a. urmanov--My Writing Process--Blog Tour

Many thanks to poet Elena Vladareanu for inviting me to the writing process blog tour.  ou can see her own response here.


What am I working on?

I cannot say I’m working on anything; I’ve got one or two ideas I’ve been obsessing about even before writing ‘sushi’ in 2007, but I just cannot find the voice for them.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

It differs just by being my own, personal work. Art (not only poetry) should be the perfect expression of one’s inner being - that is my only worry, my only aim. If I attain that, everything is perfect; I know no other criterion for true art. I try to stay honest to this rule, and nothing else. We are all unique beings; if our art were honest expressions of ourselves, it would naturally be unique, as well.

Why do I write what I do?

I honestly don’t know. For some reason, I have a need to express things, to publicly affirm things about myself and the world. It’s part of who I am, but I try not to question why I have it or how it works. When the need to write take over, there simply is no option not to do so.

How does your writing process work?

The writing comes last; in many ways, I only start the writing process after I already have the whole thing on the page. The writing (that is, the cut & paste, rewrite & rethink etc) is the least important part. The vital element is life itself: composition doesn’t happen on paper, it happens as part of one’s real, daily life. There must be a moment when I feel an absolute, paralyzing need to write things down; when that happens, I just write continuously until I dry out. Only then, after a few days, I start editing the material. It took me one night to write all the material for ‘sushi’, but several months to edit the collection. It’s that feeling that I must write or I fail (in some big, mystical way) that is key: it’s for this feeling that I’ve been waiting to return for the last seven years.


a. urmanov (b. 1979) has published several collections: ‘canonical flesh’ (Pontica Publishing; 2001); ‘utilitarian poems’ (Pontica Publishing; 2003); ‘skeleton’ (Pontica Publishing; 2004); ‘sushi’ (Brumar Publishing; 2007). In 2006, Vinea Publishing House published his first author-anthology - ‘cheap literature’, including two previously unpublished collections: ‘up’ (2002) and‘hey, mr dj!’ (2003).

He studied in Bucharest and Moscow (BA in International Business; BA in Theology); Warwick University (MA in Creative Writing); Durham University (PhD in Modern Ecclesiology) and Washington DC (Library of Congress, Kluge Centre fellowship).

He currently lives on the Isle of Mull, Hebrides, Scotland.