HORST SAMSON

HORST SAMSON, born 1954, in the hamlet of Salcâmi, (Baragan/Romania, during the deportation of his parents), teacher, qualified journalist, was editor of the magazine of the Romanian Writers’ Association “New Literature” (Bucharest) and secretary of the literary circle “Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn” of the Writers’ Association Timisoara/Banat – from 1981 until the dissolution of the circle, in October 1984.

Together with the Nobel Prize winner for literature Herta Müller, Samson was one of the close friends of the “Banat Action Group” and was its spokesperson in 1984 in the conflict with the Romanian security service “Securitate”.

Banned from publishing in 1985, threatened with murder by the Romanian secret service “Securitate” in 1986, he emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany in March 1987 and was, among other things, editor-in-chief of a newspaper group belonging to the Frankfurt Societät and the Fazit Foundation for 30 years. Today he lives as a freelance writer in Neuberg, near Frankfurt am Main.

Horst Samson, winner of national and international literary prizes, has published, among others, 14 volumes of poetry, most recently “Das Imaginäre und unsere Anwesenheit darin”, “Heimat als Versuchung – Das nackte Leben” (prose, poetry, essays, interviews and literary criticism), “Das Meer im Rausch”, “In der Sprache brennt noch Licht” (2021) and “Der Tod ist noch am Leben” (2022).

Horst Samson is a member of the International P.E.N. (was Secretary General of the “International EXIL P.E.N. – Section German-speaking Countries” from 2006 to 2014), he is also a member of the German and also again of the Romanian Writers’ Association.