Crepuscular Tales

Ion Manta born in 1940 in Timisoara Romania earned his diploma in biology. He also studied painting in the private art studio of Julius Podlipny. From 1963 on he tried his hand as a teacher graphic designer actor and cultural facilitator at the University of Adult Education. In 1969 in the confusion of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia after defecting to Austria he settled in the US in 1970. In Washington his first job was at the Smithsonian Institute then Catholic University and for 22 years at the Federal Government. On the side he collaborated for years with the VOA Romanian section. As an artist he exhibited in Romania then as an American locally and internationally (American Painters InParis France in 1976). Since1998 the author published six books in Romanian. Presently he lives in Silver Spring Maryland.<p><i>Melancholy to loneliness an unrestrained skeptic who at times hides his nostalgiabehind a disturbing silence or withdrawn in distant thoughts the prose-writer bydetachment and a subtle ��lan seems a messenger of midnight.</i><br>- Aurel Sasu Dictionary of Romanian Writers inThe United States and Canada 2001.<p><i>A lot of good Romanian literature originates today in America ...after MirceaEliade Ioan Petru Culianu Matei Calinescu Virgil Nemoianu Petru Popescu Marcel Cornis Pop Andrei Codrescu Ion Manta Andrei Sangeorzan...now Liviu Georgescu.</i><br>- Vasile Dan Arca 2008<p><i>One senses at Ion Manta a combination of the experimental and fantastic or a sort of bizarre very near to the oneiric.</i><br>- Livius Ciocarlie writer and critic.