The Romanian writer has to return to the city, and the Romanian Writers' Guild should gain greater visibility in the European cultural network, says author Varujan Vosganian, who on Wednesday was elected chairman of the Romanian Writers' Guild following the vacancy of this position after the death, on March 23, of the former chair, literary critic Nicolae Manolescu.
Speaking about the re-establishment of the role of the writer in the Romanian society, Vosganian told AGERPRES, that "Authors are among those who practically built modern Romania in the nineteenth century, who attended national schools in the interwar period and who stood up to the concentration camp during the communist period. And in the '90s, many writers got involved in the political and civic space, without managing to transform the transition into an essentially cultural process. I think that the Romanian writer should return to the city, especially in troubled moments like these."
He added that it is necessary to adopt a cultural strategy for Romania, given the controversies related to the national identity and our place in Europe, together with the need for young people's access to the organisation, and also the visibility and external relations of the Writers' Guild are another concern of the new chair.
Vosganian also announced that the guild has set up a branch for honorary members of the Writers' Guild, which will include "translators from other languages, publishers or those who write about Romanian literature, promoters of Romanian literature abroad", whom the guild wants to "keep close and respect for what they do for the Romanian culture."
"A very important point is related to narrowing this cultural deficit that makes the imported book market in Romania occupy over 90% of the total books. And the relationship between the import and export of literature is blatantly to the disadvantage of Romanian literature, which, practically, via the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Ministry of Culture, has an extremely low promotion and ridiculous funds abroad," Vosganian added.
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