With major book events cancelled or postponed as far apart as Taiwan, Italy and France, the 2020 international book fair calendar promises to be train wreck as the Coronavirus crisis deepens, but smaller regional events may fare better.
Romania has reported three confirmed incidences as this post goes live, which may be few enough for at least the first of the wonderful Bookfest series of book fairs to go ahead.
While deserving of international attention, these events rarely get noticed outside the country’s borders, are are not (yet) on the danger list.
First up this year is Bookfest Timișoara, which this year will have 40,000 titles on sale, and an impressive list of over 40 exhibitors including Romania’s leading publishers and distributors, among them Corinth, Didactica House, Fischer International, Herald, Humanitas, Linghea, Litera, Nemira, Niculescu, Nomina, Parallel 45, Polirom , Polydis, RAO, Trei, Astro, Okian and of course Timișoara’s “La Bufnițe” bookstore.
Author events (over 30 book launches) include Gabriel Liiceanu, Horia-Roman Patapievici, Radu Paraschivescu, Cristian Pressura, Tatiana Niculescu, Vlad Zografi, Mircea Mihăieș, Radu Pavel Gheo, Wilhelm Tauwinkl, Claudiu T. Arieșan, Marcel Tolcea, Viorel Marineasa, Daniel Vighi, Cristian Pătrăşconiu and Robert Șerban, few of whom may be household names elsewhere in the world, but all attracting keen interest in Romania.
The Bookfest series of events runs through the year, with the main Bookfest Bucharest event hopefully taking place in May.
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