Junot Díaz, Tracy Chevalier, Michel Bussi: Iași literature festival announces first guests at 2025 edition

Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz, Tracy Chevalier, the author of the international best seller Girl with a Pearl Earring, and French author Michel Bussi, known for his widely translated thriller novels, are among the authors set to attend this year’s Iași International Literature and Translation Festival(FILIT), the largest literary festival in the country.

They will be joined by authors Nick Bradley (United Kingdom), Dorota Masłowska (Poland), Alma Mathijsen (Netherlands), Judith Poznan (Germany), Nikola Scott (Germany), Leo Vardiashvili (Georgia, United Kingdom), Carlo Vecce (Italy), and Isidoros Zourgos (Greece).

Three established Ukrainian authors, directly involved in the ongoing war, will also attend the festival. They are Olena Herasymiuk, a poet, combat participant, paramedic, and civic activist; Pavlo Matyusha, a poet, author, translator, and captain in the Armed Forces of Ukraine; and Serhii Demciuk, writer, journalist, and a soldier in the Second International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine.

Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu is another guest of the event, as are other Romanian authors Shauki Al-Gareeb, Cezarina Anghilac, Lorina Bălteanu, Ioana Bâldea Constantinescu, Florin Bican, Corin Braga, Mimi Brănescu, Ruxandra Cesereanu, Marian Coman, Bogdan Crețu, Silvia Dumitru, Cristian Fulaș, Tudor Ganea, Andrei Gorzo, Ciprian Mitoceanu, Veronica D. Niculescu, Daniela Rațiu, Andreea Răsuceanu, Ligia Ruscu, Radu Vancu, and Alina Voinea.

Also present at FILIT 2025 will be translators who contribute to promoting Romanian literature: Sindre Andersen (Norway), Anita Bernacchia (Italy), Monica Cure (Romania/USA), Peter Groth (Germany), Laure Hinckel (France), Radosława Janowska-Lascar (Poland), Đura Miočinović (Serbia), Corina Oproae (Spain), Szonda Szabolcs (Romania – Hungarian), and Jiřina Vyorálková (Czech Republic).

FILIT will host a stage of the CELA – Connecting Emerging Literary Artists partner festivals tour, which supports writers and translators in languages with low editorial visibility. Writers Ajda Bračič (Slovenia) and Corinne Heyrman (Netherlands/Belgium) will take part in a conversation with their translators, Sergiu Lozinschi (Slovenian), Mădălina Balea, and Andreea Bălteanu (Dutch). The Romanian team of translators will also be present at the festival: Jessica Bilcec (Ukrainian), Ilinca Gângă (Spanish), George Doru Ivan (Italian), Maria Lupescu (Bulgarian), Aleksandra Petrov (Serbian), Andrei Săndulescu (Czech), and Oana-Andreea Stoe (Polish).

FILIT takes place between October 22 and October 26.

(Photo: FILIT Iași Facebook Page)