Lavinia Braniște was born in 1983, in Brăila. She studied foreign languages in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest. Her first book, published in 2006, was a collection of poems – Povești cu mine/Stories with me (Paralela 45). It was followed by the collections of short stories Cinci minute pe zi/Five Minutes a Day (Casa de Pariuri Literare, 2011) and Escapada/Escapade (Polirom, 2014).
Her first novel, Interior Zero, was published in 2016 by Polirom and was translated into German (by Manuela Klenke, for microtext Berlin) and Polish (by Olga Bartosiewicz, for Wydawnictwo Universitas, Krakow). It was also adapted for the stage in Romania and Germany.
The second novel, Sonia ridică mâna/Sonia raises her hand, published in 2019 by Polirom, was launched in 2021 in Germany, at the same publishing house, translated by Manuela Klenke.
Both novels won Thoreau`s Nephew Award for Best Prose Book of the Year. Sonia ridică mâna received the Sofia Nădejde Prize for women`s literature (2020) and the Ateneu Magazine`s Prize for Prose (2020).
Lavinia also writes children`s literature. From the series with the piglet Rostogol, illustrated by Andrei Măceșanu, four volumes appeared at Arthur publishing house: Rostogol merge acasă/Rostogol is going Home (2016), Rostogol păzește pepenii/Rostogol is guarding the melons (2017), Rostogol și vulcanii noroioși/Rostogol and the muddy volcanoes (2018), Rostogol iluzionist/Rostogol the Illusionist (2021). She also published a volume of stories, illustrated by Oana Ispir, Duminică și alte povestiri cu Iosifel/Sunday and other Stories with Iosifel (Arthur, 2019) and several albums: Jungla lui Toco/Toco`s Jungle (Cartier, 2017, illustrations by Anca Smărăndache), Melcușorul/The Little Snail (Cartier, 2018, illustrations by Veronica Neacșu), Anatol și Gregor la aeroport/Anatol and Gregor at the airport (Vlad și Cartea cu Genius, 2019, illustrations by Oana Ispir), Comoara pingunilor/The Treasure of the Penguins (Univers, 2021, illustrations by Anca Smărăndache).
Rostogol merge acasă and Melcușorul were included in the White Ravens catalog in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
Lavinia worked as a language teacher and translator. She translated over forty books from English, French and Spanish, most of them for children. After the publication of the first novel, she decided to focus exclusively on writing. She currently lives in his hometown, Brăila.
You can contact her here.
