Draft:Sabina Fati

Fati has a Master's degree in Political Science from the National School of Political Sciences and Administrative Studies (SNSPA) in Bucharest. She subsequently earned a doctorate in History, awarded cum laude, from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași in 2004, under the supervision of historian Alexandru Zub.^[3] Her thesis examined the concept of Transylvanism and the centre-periphery dynamics in the political discourse of Transylvanian elites between 1892 and 1918; it was later published as a book.

Fati began her career in 1991 as a reporter at the weekly newspaper Tinerama. In 1993 she moved to Mediafax, Romania's principal wire service. From 1994 she worked as a correspondent for Radio Free Europe's Romanian Department — a relationship that would span more than two decades and culminate in her appointment as director of the Romanian department in 2018, a post she held until 2020, based at RFE's headquarters in Prague.^[4]

Between 2006 and 2017 she was Deputy Editor-in-Chief and columnist at România Liberă, one of Romania's leading daily newspapers, where she oversaw a team of forty journalists and shaped the paper's editorial line on foreign affairs. A brief stint as Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Revista 22, the influential political and cultural weekly, followed in 2017–2018.

From 2020 Fati has been a columnist and analyst for Deutsche Welle's Romanian Department, writing on Eastern European politics, security, and Romania's relationship with its neighbours.

Alongside her journalism, Fati was a Visiting Professor in Political Advertising at the University of Bucharest's Department of Communication and Public Relations between 2008 and 2015, teaching in the faculty's Master's programme.^[3]

Fati's books occupy a space between travel writing, investigative journalism, and geopolitical essay. Each volume records a physical journey into a region of conflict or contested history, drawing on interviews with local people, archival sources, and the author's political expertise. The literary critic Radu Vancu, writing on the occasion of the PEN Romania Prize, described her method as using words "against the evil of history", while historian Cristian Preda called her 2024 book a testimony "written with urgency, packed with historical data accessible to a wide audience."^[1]

Singură pe drumul mătăsii (Alone on the Silk Road: 80 Days, 15,000 Kilometres, 2,500 Years of History; Humanitas, 2015; revised editions 2022 and 2024)

Fati's debut travel book recounts a solo journey of eighty days and fifteen thousand kilometres along the historic Silk Road. It was recognised by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty with its Lady Liberty Award in 2016, which honours outstanding contributions by women journalists.^[3]

Ocolul Mării Negre în 90 de zile (Around the Black Sea in 90 Days: Seven Countries, Eight Borders and a Coup in Prime Time; Humanitas, 2016; revised edition 2022)

An account of a ninety-day circumnavigation of the Black Sea through seven countries during a period of acute political upheaval, including the attempted coup in Turkey in July 2016.^[3]

Călătorie pe urmele conflictelor de lângă noi: Kurdistan, Irak, Anatolia, Armenia (Travelling in the Footsteps of Conflicts Close to Home: Kurdistan, Iraq, Anatolia, Armenia; Humanitas, 2022)

Written after a journey begun in the summer of 2021, the book investigates the layered conflicts and historical wounds of the region — Kurdish self-determination, the Armenian genocide, the wars in Iraq — at precisely the moment when a new migration crisis was breaking at the EU's eastern border. It received a Premiul Onorific (Honorary Prize) for non-fiction at the Superscrieri Awards in 2022.^[3]

Cine râvnește la Gurile Dunării. O călătorie pe timp de război în Delta extinsă: Transnistria, Ucraina, Basarabia, România (Who Covets the Mouths of the Danube: A Wartime Journey Through the Extended Delta — Transnistria, Ukraine, Bessarabia, Romania; Humanitas, 2024)

Researched during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this book traces the contested geopolitics of the Danube Delta through on-the-ground travel in Transnistria, Ukraine, Bessarabia, and Romania — a region where Iranian drones were falling on Ukrainian riverbanks and where Russian imperial ambitions intersect with EU sovereignty. It won the PEN Romania Prize for best non-fiction book (2025), the Romulus Rusan Prize for literature of memory (2024), awarded by the Ana Blandiana & Romulus Rusan Foundation and the Spandugino Foundation, and a Premiul Onorific for non-fiction at the Superscrieri Awards (2024).^[1]

In addition to her solo books, Fati has contributed to several collective volumes on Romanian politics, security, and European integration:

• Transilvania, o provincie în căutarea unui centru (Transylvania: A Province in Search of a Centre). Centrul de resurse pentru diversitate etnoculturală, Cluj, 2007.
• "Secretul informațiilor este secretul puterii" in Victor Bârsan (ed.), De la post-comunism la pre-tranziție, Pythagora, Bucharest, 1997.
• "Cinci drumuri deschise pe care (mai) pot intra rușii" in Marian Voicu et al., Vin rușii! 5 perspective asupra unei vecinătăți primejdioase, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2018 (2nd ed. 2020).
• Contribution to Romania in the Gray Zone: National and Regional Security in Eastern Europe after Madrid, Stelian Tănase (ed.), Bucharest, 2004.
• "Serviciile secrete. (Im)posibila modernizare" in Cristian Preda (ed.), Cum a rămas România fără președinte ales: 7 răspunsuri posibile, Humanitas, 2025.

• PEN Romania Prize for best non-fiction book (2025) — for Cine râvnește la Gurile Dunării.^[5]
• Romulus Rusan Prize for literature of memory (2024) — awarded by the Ana Blandiana & Romulus Rusan Foundation and the Spandugino Foundation, for Cine râvnește la Gurile Dunării.
• Women of Courage Award, US Embassy Bucharest (2017) — in recognition of her contribution to the building of democracy in Romania.^[2]
• Premiul Onorific for non-fiction, Superscrieri Awards (2024) — for Cine râvnește la Gurile Dunării.
• Premiul Onorific for non-fiction, Superscrieri Awards (2022) — for Călătorie pe urmele conflictelor de lângă noi.
• Lady Liberty Award, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (2016) — recognising outstanding contributions by women journalists, for her solo Silk Road journey.