Though Asymptote is winding down with the year, literary events and going-ons continue to thrive around the globe. In Mexico, the Guadalajara International Book Fair presents its impressive line-up, and Polish female poets are celebrated in a new collection. In Bulgaria, the Christmas Book Fair returns to delight the locals. and in Romania, the Gaudeamus Book Fair features over one hundred exciting events. Read on to find out more!
Alan Mendoza Sosa, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Mexico
On December 10, Mexican editor, poet, and translator Isabel Zapata presented Dentro del bosque, an English-Spanish translation of the autobiographical essay Into the Woods by American author Emily Gould. The essay reflects on contemporary capitalist precarity through Gould’s personal experience as a young woman trying to make a living as a writer in New York City. Originally published in 2014, its translation into Spanish is part of the Editor’s Collection from Gris Tormenta, an independent publisher based in Querétaro, a rapidly growing state three hours north of Mexico City. Gris Tormenta has published several Asymptote contributors in the past, including Yuri Herrera, Tedi López Mills, and Thomas Bernhard.
On December 4, Mexican poet Rocío Cerón and Polish poet Marta Eloy Cichocka presented Luz que fue sombra, a Polish-Spanish bilingual collection of seventeen Polish female poets born between 1963 and 1981, translated by Abel Murcia and Gerardo Beltrán. The book was published in the Spanish independent press Vaso Roto, which has published Spanish translations of important authors such as Anne Carson, John Ashbery, and Ocean Vuong. It includes poems by Justyna Bargielska, Barbara Klicka, Krystyna Dąbrowska, and Urszula Zajączkowska. Julia Fiedorczuk, whose book Oxygen was reviewed for Asymptote by Elisa González, is one of the most renowned authors in the collection. The event took place in Talleres de Arte Contemporáneo (TACO), a cultural centre south of Mexico City dedicated to promoting and teaching contemporary art.
The 35th edition of the Guadalajara International Book Fair took place in Guadalajara, one of Mexico’s largest cities, between November 27 and December 5. It is considered one of the most important book festivals in Latin America. This year, the guest of honor was Peru, from where several important authors and artists travelled to Mexico to present their work, lead workshops, and host panels. Among them was Asymptote contributor Victoria Guerrero. Importantly, the events featuring Peru offered significant representation of literature written in indigenous languages, including books by Dina Ananco Ahuananchi, Gabriel Pacheco, Cha’ska Ninawaman, and Washington Córdova. The fair also featured both emerging and established authors from all over the world. Many of them have previously appeared in Asymptote, such as Ana Luísa Amaral, Georgi Gospodinov, Abdellah Taïa, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, and Alejandro Zambra.
Andriana Hamas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Bulgaria
Bulgaria has, for a long time now, been in the grips of mass paranoia, an all-encompassing misinformation campaign, and political turmoil. The health situation also not looking up; according to official statistics, the COVID-19 deaths are, sadly, approaching the chilling number of 30 000 since the beginning of the pandemic—a figure that definitely cannot be trivialised given the overall population.
Despite the terrifying statistics—or perhaps precisely because of them—the Bulgarian Christmas Book Fair has returned for another round, and hopes to bring joy and warmth to the hearts of the locals right before the beginning of the holidays. In accordance with tradition, the event is taking place at the National Palace of Culture, located in the capital, Sofia. In addition to an impressive number of book stands, at which more than eighty renowned publishers will be interacting directly with the readers, the wonderful celebration boasts a fully loaded cultural program. The Sofia International Literary Festival and its offshoot, the Sofia International Literary Festival for Children and Youth, will host a myriad of interesting discussions devoted to various topics, including: “Online literature, podcasts, and bookstagrammers,” “Autobiographies and the biography genre,” “Authorship, criticism, and Facebook,” and “Who has the right to translate?”.
Naturally, all visitors are required to wear face masks. Those wishing to visit the fair should also keep in mind that a valid vaccination certificate needs to be presented upon entry. What is more, for the first time this year, a special laboratory—where a PCR test can be done—has been set up at the building’s ticket center.
Ah, the things we do for love… of books!
MARGENTO, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Romania and Belgium
A significant event in Romanian letters these past weeks sees the first volume of Asymptote past contributor Simona Popescu’s Opera poetica (Poetic Works) being released. The five hundred page installment of the internationally renowned poet’s collected works has already received significant attention, with critic Cosmin Ciotloş relevantly quoting Whitman’s self-portrayal in describing it (alongside Popescu’s poetics per se) as: “full of life, now, compact, visible.” Popescu, now middle-aged, displays indeed a matchless vitality and prolificacy that flows even beyond the covers of this impressive tome, as she also organizes literary festivals or academic events during the endlessly successive lockdowns.
Such restrictions seem, in fact, incapable of preventing the fervent literary and cultural life in Bucharest from going on— in a consistent fashion if not at its full strength. The 28th edition of the Gaudeamus Book Fair, held from November 17 to the 21 entirely online, featured over one hundred events (live and/or recorded) on the Facebook page, and showcased over eighty presses and companies.
On the other end of the European Union, in Belgium, the government has not (re)enforced a lockdown (yet)—despite struggling with a rising wave of infections, and performances and events with less than two hundred people in attendance (the case of most literary events there or elsewhere) are still allowed. The opening on December 15 of an exhibition at La Maison du Livre (Books’ House) in the European capital, titled Babioles et trésors (Baubles and Treasure Chests), presented the audience with an unusual collection; the exhibition—to continue through February 27th 2022—is initiated by the Archives of the Museum of Literature and co-organized with partners such as the academic project HANDLING, and undertakes to showcase “the hidden face of Belgian literature.” Fetiches are there on display along with “usual” objects such as Nobel Prize Winner Maurice Maeterlinck’s asthma machine, and past Asymptote contributor Amelie Nothomb’s foldable wooden chair, which has her autograph etched upon it.
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