Matei Vişniec

(born 1956) – Romanian-French playwright, poet and journalist living in Paris. He graduated in philosophy and history from Bucharest University. He began to write his plays in the 1970s and 1980s, but they were systematically rejected by Romanian censorship. In 1987, during his stay in Paris, he applied for political asylum. In 1988-1989, he worked in the Romanian branch of the BBC. He became internationally renowned for his play Old Clown Wanted, but also for a number of dramas that he wrote continuously in the 1990s, after he acquired French citizenship. In interviews, he admits that his writing was greatly influenced by the works of Franz Kafka and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but also by the works of Surrealists and Dadaists.