Some 20 writers from 10 countries attended
\nthe 6th International Literature Festival (FILTM) in the Western
\ncity of Timisoara over October 25th-28th. Public
\nreadings, debates and writers’ dialogues with readers took place. There were
\nalso two new sections added to the festival: a poetry marathon bringing
\ntogether writers from Central and South-Eastern Europe and Literary Death Match
\nfeaturing a number of authors reading from their own writings and then assessed
\nby judges. History between memory and fiction was one of the themes proposed
\nby the organisers at this year’s edition. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Poet Robert Serban, the president of
\nthe festival, explains:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I think that each of us, writers
\nand readers, has a connection with history. This festival is entitled West of
\nEast\/East of West. In Central and Eastern Europe there are stories we should
\nknow, our stories, the stories of our neighbours, stories we have interacted
\nwith, stories that have moulded us from a cultural and historical point of view
\nand ultimately from a human viewpoint too. Romania has constantly interacted
\nwith and permanently carried on a dialogue with the neighbouring countries and
\nit is very important that we know our partners of dialogue. It is also
\nimportant that we know the people by our side; it is perhaps more important
\nthan to know people on other continents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On the first night of the festival,
\nliterature lovers in Timisoara had the chance to meet two of the foremost
\nRomanian writers, prose writer Gabriela Adamesteanu, the most translated
\ncontemporary Romanian author, and Ion Vianu, who splits his time between
\nSwitzerland and Romania. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Robert Serban tells us more:
On the first night we brought together established writers. As you
\nmay know, Gabriela Adamesteanu is one of the most translated Romanian writers.
\nShe made her debut in the mid 1970s and was very active in the Romanian media
\nin the 1990s, shortly after the revolution, as director of Revista 22, being
\nalso a member of the Group for Social Dialogue. Ion Vianu was one of the few
\ncourageous people during Ceausescu’s dictatorship in Romania, being among the
\nfew to show solidarity with the dissident writer Paul Goma. Then he went into
\nexile to Switzerland because he risked being the target of retaliation. Writers
\nspoke about history and their latest works, the discussion being moderated by
\nwriter Adriana Babeti, one of the intellectuals Timisoara takes pride in.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On the second night of the festival, the
\nwell-known Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan, a veteran of the Euromaidan, and the
\nGerman prose writer of Polish descent Matthias Nawrat talked face to face.
\nTatiana Tibuleac of the Republic of Moldova, the author of one of the best
\nnovels published in 2016, carried on a face-to-face dialogue with Dan Lungu,
\nthe most translated Romanian writer of the new generation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Before attending the Timisoara Festival,
\nwhere she was presented as a revelation in the contemporary Romanian
\nliterature, Tatiana Tibuleac had also been invited to the International
\nFestival of Literature and Translation in the North-Eastern city of Iasi.
\nTatiana Tibuleac:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Both the Iasi Festival and the
\nTimisoara Festival were like a holiday for me. Besides the unexpected surprise
\nof being invited, it was also a great joy to meet so many people I had only
\nknown from their works and to attend the festivals for the first time as a
\nwriter because I had only been at such festivals as a journalist. I liked the
\nFestival in Timisoara very much for the way it was organised, though there were
\nless participants than in the Iasi Festival. The discussions I participated in
\nwere very important for me to know my position as a writer. The talks I had
\nwith Ion Vianu and Gabriela Adamesteanu after the festival were also very
\nimportant. Those people wrote books that can be considered real lessons of
\nliterature. Reading some prose by Gabriela Adamesteanu recently, I noted that
\nyears ago, she had written stuff that seems new to us today. That is why, it is
\nvery important to be connected to literature and realise that themes are
\nrecurrent and we only deal with them in a different way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Short and intense, the splendid novel of
\nTatiana Tibuleac shoots to fame a prose writer from whom I have the greatest
\nexpectations, writes Radu Vancu about her novel The Summer when My Mother’s
\nEyes Were Green brought out by Cartier Publishers. Tatiana Tibuleac again:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
When I started to write, I didn’t
\nthink it would be a book. I started to write the story of a woman who impressed
\nme last summer. But as I was writing, I realised I couldn’t stop and very many
\nthings on my mind that were somehow hidden, started coming out in that story.
\nAnd then I thought I should carry on to see what would come of it. At a certain
\npoint, I realised that I had to go through with that book. There were a lot of
\nthings I had wanted to say but I hadn’t found the form, the opportunity or the
\nmoment to do it. And that book gave me all that. After I wrote it, I realised
\nhow much good it had done to me to say those things.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Appreciated by readers and critics alike,
\nTatiana Tibuleac will see her novel published by the French publishing house
\nSyrtes next year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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