Who I Am
My name is Alex Duvan and I publish under the pen name Tudor Alexander. In the Acknowledgement to my first novel, The Runners (Fugarii), read the story of how I chose this pen name.
I was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1950 and moved to the United States in 1977. I hold an MBA from the University of Connecticut and a MS degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. Although writing has always been my passion, I studied engineering and management to support my family. Today I live in Columbia, MD with my wife. We have a son, a daughter and three grandchildren.
I write and publish in both Romanian and English, and this site was designed to accommodate readers of both languages. Most of my characters are immigrants yearning to adapt to their new surroundings and escape their past. They are the people who, like me, 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.
I started writing in high school and published fifteen short stories in established literary magazines. After the constraints of censure and artistic expression were lifted by the 1989 anti-communist revolution and Romania welcomed expatriate writers, I contributed to 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).
The Runners (Fugarii, in Romanian), my first novel, was published in 1994 in Romania, followed by Smoke (Fum), a 100-page novella, in 1997. The novella was optioned for a movie by Lucian Pintilie, a leading Romanian film director, but the project was abandoned for lack of funding.
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.
One Morning and One Afternoon (O dimineaţă şi o după amiază) a collection of short stories, was published in Romania in 2002.
The Visitor (Vizitatorul), a novel I wrote in English and translated into Romanian, was published in May 2011 by Junimea, a well-known publishing house in Iași, Romania, to excellent reviews.
No Portrait in the Gilded Frame was published in the US by CreateSpace in the summer of 2016. Translated into Romanian (Rama fără portret), it was published by the Israeli publisher Saga in 2019.
The Last Patient was released by Boyle & Dalton in the US, on February 18, 2025. The novel received honorary mentions from literary competitions (Readers' Favorite and Royal Dragonfly) and was a semifinalist for Chanticleer International Book Award.
In Darkness and Light, my new historical novel, was accepted for publication by Boyle and Dalton. I expect the launch to take place in May, 2026.
Click on "Writings" for more details on my work in both Romanian and English, including some of my manuscripts.
When I do not write, I participate in two novel writing workshops and I serve on the board of directors of the Little Patuxent Review, a biannual Maryland literary publication. I am a member of the Maryland Writers Association.
Featured Interview
by Diana Katheryne Penn (Summer, 2025)
https://www.dkpwriter.com/post/inside-the-indie-author-a-conversation-with-tudor-alexander
Learn more about The Last Patient…