Verses on Catastrophe and Healing is a video performance built around a poem from Ștefania Mihalache’s most recent poetry collection, Sunt liniștită, mi-e frică (I’m at Peace, I’m Afraid), originally published in Romanian and illustrated by visual artist Laurențiu Midvichi.
For this work, the poem was translated into English and recontextualised through performance. Addressing themes of war and loss, the piece combines text, image, and live presence to create a sense of immediacy and ‘here and now.’ By performing the poem herself, the author reinforces its emotional intensity and grounds the work in direct, embodied experience.
The project is part of the subthemes Writing After – Catastrophe, Memory, and the Archive of Loss, The Poetics of Care – Intimacy, Tenderness, Repair.
Author
Ștefania Mihalache
Ștefania Mihalache (b. 1978 in Brașov, Romania) made her literary debut with the novel Est-falia, published by Paralela 45 in 2004, followed by Poemele secretarei (The Secretary’s Poems), published by Cartea Românească in 2010.
In 2016, she debuted in poetry with the volume Sisteme de fixare și prindere (Fixing and Fastening Systems), published by Nemira, which received the Matei Brâncoveanu Prize for Literature and a nomination at the Radio Romania Cultural Awards. In 2019, she won the Boccaccio Short Fiction Prize in France.
Her work has appeared in bilingual anthologies including Sombras, incendios y desvanes (Shadows, Fires and Attics), published by Vaso Roto in Madrid and Guadalajara, and 1.20.2024. Romanian Contemporary Poetry, published by the “Augustin Buzura” Cultural Foundation. In 2021, Nemira published her poetry volume Cronica Akasha, nominated for the Radio Romania Cultural Awards and the Observator Cultural Awards in 2022.
In 2022, her short story collection Gene dominante was published by Humanitas and received the Observator Lyceum Award. Her most recent poetry book, Sunt liniștită, mi-e frică (I’m at Peace, I’m Afraid), was published in 2024 by Paralela 45, illustrated by Laurențiu Midvichi. The book was awarded the Poetry Prize of Ateneu magazine and the Radio Romania Cultural Poetry Award for 2025, and was also nominated for the Observator Cultural Awards and the PEN Romania Awards.
