Gaudeamus Book Fair
The Gaudeamus Book Fair, organized by Radio Romania, closed its doors on Sunday evening
Bogdan Matei, 08.12.2025, 13:50
The turmoil on a political scene of increasingly precarious quality has not overshadowed Bucharest residents’ passion for culture. Awaiting the election of a new mayor on Sunday, many of them preferred to attend the Gaudeamus Book Fair, organized by Radio Romania. It’s an event with a solid tradition, reaching its 32nd edition in 36 years of post-communist Romania. The cultural press called it a true literary feast, during which the visitors had to opportunity to enjoy more 600 editorial events.
According to a press release issued by the organizers, all prestigious publishing houses in Romania were represented, as well as Romanian and foreign book distribution agencies, university publishing houses and higher education institutions, as well as music distributors. As in previous editions, one of the event spaces set up within the fair, named Ion Creangă – a 19th-century classic of children’s literature – was mainly dedicated to the youngest visitors. Top-notch guests: Romania’s Olympians is a project through which Radio România and its partners have rewarded and promoted students who have achieved exceptional results in international competitions in various disciplines. The book “Happiness is in the Next Act,” written by actor Marius Manole and published by Bookzone Publishing, was named the most coveted book. As regards the top publishers, the first three places went to Humanitas, Corint, and Bookzone, in that order. The award for translation from Romanian into a foreign language was given to Corneliu Popa for his Portuguese translation of Dinu Flămând’s poems, while Luana Schidu was awarded for her translation from a foreign language into Romanian, having translated Lydia Davis’s Our Strangers. Stories.
According to the honorary president of the edition, journalist, writer, and foreign policy analyst Sabina Fati, the stands displayed Romanian versions of all Nobel Prize winners from the last 15 years, as well as all the books that won major literary competitions in France and the UK. She also says that people are starting to read more and more non-fiction. “This market for historical and political books is varied and good. We don’t know to what extent it reaches or can reach a lot of people, because, as our research so far shows, (only) 5% of Romanians buy books and even fewer read them,” Sabina Fati added. The Bucharest 2025 edition of the Fair ended the series of exhibition events dedicated to books and education organized by the public broadcaster in Craiova, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Buzău, Braşov, Sibiu, and Iaşi, cities that hosted the Gaudeamus Radio Romania Caravan, a cultural project funded by the Ministry of Culture. (MI)
