site.btaRomanian Writer Bogdan-Alexandru Stanescu Meets with Bulgarian Readers in Sofia

Romanian prose writer, translator, and editor Bogdan-Alexandru Stanescu met with Bulgarian readers in Sofia as part of the 50th International Book Fair in the capital. He and Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov discussed with readers the topic of how well we know our neighbours.

Stanescu told BTA that he often asks himself this question. The series of Gospodinov's books are based on the idea that we want to combine the so-called big literature works with those of Romanian neighbours, he noted. As the head of a publishing house, Stanescu said that they have published Bulgarian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, and Serbian literature. 

During the discussion, Gospodinov argued that during the transition period, the interest between the various Balkan literatures was not strong. After 1989, the interest towards the once forbidden literature of the West peaked. However, in the last years the interest between Balkan literatures has returned. "We have read everything foreign and now we decide that the very fact of co-existence is not just geography. There is something existential in it," Gospodinov said. The interest in the neighbour is returning through books, he added. "We begin to understand that the success of every Balkan writer attracts the interest in Balkan literatures," he noted. According to him, European publishers and critics will finally realize that what is to be said in the Balkan literature will give many explanations that Europe currently lacks.

Also attending the event was Romanian Ambassador to Bulgaria Ioana Predescu. She expressed the wish for similar discussions to happen not only within a book fair. "Personally, I am very happy and see nothing bad in the fact that a Romanian author or a Bulgarian author receives international awards," she added.