Emil Isac (; May 27, 1886 – March 25, 1954) was an
Austro-Hungarian-born
Romanian poet, dramatist, short story writer and critic. Noted as one of the pioneers of
Symbolism and
modernist literature in his native region of
Transylvania, he was in tandem one of the leading young voices of the
Symbolist movement in the neighboring
Kingdom of Romania. Moving from
prose poems with
cosmopolitan traits, fusing
Neo-romantic subjects with modernist
free verse, he later created a lyrical discourse in the line of
Social Realism. Isac was likewise known for criticizing traditionalist and
nationalist trends in
local literature, but, by the end of
World War I, opened his own poetry to various traditionalist influences.