Mundus Artium Press announces the award of the Mundus Artium Prize to Romanian poet, translator and essayist Liubita Raichichi.
Dallas, TX, January 18, 2022: Mundus Artium press announces the award of the Mundus Artium Prize to Romanian poet, translator and essayist Liubita Raichichi.
The author of more than thirty books, Raichichi writes in both Romian and Serbian. She is a prolific translator of prose and poetry, as well as a translator of official documents in the context of Romanian-Serbian projects sponsored by the European Union.
Also active in political and civic life, Raichichi became one of the very few female members of the first post-communist democratically elected Romanian Parliament. Between 2010 and 2021, she served as the director of a branch of her nation’s Ministry of Culture in Caraș-Severin County, situated on Romania’s border with Serbia.
The annual Mundus Artium Prize honors a lifetime of major literary achievement in any language or literary genre, with prize winners determined by the editorial board of Mundus Artium and its advisers.
Liubita Raichichi was born on January 19, 1962, in Caraş-Severin’s Moldova Nouă, as a descendant of a Serbian family who had returned after the Romanian communist regime’s deportation of unwelcome ethnic minorities and social groups to the wild Bărăgan region. Raichichi spent her childhood near where the river Danube flows from Serbia into Romania, in a village called Belobreșca, meaning “white peach” and known in Romania as a “village of poets.”
The writer’s volumes of poetry and essays include Vertru na istinu (With truth before the wind); Tiśina pred srpsku reć (Quiet before a Serbian word); Bogu iza leda (Behind the Lord); Pomilovanje (Have mercy on us); Science about illusions (Nauka o iluzijama); Voljena u slobodno vreme (Loved in someone’s spare time); Sârbeşte, într-o limbă necunoscută (Serbian in an unknown language); Jovan nebeski (John the Celestial); Vasko Popa – o frontieră poetică (Vasko Popa – a poetic frontier); San, moźda (Dream, perhaps); Ljubavnadlanu.com (loveonpalm.com); Ljubavne pesme o ratu (Love poems from war); Orfani de Dumnezeu (Orphans of God) and many others. Her work has been translated into several European languages.
Raichichi holds a Ph.D. in philology from the West University of Timişoara. Her thesis, entitled Vasko Popa in Romanian Literature, later the basis for a well-received book.
Prizes, honors and distinctions awarded to Raichichi include the status of Cultural Merit in the Rank of Knight, First Category, for Literature, conferred on her by Romanian Presidency and Ministry Culture. She also holds the title of Citizen of Honor of the Town of Reșița, granted to her “for extraordinary merits in increasing the prestige and renown” of the county seat of her home county of Caraș-Severin.
The Romanian Writers’ Union’s Timișoara Branch Office has awarded Raichichi its Prize for Poetry, as well as its Prize for Literature of the Year 2000. The jury of Statu Mare-based literary magazine “Poesis” has selected her for a Special Prize for Poetry. She is also a recipient of the “Nichita Stănescu” Prize, awarded as part of the cultural initiative “Evenings of Nichita Stănescu’s Poetry,” dedicated to the renowned 20th century Romanian poet.
A three-time winner of the “Balcanica” Prize for translation, Raichichi has been a recipient of the Republic of Serbia’s “Stojan Stiv Tešić” Prize, awarded for promoting Serbian literature in Romania, as well as Serbia’s National Order “Kapetan Miša Anastasijeviċ” statuette and distinction.
The Ministry of Diaspora within the Serbian Republic and the Cultural-Educational Union of Serbia have awarded Raichichi with the union’s Golden Badge.
