Who I Am
My name is Alexander Duvan, but I use the pen name Tudor Alexander. Please read the Acknowledgement to my first novel, The Runners (Fugarii), where I tall the story of why I chose to sign my work with a pen name.
Today I write and publish in both Romanian and English, and this site was designed to accommodate readers of both languages. Most of my main characters are immigrants yearning to adapt to their new surroundings and escape their past. They are the people who, like myself, took a leap of faith and, leaving loved ones, friends, familiar streets and echoing songs behind, followed the promise of political and intellectual freedoms, and the lure of lavish homes and gardens depicted in Hollywood movies.
Born in Bucharest in 1950, I came to the United States in 1977 from Communist Romania. I started writing while in high school, and published fifteen short stories in literary magazines. After the revolution lifted the constraints of censure and artistic expression, and Romania welcomed expatriate writers, I started writing for a Romanian weekly, and, in 1992, edited a book length collection of articles from major American and British newspapers about the Romanian Revolution (Revoluția Română).
I published my first novel, The Runners (Fugarii, in Romanian), in 1994, followed by Smoke (Fum), a 100-page novella, in 1997 (optioned for a movie by Lucian Pintilie, a leading Romanian movie director).
Planet New York was written in English and published by Xlibris in 2000 in the United States and then, in my translation, in Romania in 2001. In 2007 Planet New York received an Honorary Mention at the New York Book Fest. A collection of short stories, One Morning and One Afternoon (O dimineaţă şi o după amiază) was published in Romania in 2002.
Translated into Romanian, my novel The Visitor (Vizitatorul), was published in May 2011 by Junimea, a well known publishing house in Iasi, Romania, to excellent reviews.
My novel, No Portrait in the Gilded Frame was published by CreateSpace in the summer of 2016. Translated into Romanian (Rama fără portret), it was published by the Israeli publisher Saga in 2019.
My latest novel, The Last Patient is schedule for release by Boyle & Dalton in February 2025.
Visit the Writings section of this website for details on my work in Romanian and English, including some of my manuscripts.
I participate in two novel writing workshops and am a member of the Maryland Writers Association. I also serve on the board of directors for the Little Patuxent Review.
Currently, I am working on a new novel, titled In Black and White.
I hold an MBA from the University of Connecticut and a Master's in Mechanical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest.
Residing in Columbia, Maryland with my wife Viorica, we have a son, a daughter, and three grandchildren.
