Romanian-born writer Herta Muller, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009, was suspended from the Writers' Union of Romania (USR) for failing to pay her membership fee, which amounts to RON 150 (some EUR 32) per year, USR president Nicolae Manolescu told local Hotnews.ro.

“She is suspended, that means she does not have the right to vote, that's all. Otherwise, she is a member,” Manolescu said.

Update: Herta Muller told the German media that she didn't know that she was a member of the Writers' Union of Romania, local Digi24 reported.

"No one asked me if I wanted to be part of the Union and nobody announced that I was a member. When did that happen?," she said.

The Writers’ Union of Romania is currently choosing its new president. The vote is organized in every branch, and so far the elections ended in the Pitesti, Craiova, Timisoara and Arad branches, and the Critics, Dramaturgy and Prose branches in Bucharest. The final results will be announced on May 5, according to local Agerpres.

Herta Muller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist. She was born in 1953 in the Romanian commune of Nitchidorf, Timis county, but left the country in the early 1990s. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009. Her work is available in more than 20 languages.

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Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(opening photo: Herta Muller on Facebook)