Portugal is the guest country at this year's edition of Bookfest International Book Fair, which will take place between May 28 and June 1 at Romexpo, in Bucharest.
The fair will be an "opportunity for Romanian readers to rediscover Portuguese literature and explore the Portuguese cultural diversity through the books, authors, translators, and publishers that will participate in the event," the organizers said.
Among the Portuguese authors attending the fair will be José Luís Peixoto, the 2001 winner of the José Saramago Literary Prize, and Gonçalo M. Tavares, who was awarded the same distinction in 2005.
José Luís Peixoto, a writer translated into more than 30 languages and considered one of the most important voices in Portuguese literature today, will sign autographs at Bookfest 2025 on copies of Galveias, his most recent work to be translated into Romanian.
Another author who will meet the Romanian public will be Gonçalo M. Tavares, whose works have been translated at publishing houses in both Romania and Moldova. Tavares, who has been compared to Kalfka or Lobo Antunes, won the praise of José Saramago, who expected Tavares would one day win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Journalist and screenwriter Ana Margarida de Carvalho is also on the list of Portuguese writers who will arrive in Bucharest. She is the author of three novels and two books of short stories, which have won various awards, including the European Union Prize for Literature in 2021. Her most recent book, Cartografias de Lugares mal Situados, published in 2021, was a Portuguese PEN Club Award finalist.
João Melo, a writer who divides his time between Angola, Portugal, and the United States of America, will also be in Bucharest at the end of May. A founding member of the Union of Writers of Angola and the Angolan Academy of Letters and Social Sciences, Melo is the author of 26 books, including poetry, short stories, essays, and a novel. His writings have been translated in the United States, Cuba and Italy and included in numerous international anthologies.
Maria do Rosário Pedreira is a well-known poet, editor, and author of children's books and fado lyrics. Her children's books have been adapted for television and have become part of the established fictional world of Portuguese teenagers. An appreciated voice of today's Lusitanian poetry, she was awarded the Inés de Castro Foundation Prize in 2012. She is also an editor at Leya, one of the most important Portuguese publishing houses.
Mafalda Milhões, a book illustrator, author, editor, and promoter of reading, will also be present at Bookfest 2025. Milhões is one of the driving forces behind the editorial project O Bichinho de Conto, the beloved publishing house and bookstore in Lisbon.
David Machado, the winner of the European Union Prize for Literature in 2015, is among the guests of Bookfest 2025. Indice Medio de Felicidade (Average Happiness Index), the novel that earned him the European prize, was also adapted for cinema, in a film directed by Joaquim Leitão. He is also one of the most popular Portuguese authors of books for children and young adults, with titles that have sold in impressive print runs, accompanied by good reviews from critics. Three of his books - The Shark in the Bathtub, illustrated by Paulo Galindro; The Night of the Invented Animals, illustrated by Teresa Lima; and I Think I Can Help, illustrated by Mafalda Milhões - will be released in Romanian at Bookfest, by Ars Libri Publishing House, translated by Isabel Tischer.
Two professionals of the Portuguese book market will also be present at the book fair in Bucharest. One of them is Henrique Mota, a former president of the Federation of European Publishers and founder of the independent publishing house Princípia Editora. The other is Rosa Azevedo, co-owner of the independent bookstore Snob in Lisbon. She also represents Portugal as a juror for the European Prize for Literature in 2025.
An anthology of contemporary Portuguese stories, titled Valuri, dune, case deschise / Waves, Dunes, Open Homes, will be launched at this year's Bookfest. The volume, coordinated by Ana Rita Reis and published by Casa Cărții de Știință with the support of the Camões Institute, aims to present to local readers sixteen contemporary Portuguese authors who are not yet, for the most part, available in Romanian. The selection includes authors from different generations, although the stories gathered in this volume were published in the last 20 years.
(Photo: Adrea | Dreamstime.com)
simona@romania-insider.com
This article has been amended to clarify that Henrique Mota is a former president of the Federation of European Publishers. The current president is Sonia Draga.
