Ana Blandiana is one of Romania's foremost poets, a leading dissident before for the fall of Communism, and now her country's strongest candidate for the Nobel Prize. A prominent opponent of the Ceausescu regime, Blandiana became known for her daring, outspoken poems as well as for her courageous defence of ethical values. She was co-founder and President of the Civic Alliance from 1990, an independent non-political organisation that fought for freedom and democratic change, and more recently co-founded the Memorial for the Victims of Communism. Blandiana redefines her poetics in every new...

Started in 2009, IPNHK is one of the most influential international poetry events in Asia. In its ten-year anniversary in November 2019, 30 famous poets from various countries will be in Hong Kong and ten cities in China afterwards to read their works based on the theme "Speech and Silence." Ana Blandiana (Romania) is a poet, essayist and prose writer, civic right activist and legendary figure in Romanian culture.