Photo by Marion Ettlinger

World Heavyweight Champion Poet, essayist, novelist, and screenwriter Andrei Codrescu was born in Sibiu, Romania, in 1946, and immigrated to the United States in 1966. Author, translator, and anthologist of some two dozen books, Codrescu has edited the literary magazine Exquisite Corpse and his provocative commentary is featured regularly on National Public Radio's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered. His honors include the Peabody Award for his film Road Scholar, the Big Table Poetry Award, and the Literature Prize of the Romanian Cultural Foundation, as well as National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for poetry, editing, and radio. Codrescu currently resides in New Orleans, and is MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Visit the author’s web site at www.codrescu.com.

The New Orleans Klezmer AllStars and Maelstrom: Songs of Storm & Exile

Formed in 1991, The New Orleans Klezmer AllStars (a “genre-crossing, heroically nutty Crescent City ensemble”—Billboard) have fired up people of all ages with their funky interpretation of traditional Jewish folk music. For this special release (made possible with funding from B’nai Brith International and the Tipitina’s Foundation), they tailored original compositions around the lyrics of Andrei Codrescu’s poems and teamed up with a number of guest singers and musicians, including Harry Shearer, of Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind, the beloved New Orleans vocalist John Boutte, the legendary Bluesman Coco Robicheaux, and the incomparable Ivan Neville.

Visit the band’s web site at www.klezmers.com.

Also available by this author:

• it was today
• Comrade Past & Mister Present