An Interview with Andrei Zbîrnea
You are one of the most active promoters of Romanian contemporary Romanian poetry. What made you interested in promoting it in the first place?
I haven’t given a lot of thought initially. I would say it happened naturally. Not all of the projects I was involved in lasted and I surely did not last in all of them. I must emphasize that to be involved in cultural initiatives, to support others by organizing reading events, workshops, publication in literary magazines, is a lot of work. It takes time, it’s like a part-time job, but with no money, just some inner satisfaction. It’s almost an impossible mission to be a cultural promoter in Romania in 2026. You might get a bit of money for some books, for a short trip, for some tickets to the cinema or to the theatre, but that’s all. You cannot make a living out of it, so the persons who are constantly doing this are, in my playbook, heroes. And I would ask them what is their secret. How do they keep at it?
But, to go back to your initial question, I would say I always liked to idea to extend the community of people who read and talk about books. I will only give a few examples, of this very vibrant period, of blogs, of online literary magazines, when people left substantial comments and reviews on books. Towards the end of 2000s, I collaborated with the SubCultura, the literary magazine, which was coordinated by Marius Aldea and Florin Marcoci. For a while, I was the head-editor for SemneBune, I wrote about music for Observator Cultural and I was co-organizing together with Iulia Militaru, Felix Niciolau and Anca Bucur all sorts of events in unconventional spaces in Bucharest, which we called Fractal and Blitz Show Revival.
Then something magical happened in 2018, when we decided with Simina Diaconu to initiate Mornin’ Poets– a series of workshops for the aspiring poets. The mentors for the workshops were from the very beginning highly acclaimed poets: Miruna Vlada, Svetlana Cârstean, Elena Vlădăreanu, Claudiu Komartin and Sorin Despot. In the past years, I added some new elements to keep people engaged with the workshops: two anthologies (published at Fractalia and Brumar), special features in the literary magazine Familia. Last year, at the invitation of Violeta Borzea, I launched the poetry collection Arcane, where we already nine books, two of which are by participants to the Mornin’ Poets workshops: Alin Dimache, with his Visul post-punk and Raluca Urse with Tot ce atinge devine quasar., For almost a decade, I also moderated poetry events at FILIT Iași and for the past years I moderated Poetic Hub – the beautiful events created by Carmen Florea ( Cărturești).
I think that my main aim as a cultural promoter has always been to discover and encourage new talents and this is what I also do in my most recent poetry workshop in Vama Veche, where I invite everyone that feel like they are stucked with the structure, the title, finding the right publishing house, etc. We will talk about all these issues and not only during one week of sea, sun and poetry.
What are the most challenging aspects of promoting poetry nowadays?
The most difficult aspect, and not only for poetry, is the fact that it has to compete against the screens (TikTok and Instagram reels), which seriously affect our attention. I see it with myself that I cannot focus for as long as I used to when reading a long text on the phone. This is why I try to read poetry only on hard paper. And sometimes, on the laptop, for the jury of the Gellu Naum Poetry Festival. Speaking of this festival, one challenge is that we’ve started to receive poems that we, the members of the jury, fear they might be written with ChatGPT or other AI softs. So, one of the worries is that we will get to the point where we will not be able to differentiate between human poetry and AI poetry. But I will try to be optimistic and I will quote Răzvan Țupa, who recently answered to a survey I conducted for Cultura la Dubă. „Twenty years from one, says Răzvan, poetry will look exactly like us – which could be both a good and a bad thing.” We should also be concerned with the diminishing organic reach in social media and, if we are to promote poetry to a wider audience, we should definetely find other platforms, which are not Meta. I am currently testing the idea, but I would like to launch a newsletter of contemporary poetry in Romania. One option is Pink Pong, where I try to promote poetry and progressive rock especially to the people who (partially) left Facebook and Instagram.
Institutions (schools, literary festivals) are really useful for poetry and fiction, in general. But we need more initiatives in order to amplify the efforts from the independent area so poetry does not end up as an object in a museum or to be associated only with canonical names, such as Eminescu or Nichita Stănescu.
You have been organizing Morning Poets since 2018. What was the starting point for the workshop and what are its main strengths in your view?
I already mentioned Mornin’ Poets, but I would add that it was important that we had from the very beginning very known poets, as otherwise I don’t think we would have convinced 20, 30 people to pay. We invited less known authors only after we consolidated our brand. Mornin’ Poets has actually relaunched the career of some poets or at least had something to do with it. Another strength of our project is that we worked so well together, Simina Diaconu, and myself. Simina took care of promoting the event, of registration and marketing, and I hosted it, I was the interface between the trainers and the trainees, writing to poets, etc. It was very important that we continued to innovate on a market where other workshops have appeared and quickly disappeared. For instance, in the last two years, we invited not only poets, but also literary critics. Cosmin Ciotloș, Adrian Jicu and Andreea Pop had brought a lot of value and I would like to continue in this vein. Another important element is that we wanted to bring as many as new trainers as possible. During the first 134 workshops we had 110 different trainers. It’s because I really believe that many poets are also endowed with pedagogical gift. I also think of the gender distribution, which is almost 50-50%. For me, it is essential that I bring before the poets whose voices matter. And the voices of women poets are many and diverse. So, in sum, Mornin’ Poets acts as a reflexion of the contemporary Romanian poetry landscape.
Do you have a dream event you have yet to materialise? If yes, tell us a little bit about it.
I would really like to be part of the creation of a literary festival as important as FILIT, but in Bucharest. I could bring my know-how and my willingness to put in a lot of work. It could be generated by Romanian Literature Now, or by PEN (where I am the general-secretary) or even the Union of the Writers in Romania (which I joined this March) – why not? We just need a plan and we start from there. There was another festival in Bucharest, a few years ago, organized by Oana Boca-Stănescu, Bogdan-Alexandru Stănescu and Vasile Ernu. It’s such a pity this festival does not exist anymore. However, I think we can build on the experience from FILB.
What are the main characteristics of contemporary Romanian poetry in your view?
I think there are lots of active generations, very diverse voices, and then there is a growing community around spoken word and performance. For a beginner, the poetic offer in 2026 is impressively generous and diverse. There are literary festivals in many cities in Romania, such as: Poets in Transylvania, Astra Poetic, Poezia e la Bistrița and Poezie la Nisip de la Constanța și Corbu. FILIT and FILTM have generous spaces for the one that used to be called the Cinderella of Literature. But not anymore! There is social poetry, conceptual poetry, etc. There are at least 10-12 publishing houses or poetry collection that are really important: OMG, Blecher, /pocket Art, Arcane (Editura pentru Artă și Literatură), Cartex, Cartier, Charmides, Paralela 45, Nemira, Tracus Arte, Dezarticulat, Junimea, Fractalia. It’s a pity Casa de Pariuri Literare doesn’t really publish poetry anymore, although they published some great books, such as the ones written by Oana Ninu, Radu Nițescu’s poetry debut, Non Stress Test by Elena Vlădăreanu, many poetry books by Nora Iuga. I would also mention that women poets are in the majority now. There are great women poets who published after 1989, such as: Elena Vlădăreanu, Adela Greceanu, Ștefania Mihalache, Ioana Vintilă, Diana Cornea, Gabi Eftimie, Anca Ioana Câdă. At Mornin’ Poets, 80% of the participants are women. This figure speaks by itself.
You are a poet yourself. Your most recent poetry book is Soap Valley (Valea Săpunului, Ed. Art/pocket, 2025). What was the process of writing this particular book and how would you like it to be received by your readers?
Valea Săpunului is a project I spent around 52-55 weeks and I think it is my most direct book and I was lucky enough to work with an amazing editor, Mihók Tamás. For me, it was a first to leave a lot of time between the moment I finished writing it (January 2024) and its publication at Art Publishing House in December 2025. Around 75% – 80% remained after editing, which I then restructured in five sections with names of seasons in Norwegian: vinter, vår, sommer, høst and dem femte årstiden (the fifth season). However, I feel ever more alienated from writing poetry, although I am surrounded by it. I also performed some of the poems at SWORDS, în June 2024, together with the musician petroff. I felt nervous, but I am really satisfied with how it turned out. You could download them on Youtube or Sound Cloud. As for its reception, I really like new perspectives and I particularly enjoy the opinions and lively dicussions on Goodreads,
I really enjoyed the feedback I received from second graders at a school in Berceni. I read a poem about Captain Cisnădioara, a sort of super hero from the Soap Valley and then I received several drawings from the kids of Captain Cisnădioara. I felt really emotional of this moment. I got good responses from Gen Zs, when I read at Visceral, in December 2023 and I have several incoming events. Every sngle event is such a joy to me!
In many of your books (just to name nick cave@bergen) you address your interest for Scandinavian cultures and landscape. What is the origin of your fascination for this particular cultural territory?
I am pretty sure I got this fascination through music. When I was really young, I used to listen to Roxette, Ace of Base, Aqua, Rednex, dance-pop bands from Nordic countries.
There are many instances when my poetry gets immersed in Scandinavian poetry, of the fjords, or music, or art or of amazing novels such as the Copenhagen Trilogy, by Tove Ditlevsen or Kathine Nodrejord’s Lappjaevell. I would really love to start rewriting poetry exactly where I stopped: in a boreal, aetheric light!
Do you have a favourite poem in Soap Valley book? If yes, which?
I am not very sure, but this is a poem I read a lot at various events.
DOPOGUERRA
A desk filled with rotary phones
a motor scooter suspended in the atmosphere
a frantic moment visible only during summer months
a fairy hovering over the Soap Valley
Yerbol panicked by the data in his smartwatch
239/365 days of rain in bergen
A brown paper I used to wrap my sandwiches in
for the 323 kilometres ride
a familiary shredded in an instant
a slide locked with a key
a railway where the arrivals/departures board snoozes every 5 minutes
superposed masks served at the family dinner
a transition like a shortcut
Red october
now and here dopoguerra
now dopoguerra here dopoguerra
now and here dopoguerra
Andrei Zbîrnea is a writer, journalist and cultural promoter born in 1986, in Urziceni. Since 2018, he is the project manager of the poetry workshop Mornin’ Poets. He has moderated poetry events at FILIT, some of the Poetic Hub events, organized by Cărturești. In 2024, he became the Secretary-General of PEN România and a representative in the Young Writers Committee PEN International. In 2026, he joined the Union of the Writers in Romania.
He is the coordinator of Antologeek (2024, 2025) and of the poetry collection Arcane (Editura pentru Artă și Literatură). He writes about music in the literary magazine „Familia“ and about literature & society in „Cultura la Dubă“. He is a fan of Borussia Dortmund. In his spare time, he studies Norwegian and he is passionate about everything related to the Scandinavian peninsula.
He published several books of poetry: Rock în Praga (2011), #kazim – contemporary with the Arab spring (2014), The Five Nations Championship (2017), Pink Pong (2019, trilingual volume, co-author with: Claus Ankersen) and nick cave@bergen (2021), Soap Valley (Art/pocket, 2025).
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrei.zbirnea/
Webpage: www.andreizbirnea.ro