DIRECTORY

Diana Manole is an award-wining English/Romanian literary translator, writer, and scholar. She holds a Master’s in journalism from Carleton University and PhD in Theatre from the University of Toronto. She has published ten collections of poems and plays and 14 peer-reviewed articles and/or book chapters and co-edited a collection of essays on postcommunist theatre (University of Iowa Press 2020).

She has also translated or co-translated seven poetry collections, including Nora’s Iuga "The Hunchbacks’ Bus" (Bitter Oleander, 2016) with Adam J. Sorkin, longlisted by the American Literary Translators Association for the 2017 National Translation Award in Poetry. Also with Sorkin, Diana was awarded 2nd prize in the 2017-18 John Dryden Translation Competition in the UK. Her solo translations of Romanian poetry have appeared in Columbia Journal, Washington Square Review, Poet Lore, and Arc Magazine. Diana has also independently translated three docudramas about the rights of Roma women, “Del Duma - Tell Them About Me” by Mihaela Drăgan (2019), “Who Killed Szomna Grancsa?" by Mihai Lukacs and Giuvlipen Theatre (2021), and “Bambina” by Zita Moldovan, Andrei Șerban, and Alexandru Fifea, all for Independent Theater Hungary and Women for the Future Association in Budapest, Hungary.

"Întoarce-te" (Come Down) by British poet Fiona Sampson was published by Tracus Arte (2019), while Diana's translations of Canadian poetry have been featured in major Romanian magazines. As a literary translator, she has participated at several panels in the UK and Romania and was a guest speaker at the University of Guelph.

• PhD, The Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto
Doctoral Dissertation: “Poetics of Denial: Expressions of Nationalism and Imagined Exile in English Canadian and Romanian Dramas”

• Master of Journalism, Broadcast Journalism, Carleton University
Master Research Project: Canadian Smile (TV Documentary, 30 minutes)

• Honours BA/MFA., Theatre & TV Directing, University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest, Romania.
Master Thesis: “Madness at the End of the 1990s: A Contemporary Reading of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Physicists.” Final Performance Project: "The Physicists" by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Galatzi Repertory Theatre, Galatzi, Romania)

• Honours BA/B.Ed., Modern Languages and Literary Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania.
Honours Thesis: “A Playwright’s View on Drama and Literature: I. L. Caragiale’s Theatre Reviews, Cultural Reports, and Letters”

SELECTED LITERARY AWARDS (Total 19) AND DISTINCTIONS

2023 Honorable Mention, 2023 Lush Triumphant Poetry, "subTerrain" magazine, Vancouver, BC, for the five-poem suite, “Mom's Cravings in Her Old Age,” forthcoming in the 2024 Spring issue.

2023 "The Lunch Ticket" Issue 24 Gabo Prize (December 2023) for translations of two poems from "Paznic de noapte" [The Night Security Guard] (Casa Cărţilor, 2023) by Emil-Iulian Sude, one of the first award-winning poets of Roma ethnicity in Romania.

2023 “Iran needs us, we need Iranian women,” a poetic tribute to Masha Amini and all women martyrs of the fight for freedom, included in HAIR IN THE WIND, an international poetry art installation, conceived and curated by Antje Stehn, Piccolo Museo della Poesia in Piacenza, Italy.

Since 2022 Elected Chair of the Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets

2021 Certificate of Participation in the art-poetry installation Rucksack, a Global Poetry Patchwork, at the Little Museum of Poetry, Italy.


2020 Winner, Very Small Verse Contest, The League of Canadian Poets, for the poem “Lovers.” 21 March 2020, World Poetry Day.
http://poets.ca/2020/03/21/2020-vsv-contest-winner/

2019 Personal Profile Entry. The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Romanian Writers from All Over the World (Enciclopedia scriitorilor români contemporani de pretutindeni). Project Director Traian Vasilcău. Coordinator Acad. Mihai Cimpoi. Chişinău, Republic of Moldova.

2018 2nd Prize, the 2017/18 John Dryden Translation Competition organized by the British Comparative Literature Association and the British Centre for Literary Translation, for selections from major Moldovan poet Emilian Galaicu-Păun’s A-Z.BEST (Editura Arc, Chisinau, Moldova, 2009), co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin.
https://bcla.org/john-dryden-translation-competition-winners/

2017 Longlisted for the 2017 National Translation Award in Poetry, American Literary Translators Association for "The Hunchbacks’ Bus" by Nora Iuga (Bitter Oleander Press 2016), co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin

2016 Poem of the Month (September), Library of Parliament, Ottawa. “Deflowering. English” in English and French
https://lop.parl.ca/About/Parliament/Poet/poem-selected-former-poet-laureate7-e.html

2016 Diplôme de mérite, La moisson lyrique des baies sauvages. The XIVth International Festival of Writers and Artists, Val David, Quebec

2015 Nominated for a Pushcart Prize for the poem “First Night: In the Basement.” Trans. Adam J. Sorkin and Diana Manole. "The Chattahoochee Review" (Fall 2016)

2008 Personal Profile Entry. Mircea Ghitulescu. The History of Romanian Literature: Drama (Istoria Literaturii Romane: Drama). Bucharest: Tracus Arte

2007 Second Prize for "The Textile Revolution" (Revoluţia textilã). The National Romanian Comedy Contest, The Comedy Theatre, Bucharest

2005 Personal Profile Entry. Alex Stefanescu. "The History of Romanian Contemporary Literature 1941-2000" (Istoria literaturii romane contemporane 1941-2000). Bucharest: Masina de Scris, 2005

2001 Personal Dictionary Entry. "The Dictionary of Romanian Writers in the 1980s and 1990s" (Scriitori români din anii 80’-90). Brasov, Romania: Paralela 45


2000 Second Prize for "The Aliens from the Kids’ Pillow" (Extratereştrii din pernă). Annual Radio Drama Contest, Children’s Section. Romanian National Radio Broadcasting Company, Bucharest, Romania

2000 Special Prize for "The Snakes’ Planet" (Planeta Şerpilor). “Camil Petrescu” Annual National Drama Competition, Ministry of Culture, Romania

1999 The Romanian Writers’ Union’s Prize for Debut in Drama for "The Child Who Didn't Want to Be Born" (Copilul care nu voia să se nască, Cartea Romaneasca)

1998 The Poetry Prize of the Bucharest Writers’ Association for "Evening Habits" (Tabieturi de seară, Eminescu Publishing House)

Romanian -> English
English -> Romanian
Spanish -> English

• Non fiction
• Children's / YA Literature
• Poetry
• Fiction
• Theatre

• „Rugându-mă la un Dumnezeu emigrant” / “Praying to an Immigrant God.” Poems, Romanian & English. Trans. Diana Manole and Adam J. Sorkin. Grey Borders Books, Niagara Falls, ON, Canada: 2023
• Warner, Vessela and Diana Manole, Eds. "Staging Postcommunism: Alternative Theatre in Eastern and Central Europe after 1989." Iowa City, US: University of Iowa Press, 2020.
• Fiona Sampson, „Întoarce-te” (“Come Down”). Poems. Translated from English to Romanian by Diana Manole. Tracus Arte, 2019 (forthcoming)
• She - Wolf Trail / Rastro de loba / Le sentier de la louve by Anabelle Aguilar Brealey. Original poems in Spanish. Translated from the Spanish into English by Diana Manole with the author. Translated into French by David Brême. Niagara Falls, Canada: Grey Borders Press (forthcoming in 2021) 260 pages (private commission, self-published anthology)
• Nora Iuga, "The Hunchbacks’ Bus - Autobuzul cocosatilor." Co-translated from Romanian to English and with an introduction by Adam J. Sorkin and Diana Manole. Fayetteville, NY: The Bitter Oleander Press (2017)
• Diana Manole, "B&W." Poems, in Romanian & English. Translated from Romanian to English by Adam J. Sorkin and the author. Bucharest: Tracus Arte, 2015.
• „Inger cu viză de Canada” (Angel with a Canadian Visa). Poems. Timişoara, Romania: Brumar, 2011.
• Diana Manole, "The Child Who Didn't Want to Be Born." Translated from Romanian by the author. "Ecumenica: Journal of Theatre and Performance." Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, US. Spring 2017.
• Diana Manole, "Revoluţia textilă" (The Textile Revolution, full-length play). Translated from English to Romanian by the author. Bucharest: Palimpsest, 2007.
• „Copilul care nu voia să se nască” (The Child Who Didn't Want to Be Born). Full-length play. Bucharest: The Romanian Writers Association Publishing House, 1999.