a race that had no stopwatch, Besides he already won, Of all the things, this war has never been able to embargo his dreams.
This is a poem I have written few years ago. Like everything I write( like everything that we writers write), there is a story behind it. Back then I was doing field work in Jordan about war refugees, and I was spending time listening to Syrian war refugees recounting their stories. Some of them had their children around when I was taking their interview. I was struck, I knew war from far away but this was a first account, as close as I could get. I would finish the interviews, and then I’d go transcribe and I would feel these people, and their pain even more than I didn’t before. Their faces would come to mind. This poem is about one of those faces.
My new poetry book “Love poems: insights into the complicated mystery of love” is available on Amazon. You can get it here. Please write a review if you get around it. I would really appreciate it.
Hello everyone! To mark my collaboration with the platform Masticadores, they have conducted an interview with me which has been published a few days ago. Here is the link for it: Masticadores interview, Andrada Costoiu.
Because many of my readers are English speakers, I am going to reproduce it in English below.
When did you start writing? Can you explain that in a few words and also tell us where do you live?
I think my love of writing started early on, with my Romanian literature elementary teacher. Back then, Romania was a communist country where creativity was not encouraged. But despite that, he did encourage us to write about the simple things that we enjoyed in our lives. And that’s how it started…..
This takes me back to the way we teach children and the new generations. Creativity is the most wonderful form of self-expression. We must nurture that in our children because it is not only good for their emotional health, but it would also bring more magic into our world.
I have lived in several parts of the world, and each of them had its own charm. I now live with my family in Irvine, California, and I am affiliated with the University of California Irvine.
Do you think that the current pandemic is influencing your social network and your readership? Do you think these have expanded?
I have not thought much about this question before, so thank you for asking because it is a good way to reflect in retrospective. In my case, this pandemic has created more human connection than ever before. Not having to drive to work, not having to drive as much as before, has given me time to do other things. And one of those things is nurturing my soul, through lecture or through reaching out to people that I did not have the time to reach out before. I think the same has happened to others. So yes, there is more dialogue than before, and I do think that people are more likely reading more books as a result of the pandemic.
Is writing for an on-line platform changing your inspiration or your writing style? Do you think that writing for a reader that is using an iPad or a phone could be something that would determine your inspiration or desire to write?
We have to consider that people have different preferences, and different ways of reading. I myself prefer to read physical books, because I like to touch and turn the pagers and I like the smell of books. It is something that comes natural to me, because I have spent so much time in libraries and bookstores. Other people prefer kindle or have other ways of reading.
That being said, I think as writer we have to always adapt. But when I say adapt, I am referring to the format you are presenting your writing, not to the content itself. For example, I have recently published a book on Amazon. It is both paperback and kindle. These two have different formats and you have to be careful about the layout, otherwise the content might appear unprofessional.
The way people access my writing it is not important in my decision of writing or not writing a story, a poem or anything that tickles my imagination. I will always write. But I do care that anyone who reads me does it in a proper way, on their specific device. So, I will format my writing accordingly.
Do you think Masticadores’ focus on readers from urban areas is fair?
We live in an age where access is given to people from anywhere. I think we should always reach for a bigger audience, whether a big city, a small town or countryside. But there is something about the alienation and anonymity in the big cities. There is something about how hundreds of thousands of people pass one another, there is something about the brutal indifference of the streets. So, if through our writing we are able to contribute and bring some feeling into that, then that is a wonderful thing.
What has your collaboration with Masticadores offered you?
Diversity, diversity! I think being part of it has given me new perspectives from new writers, from different places. It is important that we always expand our horizons, and I hope I am able to do this for this audience.
Short bio:
Andrada Costoiu is an academic and writer of stories that come from the heart. She lives in California, where she spends her time between academic research and writing books. Her academic work and her literary endeavors have been published in various international journals and publications. Her work on political issues has been published by Cambridge Scholars and has also appeared in international political science journals such as the Journal of Identity and Migration Studies. As a literary author, she has published poems in literary magazines, such as Spillwords Press, Visual Verse,Literary Yard, Scarlet Leaf Review and others. She is the author of the poetry collection “Love poems: insights into the complicated mystery of love” and also the author of the upcoming novel Under the Iron Curtain, which is set in communist Romania.”
Andrada Costoiu 