Transylvanian Book Festival

The Transylvanian Book Festival celebrates Transylvania’s history, literature, architecture, music and food. We look forward to welcoming you at this unique English-speaking festival in the ancient Saxon landscape of Richis and surrounding villages. The festival is sustainably small with a limited number of tickets, so that writers and audiences can share discussions, discoveries and delicious meals together. We also offer a small tour to a wonderful privately owned manor house in Moldavia and to visit the painted monasteries after the festival.

Transylvanian Book Festival Programme 12-15 September 2024

Day tickets for the Transylvanian Book Festival are available 13 – 15 September 2024.
A limited number of Patrons’ and Friends’ tickets are also still available. 

Talks will take place in the Village Hall in Richis and be in English unless stated otherwise. 

PROGRAM:

Friday 13 September 

Ticket price 20€ 

A.M. 

10.00 Welcome by Bronwen Riley, Creative Director, in the Village Hall. 

10.20 Dr Ciprian Firea will open with keynote talk on the Saxon Priest Patrons of the Transylvanian Renaissance with special reference to the recently restored wall-painting of the Last Judgement (funded by the UK Mihai Eminescu Trust and the Horizon Foundation) 

11.00 Coffee in the priest house. 

Continue to the church of Biertan for a tour led by Ciprian Firea.  Own transport required. 

PM 

Break for lunch (not included). Exhibitions of Iulian Ignat’s celebrated photographs of Roma musicians and work by award-winning young wildlife photographer Mara Puiu will be open in the village hall. Festival bookshop.  

16.00 Marina Cantacuzino on the inspiration behind The Forgiveness Project and her latest book Forgiveness: An Exploration, recently published in Romanian.  

 16.45 Prof Marc David Baer on the Ottomans in Europe, in conversation with HM Ambassador to Romania, Giles Portman, and Dr Alex Drace-Francis  

Saturday 14 September  

Tickets €20 

The Village Hall, Richis 

10.00 Dr Shona Kallestrup ‘The Artistic and Literary Patronage of Queen Elisabeta and Queen Marie of Romania’. 

10.45 Coffee 

11.15  Alexandra Mihailciuc of the Designer, Thinkers, Makers Association will speak on ‘Culture and cultures. Connecting the dots’ and on her new books on heritage education and cultural identity. 

12.00 Artist Ilinca Cantacuzino speaks about her evolving dialogue with the life and art of her grandfather, the architect  
GM Cantacuzino. 

12.45 Patrons and Friends will depart for a private lunch and tour in Mosna  

14.00 Alexandra Mihailciuc will run a heritage workshop and tour of Richis for children.  

14.00 Poet Alta Ifland will run a poetry hub and workshop in Richis in Romanian/English/ French. 

16.00 William Blacker on the work of the ‘Ambulance for Monuments’  

16.45 Iulian Ignat will discuss 20 years of photo-documenting gypsy musicians in Romania. The illustrated talk with recordings will be in Romanian, with English translation 

18.00 'Mirrors of Love', a musical improvisation with literary inserts from Elif Shafak's 'The Forty Rules of Love' - conceived by Radu Radescu with narration by Irina-Margareta Nestor; original music played by Attila J. Szabo, Raphael Toth, Edith H. Toth and Radu Radescu. Performance in Richis church. (open to all - donations welcome) 

Sunday 15th September

Richis Village Hall 

Tickets €20 

10.10 Dr Alex Drace-Francis on the history of Mamaliga, the subject of his latest book. 

11.00-11.25  Liv Mueller will give an organ recital in Richis church. 

12.00 Prof Freddy Bruckstein on the latest translation of his father Ludovic’s short stories. 

15.00 Alta Ifland will host her multi-lingual poetry hub/workshop  

15.45 recital of poetry composed during the festival 

16.30 Nicolae Ratiu presents a new Romanian translation Moscova Provocea Lumea by his father Ion Ratiu, first published in English as Moscow Challenges the World. 

17.15 Richard Bassett speaks of his memories of being a British journalist in Bucharest in the 1980s. 

20:00 Film screening: Ceausescu: the Making and UnMakingof a Dictator.Directed by Trevor Poots; John Florescu Executive Producer; Senior Producer, Viorel Chesaru; Associate Producer Dan Draghisecu. With ices provided by MoritzEis.