In the late-1960s Romania, during the relative cultural thaw of the post-Stalinist period, Dumitru Tsepeneag emerged as an innovative writer of short prose and the pioneer of oneirism, a subversive theory and practice of literature that challenged not only socialist realism in particular but realism in general.

By the early 1970s, following a cultural crackdown by the totalitarian state, oneirism had been banned and Tsepeneag was forced into exile in France. Short Prose, Volume 1, collects the three volumes of short stories that Tsepeneag published in Romania before going into exile: Exercises (1966), Cold (1967), and Waiting (1971), along with previously unpublished shorter texts from the same period.