[4] The founder of the magazine Cahiers de l'Est, he has also translated texts by Romanian poets into French — examples include Leonid Dimov, Daniel Turcea, Ion Mureșan, Marta Petreu, Emil Brumaru, Mircea Ivănescu.

"[5] In 1965-1966, Dumitru Țepeneag and Dimov reached out to a panel of young writers contributing to the Bucharest magazine Luceafărul — Vintilă Ivănceanu, Virgil Mazilescu, and Iulian Neacșu.

[5][7][9] In particular, the period was marked by developments at Luceafărul: in 1968, the hardliner Eugen Barbu, who had attacked Țepeneag and other young authors, was replaced by the liberal Ștefan Bănulescu as editor-in-chief of the magazine.

[6] According to Țepeneag, a conflict erupted inside the literary establishment after the magazine Amfiteatru allowed him, Ivănceanu and Laurențiu Ulici to publish their grievances as part of a round table session which, although censored by the regime, prompted pro-communist and conformist writers to condemn the Oniric grouping.

[5] Nonetheless, Dimisianu noted that the current remained a strong influence on the unofficial cultural scene, and that, in time, Onirism was adopted by younger writers such as Ioan Groșan.

[12] Elsewhere, the writer acknowledged that, during the 1960s and early 1970s, he viewed Ceaușescu's leadership as benign, and welcomed the distance the Communist Party took from the Soviet Union (especially in 1968, when Romania did not take part in the Warsaw Pact intervention against the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia).

[2][5] During his years of exile, he came into conflict with Romanian intellectuals such as Mircea Eliade and Ioan Cușa, whose opinions, Țepeneag argued, situated them among admirers of the fascist Iron Guard.

[1] Paruit noted that other writers, including Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca, both of whom reportedly refused to vouch for Țepeneag, "simply did not understand that it was possible to condemn communism from anarchist positions.

"[1] Such conflicts also surfaced after the writer returned to Romania — notably, Țepeneag clashed with novelist Augustin Buzura, whom he accused of mismanaging the state-sponsored promotion of Romanian literature abroad.

[12][13] The polemic was alluded to in Buzura's 2003 volume Tentația risipirii, where the author responded to criticism from Țepeneag, as well as to similar opinions expressed by Paul Goma, Gheorghe Grigurcu, and other writers.

[14] Commenting on this dispute, literary critic Mircea Iorgulescu argued that Buzura's book had classified Dumitru Țepeneag and his other adversaries as "insignificant authors", and expressed his opinion that such an attitude was incorrect.

[14] In parallel, both Țepeneag and Buzura, alongside writers such as Eugen Simion, Fănuș Neagu, Valeriu Cristea and Marin Sorescu were the recipients of criticism from literary historian Alex Ștefănescu, in his book on 20th century Romanian literature.