The Iași International Festival for Literature and Translation (FILIT) continues to receive praise in the international media, more than six months after its first edition (23-27 October 2013) has ended. In the prestigious German weekly “Der Freitag”, Markus Bauer describes FILIT as “an international event as neither the city (Iași), nor Romania has ever seen before.” The author believes that Romanian literature could have a better chance at being properly received in Germany due to the sparkling local cultural scene, the numerous valuable writers present at the event and the existence of the FILIT project itself.
The article which was recently published in “Der Freitag” belongs in a consistent series of positive reflections about the festival which appeared in the German mass-media, among which the radio show “Aspekte”, broadcast at Deutschlandradio Kultur and a large text published in “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Other references have appeared also in The French press (“Le Monde”) as well as that in Italy, Bulgaria, the Netherlands etc.
“(…) in the cultural city lying at the border with the Republic of Moldavia, the inexhaustible writer Dan Lungu, ex-leader of the Club 8 movement, founded at the end of October 2013, FILIT, the first festival of literature and translation in Romania, an international event as neither the city, nor the country has ever had.
Among the guests present, were writers such as, Aris Fioretos, Filip Florian, Jan Koneffke and Varujan Vosganian, translators such as Ernest Wichner and Jan Cornelius, cultural managers such as Ulrich Schreiber, director of the International Literaturfestival in Berlin, who gave the festival an instantaneous feeling of professionalism. It is obvious that FILIT has thus managed to send a signal, especially in the German-speaking countries, that on both sides of the Carpathians there exists a literature that is lively and worth being discovered. (…) Dan Lungu’s plans regarding FILIT coincide with those of the city of Iași to run for the title of “European Cultural Capital”, writes Markus Bauer in the German weekly “Der Freitag”.
This year, the second edition of FILIT will take place in the first week of October (between1-5 October 2014) reuniting in Iași more than 300 guests and benefiting from the support of many national and international cultural institutions, a number of strategic partnerships being currently finalized.
More recently, a new cultural project, itself part of the festival, has been launched, namely The FILIT residencies for translators. Thus, each year, a number of six translators from Romanian into another language will come to Romania for one month to work on a literary translation. For this, they will benefit from free transportation, free accommodation and a lump sum of 2000 RON. The initiative belongs to the Romanian Museum of Literature Iași and is supported by the Ipotești Memorial – the Mihai Eminescu National Research Centre, Suceava Rotary Club and the Belvedere Hotel in Vatra Dornei. More details can be found at: www.muzeulliteraturiiiasi.ro.
In 2014, FILIT will take place under the Patronage of the Representation of the European Commission in Romania. From its very beginning, FILIT has enjoyed the support of the Romanian National Bank and its entire programme has been devised in such a way as to include various manifestations dedicated to its institutional partners in Bucharest, Iași and to those from abroad.Between 23-27 October 2013, FILIT brought to Iasi over 200 guests from 17 countries, offering literature aficionados from all over Romania, more than 100 events. The total number of people who came to the first edition of FILIT was approximately 26.000, from which 16.000 attended the public lectures, the events organized in high schools and universities as well as the “FILIT Nights”, while another 10.000 visitors were registered by the Romanian Association of Editors which organized within the FILIT manifestations and for the first time in Iași, the “Bookfest” Book Fair.
FILIT is an annually-based project run by the Iași County Council and the Museum of Romanian Literature, Iași.