Oisteanu is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, a book of short fiction, and a book of essays. He is the brother of Romanian historian of religion, cul- tural anthropologist and writer Andrei Oisteanu. He graduated from the Department of Chemical Industry of the Politechnical Institute in Bucuresti. In 1970, Oisteanu made his literary debut in Romania with a collection of poems called Proteze. Due to his Jewish ancestry, the Communist regime allowed him toemigrate to New York City in 1972 or 1973, and he has been writing in English ever since. Oisteanu adopted Dada and Surrealism as a philosophy of art and life. Heappears regularly at poetry readings in various New York venues, where he presents original performances of Zen and Dada-inspired "jazzoetry. He is a freelance art critic and on the permanent staff of several arts magazines, including The Brooklyn Rail, NYArts, Rain Taxi, the Spanish publication art.es, and the Canadian magazine D'Art International. Oisteanu isa member of Poets and Writers Inc. in New York and the founder and president of PASS: Poets and Artists Surrealist Society. He is also a contributing writer for French, Spanish & Romanian art and literary magazines (La Page Blanche, Art.es, Viata Româneasca, Observatorul Cultural, Contemporanul, România Literara etc.) As an artist he exhi- bits collages and assemblages on a regular basses at the galleries in New York and also creates collages as covers and illustrations for books andmagazines.