German writer Herta Müller being awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature bears a special significance for Romania.
Born in Banat, Herta Müller has been keeping a close liaison with her country of origin. The writer has attended, over the past years, numerous cultural events in Romania. At the beginning of October 2009, Herta Müller was present at the Oskar Pastior International Poetry Festival, organised by Literaturhaus Berlin and the Romanian Cultural Institute, in Sibiu, where she read, for the first time in Romania, excerpts from her latest novel, Atemschaukel. Herta Müller is one of the initiators and promoters of the festival, not missing from any of the three editions. In 2008, the anthology of the first edition of the Oskar Pastior International Poetry Festival was edited by Corina Bernic and published by Art publishing house.
In 2007, Herta Müller presented her volume Im Haarknoten wohnt eine Dame/În coc locuieşte o damă (Vinea), translated by Nora Iuga, at the Romanian Cultural Institute. Romanian translations of some of Herta Müller's texts have been published, along the years, in the Romanian edition of Lettre Internationale.
The recognition that derives from the award granted by the Swedish Academy bears a special significance for the entire Central and Eastern European space. The traumas of communism, suffered directly by the Romanian-born German author, are accurately reflected in her work.
The Romanian themes, present in her novels, are also constantly tackled in her articles published in the German press.