More than 50 Romanian authors attending the Salon du livre in Paris
More than 50 Romanian authors from all genres ranging from poetry to drama, from comic strip to essay and novel, will be attending in Paris the top event of the publishing industry - Salon du livre, running over March 21-25. According to a release from the Paris branch of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR), Romania's participation in the biggest European happening dedicated to the book addressed to the general public - the Paris Salon du livre - as the guest of honor this year is a first for the international promotion of Romania and Romanian literature.
This event is also an extraordinary opportunity for the professionals of the Romanian publishing industry to meet their counterparts from France and other countries, develop cooperation ties, the more so as ICR, in partnership with the Institut Français and BIEF - Bureau International de l'Edition Française - supports the trip to Paris of representatives of Romanian publishers and Romanian book distributors.
President of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) Andrei Marga told Agerpres that Romania's presence at the 33rd edition of the Salon du livre in Paris as a guest of honor is «a major event devoted to presenting Romanian culture at European and international level.»
ICR, in partnership with French institutions, the National Union of Publishers, the National Book Center, the French Institute, and with the support of the Romanian Ministry of Culture, launches on March 21 the program «Romania, guest of honor» at the Paris Book Fair.
Romania's inaugural concert will take place on March 21 evening at 21:30 on the Grand Stage of the Salon, with a jazz session marked by cimbalom rhythms, performed by the Marius Preda Quartet featuring Anne Ducros as a guest.
The Romanian Embassy in Paris will host a concert of soprano Teodora Gheorghiu, with members of the diplomatic corps in the French capital invited to attend; the show is offered by the Bucharest City Hall through CreArT - the Center for Creation, Art and Tradition of the Bucharest Municipality.
Boasting a spectacular design and covering 400 square meters, Romania's Pavilion, which will accommodate a book shop and an area for debates, is this year's star at the Paris Book Fair.
FNAC, the partner of the event, in cooperation with the Carturesti chain of book shops, sets at the disposition of the public over 1,000 titles in Romanian and over 600 writings by Romanian authors translated into French.
Romania's Pavilion, the stand of the National Book Centre, the stand the French Institute and the three stages of the fair will host over 60 events and debates, roundtable and professional meetings, including happenings devoted to a peep behind the scenes of the writer's work, to poetry created behind the wall of Communism until the exit from totalitarianism, the literature of the Romanian diaspora and a mosaic of Romanian identity, to the reflection of the crisis of the society in contemporary Romanian literature, the reconstruction of a European Romania, to East and West literary meetings, translations, the Shoah or ... in a completely different set of mind, to the presence in Romania of PIF, a popular French comic strip character.
The Romanian publishers will meet their peers from France and from all over the world at a dedicated professional meeting and there is also a meeting of PEN France with PEN Romania scheduled at the PEN Club in Paris.
Romanian poets present at the event will deliver verse recitals at the Sorbonne and at the headquarters of the Romanian Embassy in Paris.
Prince Radu of Romania will also attend, participating in a debate on the Romanian spirituality in twentieth century Europe, to be moderated by historian Adrian Cioroianu. The Prince will then give autographs and will meet the Romanian diaspora in the Capital of Lights, at the seat of ICR Paris.
There is also a rich agenda of concerts of jazz or classical music hosted by the fair venue, the Sorbonne, and the Byzantine Hall of the Romanian Embassy in France.
The 33rd edition of the Paris Book Fair will bring together more than 2,000 authors and 1,200 exhibitors from 45 countries, and is expected to draw 35,000 professional visitors from the publishing industry.
More than 190,000 visitors attended last year's edition that brought together more than 2,000 authors from 40 countries.
Adapted from Agerpres