DIRECTORY

Bucharest-born Diana Manole is as a proudly hyphenated Romanian-Canadian award-winning writer, literary translator, theatre artist, and scholar. She holds a PhD from the University of Toronto and has been teaching at Canadian universities since 2006. A poet in her own right, "Praying to a Landed-Immigrant God / Rugându-mă la un Dumnezeu emigrant" (Grey Borders Books, 2023) is her seventh collection of poems.

Diana is a passionate literary translator, who co-won 2nd prize in the 2018 John Dryden Translation Competition (UK), co-translated four poetry collections, and, independently, two 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), published by Independent Theater Hungary in the English-language anthologies "Roma Heroes" (Hungary, 2019 & 2021).

Since 2019, Diana translates Romanian poetry independently and had over 60 translations published in magazines such as “Asymptote,” (Taiwan) “Exchanges,” “Poet Lore,” and “AzonaL” (US), “Modern Poetry in Translation” (UK), “TransLit,” “Arc Magazine,” and “ellipse” (Canada). Diana was awarded the 2023 “Lunch Ticket” Issue 24 Gabo Prize for her translations of poems by Emil-Iulian Sude, one of the first award-winning poets of Roma ethnicity in Romania. His collection of poems, "The Security Guard at Night" ("Paznic de noapte", Casa Cartilor, 2023), is forthcoming in English in Diana's translation from Laertes Press (US) in 2025.

Diana's translations of Canadian poetry have been featured in major Romanian magazines and include works by George Elliott Clarke, Pamela Mordecai, M. NourbeSe Philip, and John Barton. "Întoarce-te" (Come Down) by British poet Fiona Sampson was published by Tracus Arte (2019).

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

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 “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

• 1. „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
• 2. "The Security Guard at Night" (Paznic de noapte, Casa Cărţilor, România, 2023) by Emil-Iulian Sude. Romani collection of poems, translated from the Romanian to English. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Laertes Press, 2025 (forthcoming).
• 3. „Întoarce-te” (“Come Down”) by Fiona Sampson (UK). Poems. Translated from English to Romanian by Diana Manole. Tracus Arte, 2019
• 4. 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)
• 5. 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)
• 6. Diana Manole, "B&W." Poems, in Romanian & English. Translated from Romanian to English by Adam J. Sorkin and the author. Bucharest: Tracus Arte, 2015.
• 7. Diana Manole, „Inger cu viză de Canada” (Angel with a Canadian Visa). Poems. Timişoara, Romania: Brumar, 2011.
• 8. 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.
• 9. Diana Manole, "Revoluţia textilă" (The Textile Revolution, full-length play). Translated from English to Romanian by the author. Bucharest: Palimpsest, 2007.
• 10. Diana Manole, „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.