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Romania will have its own stand at the London Book Fair, April 18-20, and a diverse schedule of events to be organised by the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) through the National Book Centre under the slogan "ROMANIA at LBF - Write Where We Belong!"
On display at the 25-sq.m. Romanian stand will be a selection of recent Romanian books, made available to the Romanian Cultural Institute by the most famous Romanian publishing houses, as well as a catalogue prepared by the National Book Centre bringing together 15 Romanian prose titles with presentations and excerpts exhibited next to several dozen postcards illustrated by Romanian artist depicting national identity offered by the Romanian Post Office, told Agerpres.
"We are up to date on translations from the world literature, and the professionals of the Romanian publishing industry are increasingly connected to international book publishing events," according to Director of the National Book Centre Oana Boca Stanescu.
Organised under the umbrella of the London Book Fair, with support from the Romanian Embassy in the UK, the events will take place in three well-known bookstores in London.
The series of events starts on April 18 with a debate for the book publishing and distribution professionals, hosted by the London Review BOOKSHOP, the bookstore of the famous British cultural publication.
Called "Breaking into the '3%'. Ways of Publishing Romanian Books in English," the meeting will bring to the same table Rebecca Servadio (managing partner, London Literary Scouting), Vlad Niculescu (one of the most well-known and appreciated Romanian booksellers, the founder of the independent bookstore Anthony Frost, the current manager of the Carturesti & friend bookstore), Raluca Selejan (co-founder of the La Doua Bufnite independent bookstore in Timisoara), as well as authors Paula Erizanu and Livia Stoia (founder of the Livia Stoia Agency, one of the most active Romanian literary agencies promoting Romanian authors). Opening the event, moderated by journalist Marius Constantinescu, will be ICR Chairman Liviu Jicman.
On April 19, at Nomad Books, recently named the best independent bookstore of 2023 at The British Book Awards, "Politics and Power in Romanian Arts Before the Romanian Revolution" debate will take place.
"The discussion is built around the volume 'Visual Arts in Romania 1945-1989. With an Addendum 1990-2020' by Magda Carneci (published in 2022 by the ICR Publishing House, English translation by Alina Carac). Joining the author for the debate will be Raluca Oancea (Nestor), a lecturer at the Bucharest National University of Arts, an active curator on the visual art scene and a cultural journalist specialising in aesthetics, contemporary arts and new media. Moderating the event will be Paula Erizanu, author, journalist, editor, graduate of history, literature and history of arts at the New College of the Humanities in London and a City University London journalism graduate," according to ICR.
Magda Carneci's "FEM" novel translated by Sean Cotter has recently been published by Deep Vellum.
The novel "Caiet de cenzor" (The Censor's Notebook) by Liliana Corobca (Polirom, 2017), recently published in English by Seven Stories Press, will be the starting point of a meeting on "Censorship as Literature | Literature as Censorship" on April 20 at the INK@84 Books bookstore.
The author of the novel and its English translator Monica Cure, together with Dan Simon of the Seven Stories Publishing House, will be the protagonists of a debate moderated by literary critic and cultural journalist Matthew Janney.
The ICR stand at the London Book Fair will host, for the entire duration, an audio installation called The BLACK BOX of Romanian Poetry, a time capsule and possible relic dedicated to the post-Anthropocene, containing the works of 20 contemporary Romanian poets recited by actor Alexandru Potocean.
The London Book Fair, hosted by Olympia London, and dedicated exclusively to the book publishing industry -- publishers, literary agents, printers, electronic book producers, booksellers and book distributors -- is the world's second-largest international book fair.
