Mircea Cartarescu is a Romanian novelist, poet, short-story writer, literary critic, and essayist.
Born in Bucharest in 1956, he attended Cantemir Voda National College during the early 1970s. During his school years, he was a member of literary groups led by Nicolae Manolescu and Ovid S. Crohmalniceanu. At that time, along with many teenagers of his generation, Cartarescu was tremendously influenced by the legacy of the 1960s American counterculture, including artists such as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors. He commenced writing poetry in 1978.
