Leonard Oprea

Leonard Oprea took part in the Brașov Rebellion of 1987. During Ceausescu’s dictatorship he was an anti-communist dissident in Romania and was officially banned from writing by the Communist regime, in particular its Securitate secret police. The short prose collection Radiografia clipei ("The X-ray of an Instant") and the novel Cămaşa de forţă ("The Straitjacket") were banned by the regime and circulated in samizdat form.
The critic Tudorel Urian labels Oprea a "true dissident" in the manner of Corneliu Coposu and Adam Michnik, having directly confronted the regime, undergone abusive interrogations by the Securitate secret police, and not called for vindictive retribution against former regime figures after 1989. In 1992, Oprea established the "Vladimir Colin Cultural Foundation" and associated awards, and in 1995, he opened the Athena Publishing House in Bucharest.
In 1999, Oprea emigrated to the United States, following which his novels began to meet with greater success in his native country. Trilogia lui Theophil Magus ("The Trilogy of Theophil Magus") appeared between 2000 and 2002, followed by new editions of Radiografia clipei and Cămaşa de forţă. Extensive appreciations appeared from cultural commentators such as Vladimir Tismăneanu, Norman Manea, Mircea Mihăieş, Sorin Antohi, Liviu Antonesei, which helped secure Oprea's a solid reputation in contemporary Romanian literature. After 2004, Leonard Oprea created and published a new kind of essay, the Breathing, and two haiku-novels came out as well. as well. Several of his works were successfully published in the USA.
Today he lives in Brașov (Kronstadt), Romania.