Gabriel Plesea

A Management Information Systems specialist until he decided to turn to full-time writing, Gabriel Plesea arrived in the United States in January 1976. He was joining his wife Ana Cristina, who had decided to "choose freedom" in early 1974, settling down in New York City. A licentiate of the University of Bucharest (majoring in English), Gabriel went to Columbia University's School of International Affairs, and earned a Master's Degree in 1979. His literary pursuits started in the '70's with translations of essays, poetry, short prose and novels, which he published back in Romania during 1970 - 1974 period in literary magazines (such as Ramuri, Secolul 20, Romanian Review, Tribuna, Viata Romaneasca). In the United States, after obtaining his MIA and while taking up courses in computer programming and system design, he expanded his area of literary interests to novel writing and journalism. After 1991, he has published four novels, one volume on contemporary American writers and one on Romanian writers in New York, along with five volumes of collected articles. In parallel he filed a series of literary columns with Jurnalul literar and Luceafarul, two literary magazines back in Bucharest. Since 1993 he has signed special correspondences on U.S. events for the daily Romania libera, also of Bucharest, covering the United Nations as well. For the Romanian publications in exile, he writes for New York Magazin (N.Y.) and was a frequent contributor to Lumea libera romaneasca (N.Y.) and to Dorul (Denmark).