In 1989, Codrescu covered the Romanian Revolution of 1989 for National Public Radio and ABC News's "Nightline". His renewed interest in the Romanian language and literature led to new work written in Romanian, including "Miracle and Catastrophe", a book-length interview conducted by the theologian Robert Lazu, and "The Forgiven Submarine", an epic poem written in collaboration with poet Ruxandra Cesereanu, which won the 2008 Radio România Cultural award. His books have been translated into Romanian by Ioana Avadani, Ioana Ieronim, Carmen Firan, Rodica Grigore, and Lacrimioara Stoie. In 2002 Codrescu returned to Romania with a PBS "Frontline World" video crew to "take the temperature" of his homeland and produced the story, "My Old Haunts". In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious international Ovidius Prize (also known as the Ovid Prize), previous winners of which include Mario Vargas Llosa, Amos Oz, and Orhan Pamuk.