Adrian Oțoiu


Adrian Oțoiu is a novelist, essayist and translator.
He was born on 30 April 1958 in Râmnicu Sărat, in southeastern Romania. As his father was an aviation pilot, he spent his childhood in the company of airplanes.
After studying at the Arts High School in Baia Mare, Oțoiu earned a degree in Romanian and English from the University of Baia Mare in 1981. In 2001 was awarded a PhD in philology from Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, with a dissertation on the Romanian generation of postmodern fiction writers of the 1980s, under the supervision of Ion Pop.
Oțoiu is currently an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Letters of Northern University of Baia Mare. He directed a at Central European University in Budapest. He has also taught at the University of Limerick, University of New Mexico, and Carson–Newman University.
Oțoiu is a member of the Writers' Union of Romania and of the European Society for the Study of English.

Publications

Fiction

Oțoiu made his debut in 1986 with the massive novel . This was the first Romanian book to have been awarded both The Debut Award of the Writers' Union of Romania and the Book of the Year Award of the rival Association of Professional Writers of Romania. Previously it had been awarded the "Mașina de scris" award granted to the year's best unpublished manuscript. The novel was compared by critics to James Joyce's Ulysses.
Two volumes of short stories followed, which consisted of hyperlinked pieces that emulated the outlook of a computer guide, which made critics speak of these making up a "hypertextual novel". These two volumes share characters and settings and a subtitle : Hot Keys for Soft Windows and .
The short story was published in the author's English translation in the issue of October 2004 of the American magazine , which was dedicated to Romanian literature. The same short story was published in the anthology .
Another short story, Reveal codes: Mr Onoriu's Profession appeared in Hungarian translation in the anthology of Romanian contemporary fiction Tizenegy kortàrs romàn proziaro.

Literary criticism

, Vol II.

Translation

Under the title ', Oțoiu translated into Romanian the famous novel At Swim-Two-Birds by the Irish modernist Flann O'Brien. The translation is furthered by a consistent introduction and numerous footnotes.
Oțoiu's translations into English include the cultural tourist guidebook ' and the manual for foreign investors, Modern Elements of Entrepreneurial Training ICTWAY 2003.
Written at Salzburg Seminar in Austria, Oțoiu's chapter The seven POEs was part of the collective writing experiment Naked Went the Novelist.

English literature and cultural studies

Oțoiu has authored numerous articles on British and Irish literature and their interferences with Romanian culture. Some of these have been included in the volume Under Eastern Eyes: Cross-cultural Refractions.
He has contributed with a chapter entitled Automobile Metempsychoses in the Land of Dracula to the volume , edited by Peter Wollen and Joe Kerr.
He has synthetized the evolution of the Romanian reception of James Joyce's work in the chapter 'Le sens du pousser': On the Spiral of Joyce's Reception in Romania in the massive study , edited by Geert Lernout and Wim Van Mierlo.
A comparative study paralleling the situation of postcommunist culture in Romania with postcolonial contexts elsewhere—called ' was published in the Chicago-based '.
Oțoiu also wrote prefaces to John Barth's second Romanian edition of The Floating Opera and to Flann O'Brien's first Romanian edition of At Swim-Two-Birds.

Honors and awards

Oțoiu's debut book reaped three national awards, including the debut award of the Writers' Union for 1986 and the debut award of the Association of Professional Writers of Romania . Most of his subsequent books were shortlisted for the ASPRO award.
In 2003 Oțoiu has received the first Residential Bursary ever granted by Ireland Literature Exchange towards the translation of the novel At Swim-Two-Birds by O'Brien.
Oțoiu has obtained scholarships and grants from institutions from Austria, Germany, United States, Italy, Malta, Ireland and UK.

Interviews