Ionuţ Caragea

Biography

Caragea was born on April 12, 1975, in Constanţa. He is a poet, prose writer, literary critic, editor, aphorism-writer, and cultural promoter. He is a member of the Romanian Writers’ Union, the Dobrogea branch [1], a co-founder and vice-chairman of the Romanian Writers’ Association of Québec, an honorary member of the Writers’ Society of Neamţ County, an honorary member of the Maison Naaman pour Culture Foundation of Lebanon, a member of Elis – the worldwide remarkable Romanians’ Network, an honorary member of the International Association of Paradoxism, a member of the Diversité Artistique Cultural Organization of Montréal [2], a member of the Poetas del Mundo Cultural Organization of Chile [3] etc. As a result of his friendship and name relation with Prince Eugen Enea Caraghiaur, in 2008 he was raised to the noble rank of Baron of the Cuman House of Panciu [4]. He started his literary career in 2006, with a collection of poems – Delirium Tremens (STEF Publishing House, Iaşi). His poems, aphorisms, short stories, and critical essays have appeared in various magazines, newspapers, and anthologies in Romania and diaspora. He is one of the twenty authors who were published in Antologia aforismului românesc contemporan/An Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Aphorisms (Genesi Publishing House, Turin, 2013)[5], and one of the twenty-seven authors who were published in Antologia aforismului românesc contemporan/An Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Aphorisms (Digital Unicorn Publishing House, Constanţa, 2016)[6]. Following the 2012 Naji Naaman International Contest, he was awarded the Creativity Prize for aphorisms from his collection Dicţionarul suferinţei/A Dictionary of Suffering (Fides Publishing House, Iaşi, 2008), translated into French by Professor Constantin Frosin, PhD [7]. He is included in Cartea înţelepciunii universale. Maxime şi cugetări din literatura universală/A Book of World Wisdom. Maxims and Thoughts from World Literature (eLiteratura Publishing House, Bucharest, 2014). He is also included in Alertă de grad zero în proza scurtă românească actuală/Red Alert in Today's Romanian Short Story Writing (Herg Benet Publishing House, 2012) [8]. He has won several poetry and short story contests. Some of his work has been translated into five languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Arabic. He was nicknamed "The poet who was born on Google" after the title of his book M-am născut pe Google/I Was Born on Google (STEF Publishing House, Iaşi, 2007) [9]. In 2012, the English version of his science fiction novel Uezen was published by Wildside Press (US) "uezen"-de-ionut-caragea-a-aparut-in-america/[10][11].

In 2003-2011 he lived in Montréal, Canada, where he received the Canadian citizenship (2008). He worked as a sports instructor and professional sportsman, continuing his rugby career which he started in Romania. He is the son of a former star of Romanian rugby, Florin Caragea, who played for Farul Constanţa [12]. Ionuţ Caragea played for Parc Olympique and won the Québec province championship three times [13].

He started writing poetry in his teens but it was in Canada that he discovered his true calling [14]. His first poems were published on April 6, 2006, in "Observatorul," a literary magazine from Toronto, where he was welcomed by the poet George Filip [15]. Then he was promoted by the editor Dumitru Scorţanu, who published his first three books at STEF Publishing House, Iaşi. On July 16, 2008, he founded, together with the poet Adrian Erbiceanu, The Romanian Writers’ Association of Québec and the ASLRQ Publishing House. As an editor and founder of ASLRQ, in 2009 he compiled, together with Adrian Erbiceanu and Dumitru Scorţanu, the first anthology of Romanian writers from Québec, an very important work for the diaspora[16]. He committed himself to promoting Romanian culture in North America, being webmaster, webdesigner, and literary promoter for the site of the Romanian Writers’ Association of Québec (www.aslrq.ro), and founder of the Prietenii Poeziei/Poetry's Friends Literary Society. In February 2012 he returned to Romania and settled in Oradea. In 2014 the eLiteratura Publishing House published his latest collections of poems that were welcomed by the poet Ana Blandiana with a text on the back cover of his Cer fără scări/Stepless Sky. In 2015 he coordinated the 2015 ASLRQ anthology. He has published more than thirty books (poems, aphorisms, science fiction, critical essays, thoughts on spirituality, memoirs, and anthologies). Romanian literary critics see him as one of the leaders of the 2000 poetic generation and one of the most atypical writers of today's Romania. The critic Maria-Ana Tupan believes that the poet Ionuţ Caragea sometimes reminds one of Marin Sorescu, a great Romanian writer.

Poetry

Science fiction

Quotes

Essays

Spirituality

Literary Prizes

Appreciations

Source of translation

This article contains a translation of Ionuț Caragea from ro.Wikipedia.