Owlspotting

After Arnold comes Robert Turcescu, one of Romania’s iconic media figures. Turcescu is the man on the May cover of Esquire Romania; in the story he talks about the sorry state of Romanian journalism and why taking a break has suddenly become an option.

Other great stories in this issue, include:
- Looking for Cristian Mungiu. An [...]

A spectacular issue of Esquire Romania is on its way. The best we did so far I believe (followed closely by #4). It’s well-written and well-edited, hopefully offering something to every reader.
The cover of this special What I’ve Learned issue is graced by actor, director, writer and producer Florin Piersic Jr., a man who chose [...]

For a while now I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a blog in Romanian. When I say blog I mean nothing more than a medium that will allow easy publishing. Since I started teaching I’ve craved a continuous conversation on writing and reporting. I believe it would be beneficial to my students and, [...]

Esquire is moving forcefully into the New Year with another strong issue - complete with ruminations on the European Union, the meaning of life (by Johnny Depp and Tim Burton), women’s underwear (by me) the state of Romanian culture (by Sorin Adam Matei) and so much more (check out the summary pages below). Johnny Depp [...]

For those who have never read Esquire Romania and are curious how things are written, we’ve put a story from our latest issue online. It’s available on HotNews.ro and it’s about the generation of children born after communism. We sometimes refer to them as the Children of the Revolution.

What do actor Dragos Bucur, TV and radio personality Andrei Gheorghe and Internet entrepreneur Cristian “Igu” Vasile have in common? Besides being men in today’s Romania, they are also among the stars of the fourth issue of Esquire Romania, an issue of firsts. It features our first Romanian cover — graced by Dragos Bucur (see [...]

Because Esquire Romania doesn’t have its own website (yet), I have decided to begin uploading my stories. I will start with one that ran in our first issue, September 2007.
This profile of the late-director Cristian Nemescu is one of the hardest stories I’ve done, both professionally and personally. I was attracted to this man for [...]

In a few days, check your (Romanian) newsstands for Esquire’s third issue. The cover features Sean Penn in his own Armani suit (he’s Sean Penn after all), and the story talks about his return to the director’s chair for Into the Wild. Penn’s movie is based on a non-fiction book with the same name by [...]

I. Am. Teaching.
Actually, I hope I’ll be teaching. The lovely folks at the Bucharest Center for Independent Journalism have given me the chance to teach a course in long-form writing. We’re calling it Narrative Journalism, although I mean that in the broadest sense of the word: journalism that includes elements of narrative storytelling.
The “hope” part [...]

The hardest thing after a debut is a consistent follow-up. I think the second issue of Esquire Romania has met that standard and done one better.
I’m not one to brag, but you’ll find that the second issue is more local, more diverse and more vividly illustrated than number one. And I’m very happy about that. [...]