Iaşi International Literature and Translation Festival

More than 200 professionals from the world of literature and the arts are taking part in the Iaşi International Literature and Translation Festival.

Corina Sabău, 23.10.2022, 14:00

More
than 200 professionals from the world of literature and the arts from
Finland, France, Germany, Israel, the Republic of Moldova, Rwanda,
Algeria, Syria and Romania are taking part in the Iaşi International
Literature and Translation Festival – FILIT, held between the 19th
and the 23rd
of October.

Like
in previous editions, readers again have the chance to meet
award-winning writers and important contemporary literary voices from
Romania and abroad such as the author of the best-selling title The
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, the Irish writer whose works have been
translated into 58 different languages John Boyne, one of the
best-known and most award-winning Spanish writers Manuel Vilas,
Algerian author writing in French Boualem Sansal, Armenian writer
Narine
Abgaryan, who was named by The
Guardian among the best authors of contemporary Europe and whose book
Three
Apples Fell from the Sky
was a best-selling title, and the Romanian writer and philosopher
Andrei Pleșu. The festival is hosting dozens of events, including
meetings with authors, poetry and book readings late into the night,
workshops and roundtable discussions for professionals as well as
concerts.

In
the run-up to the festival, the FILIT Workshops for translators were
held between 3rd
and 7th
October by the National Museum of Literature in Iaşi together with
the Ipoteşti Memorial House – the Mihai Eminescu National Centre
for Studies. The workshops provided a framework for professional
training and discussion for translators from the Romanian into
foreign languages and saw guests from ten countries: Jale Ismayil
from Azerbaijan, Monica Constandache from Switzerland, Alexey Kubanov
from Kazakhstan, Joanna Kornás-Warwas from Poland, Ferenc André and
Csanád Száva, from Romania and translating into Hungarian, Monica
Cure from the US and Eliza Filimon, a Romanian translator into
English, Roxana Ilie, Romanian translator into German, Đura
Miočinović from Serbia, Klara Rus from Slovenia, Elena Borrás from
Spain, and Gabriella Koszta from Hungary.

We
talked to writer and member of the festival’s team Florin Lăzărescu
about the importance given by the festival to translators and the
festival’s relevance for the Romanian public:

This
is why we named our festival the International Literature and
Translation Festival, because we give special attention to
translators, especially translators from the Romanian into a foreign
language. Apart from these workshops, the festival also features
other events centred on translators, from professional meetings with
literary agents and translators to translation workshops for high
school pupils. Translators go to high schools and teach pupils how to
make a literary translation. As for the festival’s public, 80% of
participants are young and very young and I’m glad our festival
means something
to them. I’ll give you two examples. Gabriela Vieru is a well-known
literary critic and a member of Timpul
magazine. She has attended the festival every year, has even worked
as a volunteer in past editions, and this year she is coordinating
two events. She told me this festival was the first time in her life
she met actual writers, when she was in her 9th
year in school. I think that’s extraordinary how her life since she
was a teenager has been marked by the festival. And she is not the
only example. Ioan Coroamă, who is invited as a guest this year, is
considered one of the most exciting new voices in Romanian poetry.
When I invited him to take part, he said he’s been coming to the
festival since he was in 6th
form and that the festival was very important for him, he grew up
with the festival. These meetings with writers I think are very
important, especially for young readers. This year, the festival’s
guests are going to 18 different high schools in Iași and other
places around the county. This includes not just writers, but also
translators and other professionals from the literary industry. I
think this is one of the most important achievements of the festival,
namely changing how literature is perceived, showing that it can also
be spectacular, interesting, and very much alive.

This
year’s International Literature and Translation Festival in Iasi is
hosting Romanian novelists Cezar
Amariei, Remus Boldea, Adrian Cioroianu, Bogdan Coșa, Filip Florian,
Lavinica Mitu, Liviu Ornea, Ioana Pârvulescu, Dan Perșa, Bogdan
Suceavă, Anca Vieru; Romanian poets Răzvan Andrei, Ion Buzu, Ioan
Coroamă, Teona Galgoțiu, Anastasia Gavrilovici, Sorin Gherguț,
Claudiu Komartin, Ileana Negrea, Cătălina Stanislav, Veronica
Ștefăneț and Mihók Tamás. Casa Fantasy hosts events focusing on
the writers O.G. Arion, Michael Haulică, Liviu Surugiu, Daniel
Timariu and Marian Truță and Casa Copilăriei is hosting
illustrators Sidonia Călin and authors Ioan Mihai Cochinescu, Simona
Epure, Iulia Iordan and Radu Țuculescu. The journalist Elena Stancu
and photographer Cosmin Bumbuț are the guests of special events, and
the photographer Mircea Struțeanu is presenting a literary and
artistic project. (CM)