Din Condei

Originally from Romania, I have lived in England for many years. I often encounter children born into families with at least one Romanian parent who either do not speak Romanian fluently or do not speak it at all because they live and study in an English-speaking country. This is the main reason I chose Romanian folklore as the core of my literary creations, preserving all the characters’ names in children’s books exactly in their authentic Romanian forms, as they have been known for millennia throughout Romania. In this way, children of Romanian origin—regardless of where they live in the world—and, alongside them, all my readers, irrespective of nationality or age, can enter the magical universe of Romanian folklore. It is a world populated by a multitude of supernatural beings that I myself discovered in childhood, listening to the stories told by my grandparents and other elders from my native village in southern Romania.

Fairies, dragons, and many other mythological creatures that both delighted and, at times, frightened my childhood appear frequently in my books, especially those written for children. They are reimagined in a modern way and most often portrayed with humour and tenderness, contrary to popular belief, which tends to depict them as frightening. In other literary categories, such as folklore-inspired science fiction intended exclusively for readers over 18, I have sought to present these beings with the same fidelity and intensity with which the stories were originally passed down to me.