In this week’s literary roundup from around the world, people in the literary community are both paying tribute to celebrated icons and paving paths for contemporary voices. From the Romanian diaspora, an exciting new publication threads the past and present, adding to an incredible legacy of literary journals. In the Philippines, book fairs are highlighting minority languages and independent publishers. In Croatia, new literary projects orient their local communities around the act of reading and writing, as well as making intellectual space to consider the role of the political novel.
MARGENTO, Editor-at-Large, reporting for the Romanian diaspora
One of the most significant recent events involving the Romanian diaspora was the debut release of the literary journal Littera Nova in Madrid, Spain, earlier this week. With an impressive range of established and emerging writers contributing literature both in original languages and in translation, alongside essays and criticism, the journal confidently joins a rich market as well as a solid and long-standing tradition. As the founding director Eugen Barz states in his prefatory note, previous frontrunners in the literary journal landscape include post-WWII Romanian periodicals published in metropoles as diverse as Paris, Madrid, Buenos Aires, and Honolulu, and edited by legends such as Mircea Eliade, Alexandru Busuioceanu, George Uscatescu, Stefan Baciu, Vintila Horia, and many others.
In the wake of iconic late-Romantic/early-modernist Eminescu’s 173rd birthday, the issue also includes a significant number of remarkable texts referring to the great classic: an erudite and incisive essay from Asymptote past contributor Felix Nicolau drawing parallels between Eminescu and both Shakespeare and Dimitrie Cantemir; poems translated into English by K.V. Twain; and a selection from the poet’s correspondence by Ovidiu Pecican. The journal deftly balances criticism and creative writing/translation, featuring classic modernists such as Lucian Blaga and Ion Pillat (translated into Italian by Stefan Damian and Bruno Rombi, and into French by Gabrielle Danoux), and Surrealist master—and past Asymptote contributor—Gellu Naum (in English translation from Nicoleta Craete), amongst others.
The Romanian diaspora continues to contribute significant texts and translations in platforms all around the world; for example, Asymptote contributor Diana Manole has recently had one of her plays featured in EastWest Literary Forum, released a collection of new and selected poems by revered Nora Iuga (co-translated with Adam J. Sorkin), and is gearing up for the release of her own forthcoming poetry collection in Canada. Also, major diasporic poet, novelist, and critic O. Nimigean, whose rare social media posts are at times almost as impactful as his best-selling books, reasserted on Facebook the continued relevance of the late paradigmatic fiction writer and anti-Ceaușescu militant Paul Goma (himself an epitome of both domestic and exilic heroic resistance), particularly as reflected by Flori Balanescu’s recent books on the subject.
Alton Melvar M Dapanas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from the Philippines
Colombia’s Nobel and Neustadt laureate Gabriel García Márquez will find his way to more Filipino bookshelves in the latest translation by Luchie Maranan. Isang Daang Taon ng Pag-iisa, published by Lampara Books, is Maranan’s elegiac translation into the (Tagalog-based) Filipino of the magical realism classic Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude). In an interview with Baguio Midland Courier during the book launch at the famed Mt. Cloud Bookshop, the Palanca award-winning writer opened up that it was her brother, the late poet Edgar B Maranan, who set this project in motion until his death from kidney disease.
Luchie Maranan also headlined the panel titled “Found in Translation” at the Philippine Book Fair, held at the University of Baguio and organised by the Book Development Association of the Philippines with the National Book Development Board (NBDB) and UBBOG Cordillera Writers. Joining Maranan were Junley L Lazaga, Bebang Siy, and the moderator, past Asymptote contributor Luna Sicat Cleto. Apart from talks on children’s literature, literary journal publishing, and graphic novels, other noteworthy panel discussions at the book fair included one devoted on writing in the Ilokano language, and one concerning Cordillera culture, which spotlighted storytellers from northern Philippine regions such as Frank Cimatu, Gawani Gaongen, Brenda Subido-Dácpano.
Also in collaboration with the NBDB was The Indie Publishers Collab PH, a collective of independent presses from across the country, who held satellite events of the INDIEPUBCON 2.0, starting with the Ilocos Sur province. In their Cebu leg, past Asymptote contributor Cindy A Velasquez—whose series of children’s storybooks and anthology of contemporary Cebuano Binisayâ poetry in translation are both forthcoming—served as one of the expert speakers. The Indie Publishers Collab PH also announced the winners of the Indie Book Awards, which includes 100 Pink Poems Para Kay Leni [100 Pink Poems for Leni], an anthology of sixty-seven poets written in honour of democracy icon, former vice president, and Harvard Kennedy School Hauser Leader Ma. Leonor “Leni” G. Robredo.
In Manila, the city governments of Manila and Moscow led a wreath-laying ceremony at Alexander Pushkin’s monument at the Mehan Park, in honor of Russia’s national poet. It has been thirteen years since the unveiling of the said monument, which was established in celebration of the friendship between Russia and the Philippines. The event was capped with a message from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and a performance from the Moscow National Academic Dance Theatre.
Katarina Gadze, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Croatia
When political and artistic imaginations intertwine in writing, literature finds its potential to transcend all national and cultural borders, highlighting and legitimizing the broad sweep of global and local politics. One can then consider political novels as texts that attempt to create conscious ideological tools, for the construction of a more integrated cultural space. Since political novels carry their own ideologies, and since all ideologies in turn carry within them the seeds of their own destruction—either through contradiction or through the revelation of their incompleteness, to what extent does the political novel then serve the purpose of self-preservation? A project entitled The Cartography of the Political Novel in Europe (CAPONEU), presented on Friday, February 17 at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb, offered precisely the opportunity to ask such questions. While in politics there is no room for poetry. In poetry, it’s the opposite.
In the Vrbnik (kv)art project, an example of a neighborhood initiative, literature is involved in bringing together and strengthening the local community of Vrbnik. The project integrates art and culture into local schools, kindergartens, and a retirement home, creating an enriching experience for citizens of all ages and forging cultural connections between neighbors. On this occasion (and after a successful “self-love” workshop on February 18), two more therapeutic poetry writing workshops named “Gentler towards oneself” (Nježnije prema sebi) will be held on March 4 and 18 at the Ivan Goran Kovačić Library in Vrbnik, led by poet Monika Herceg and psychotherapist Ana Perović.
How many forms can love take? Answers are to be found at the poetic-ambient exhibition Panorama of Women’s Love Poetry (Panorama ženskog ljubavnog pjesništva), on display at the Striegl Municipal Gallery in Sisak until February 28. Often thought of as an emotion that can only be expressed in prescribed ways, many would instead argue there are a variety of ways to love and to describe love. An event everyone should attend, this exhibition thus includes a selection of poems made by the award-winning poet Marija Dejanović, all of which deal with love in from different perspectives, questioning the way romantic love has been portrayed in everyday life.
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