I write for a Living

Andra Toropoc
In the crowded subway, I stand over a girl who types intensely on her phone and I see her in a photo from Vienna that says: My dears, your favourite storyteller has just landed. I can't wait to describe the divine taste of Sacher, I lick my lips and I feel like I am Charlie in the chocolate factory. I hide my laugh in the bag of bagels bought from Dristor, they smell terrible. She watches me with hungry eyes. I give her one and wish her to enjoy her meal, because it goes well to eat something salty after so much cake.

Iulia Biro
Well yes, something like this can happen. I have a letter writing business. I don't have that many clients, but the ones that I have are good and give me a lot of work. I've had serious recommendations too. After my five-year doctoral scholarship in Palermo, I became highly specialized in this domain. My letters are the opposite of love letters. In short, my field consists in Threats, Ultimatums, Recoveries. Their acronym gives the name of the company. I deliver promptly, discreetly. And persuasively - it's about time after all that studying in creative writing. 

Varinia Mitrea
The doctor sighs disappointed, as he runs the cold stethoscope over my head: screen addiction, an extremely serious disease that is affecting more and more people. I leave the doctor's office and I read his prescription: consume letters three times a day that feed your imagination and soul. Now I buy my letters, boil them, drain them well and mix them with red sauce. I sprinkle grated cheese over them, herbs and spices for extra flavour and colour, then I eat them with a spoon or a fork.

(Translated by Maria-Ilinca Darie / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)


Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In May 2024, the group has 13,000 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.