Panait Istrati

Panait Istrati (; sometimes rendered as ''Panaït Istrati''; (August 10, 1884 – April 16, 1935) was a Romanian working class writer, who wrote in French and Romanian, nicknamed ''The Maxim Gorky of the Balkans''. Istrati appears to be the first Romanian author explicitly depicting a homosexual character in his work.

Although he lived and worked mainly in Romania, due to his impact on French literature, Istrati is sometimes also labeled as "French writer". Provided by Wikipedia