Photo credit: 2929 Productions (courtesy David Barraza)
The guest list, as well as the schedule of the second edition of the International Festival of Literature and Translation (FILIT), which will take place between 1 and 5 October, are now almost in their final form. A new name came to join the list of authors that will feature during the “FILIT nights” – the Mexican writer Guillermo Arriaga, a bona-fide celebrity of international literature and film: accomplished scriptwriter, film director and producer.
Before embarking on a writing career, Arriaga tried several trades and professions, working as a boxer and playing professional basketball and football. He is the author of the novels Escuadrón Guillotina (1991), Un dulce olor a muerte (1994) and El Búfalo de la noche (1999). Guillermo Arriaga’s books have been published in Romanian by Vellant Publishing.
Together with the film director Alejandro González Iñárritu, Arriaga has authored scripts for famous movies such as: Amores Perros – which brought them an Oscar nomination for best foreign language picture, a BAFTA award for best foreign language film, the awards “Critics Week Grand Prize” and “Young Critics Award” at the Cannes Film Festival (2000) as well as many other awards and nominations; 21 Grams (with Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn), nominated at the BAFTAs for best screenplay; The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (a film in which he played a supporting part, as a bear hunter), for which Arriaga received the award for best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005, and Babel (with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett). He is also the director and scriptwriter of the film The Burning Plain (2008), featuring Charlize Theron and Kim Bassinger.
Although he has received several awards as a scriptwriter, Arriaga has repeatedly stated that he dislikes being called that, and that both him and the rest of the scriptwriters are in fact writers who should be acknowledged as such.
Together with Guillermo Arriaga, the FILIT events will host other international writers: Cătălin Dorian Florescu (Switzerland), Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria), Jens Christian Grondahl (Denmark), Patrick McGuinness (United Kingdom), James Meek (United Kingdom), Marius Daniel Popescu (Switzerland), Małgorzata Rejmer (Poland), Fabio Stassi (Italy), Marius Szczygieł (Poland) and Oksana Zabușko (Ukraine).
Also, the visitors of FILIT will be able to meet well-known Romanian prose writers: Cezar Paul-Bădescu, Gabriel Chifu, Dumitru Crudu, Mircea Diaconu, Caius Dobrescu, Matei Florian, Marin Mălaicu-Hondrari, Cătălin Mihuleac, Adina Rosetti, Corina Sabău, Adrian Schiop, Dumitru Ţepeneag, Alexandru Vakulovski and Daniel Vighi.
On the list of foreign translators who have confirmed their presence at FILIT can be found Georg Aescht (Germany), Sunia Acmambet (Turkey), Sean Cotter (USA), Marian Ochoa de Eribe (Spain), Roberto Merlo (Italy), Karácsonyi Zsolt (Hungary).
In 2014 FILIT is once again glad to be the host of great personalities from the international cultural management scene: Nick Barley (United Kingdom –- director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival), Anca Fronescu (the Netherlands – project/cultural manager in the education domain, corporate and freelance), Dominique Gaultier (France – founder and director of the “Le Dilettante” publishing house in Paris), Martin De Haan (the Netherlands – vice-president of CEATL – Conseil Européean des Associations des Traducteurs Littéraires), Laura Seifert (Germany, project manager for Kulturförderpunkt Berlin), Ernest Wichner (Germany – writer, translator, director of Literaturhaus Berlin).
Organised under the under the high patronage of the European Commission Representation in Romania, FILIT 2014 is structured around five main sections:
– “Casa FILIT” (the “FILIT House”) (meetings and debates with the public in front of the Palace of Culture, where a temporary modular structure will be the host of public events, as well as of the Festival Press Centre and of a book exhibition/market);
– “Serile FILIT” (the “FILIT Nights”) (nightly events taking place in the Grand Auditorium of the Iasi National Theatre);
– “Întâlniri în licee” (“Meetings in high-schools”) (with the support of the Iasi County Education Authority; apart from these, the writers will meet high-school students during separate sections – “Întâlnirile Alecart” / the “Alecart meetings”, in the Aula Magna of the “Petre Andrei” University, and “Întâlnirile Clubului de Lectură Logos” / the “Meetings of the Logos Reading Club” of the “Mihai Eminescu” High-school, in the Pod Pogor hall, at the Romanian Literature Museum);
– the Bookfest Book Fair (3-5 October, in the Hall of Echoing Steps, at the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University);
– “Casa Poeziei” / the “House of Verse”, an absolutely new element for this year, which will host on each festival day meetings and public readings by Romanian poets at the Dosoftei Museum (the list of invited poets, as well as the detailed final schedule will be published shortly). Also present on the schedule of FILIT 2014 is “Noaptea albă a Poeziei” / “The White Night of Poetry”.
Dozens of related events will be organised together with this year’s FILIT partners and will be presented shortly to the public on our website, as well as in the media, in the catalogue and in other promotional materials.
All in all, the 2014 edition of FILIT will bring together over 300 prominent guests from the international and Romanian literature, as well as translators, cultural managers, critics and cultural journalists.