Passa Porta Festival: Freshest Voices from Eastern Europe in Brussels 28-30 March 2025

Passa Porta Welcomes the Freshest Voices from Eastern Europe in Brussels Sunday 30.03.2025 from 16:30 – 17:30 at MAD Brussels (cafe)

The Romanian readers are aware of FILIT taking place in Iasi and also ARTLIT taking place in Bucharest, two major literature and book gatherings that in the later years turned into international events thanks to the European project CELA (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists), a cultural entity that connects 165 literary artists across 11 European countries. The aim is to bring together the European literature at a next level, open to the public, to creators, both writers and translators, and to the publishing houses. Of course this leads to very fortunate cultural and diplomatic debates and events consequently. An evidence is the latest CELA gathering of 2024, participants from all over Europe were invited:

What have in common Passa Porta in Belgium and FILIT or ARTLIT in Romania, as well as Wintertuin in the Netherlands or the Vlaams-Nederlands Huis deBuren in Belgium, is this literary inter-modality gained through literature and its translation. This is why this year Passa Porta brings closer to the Dutch speaking public, but also the multicultural readers, the not so frequently under the spotlight languages, that is, it brings closer the Eastern European languages through the following representatives: Romanian Iulian Bocai , Polish Marta Hermanowicz and Ukrainian Myroslav Lajoek in the company of their Dutch and Flemish translators Małgosia Briefjes, Charlotte van Rooden and Roman Nesterenco . They will read excerpts in Dutch and in the source languages, a discussion moderated by Nicky Aerts on their creative environment in Eastern Europe, on the importance of translations and actuality.

This weekend allow yourself to meet the Eastern Literatures through the door open by Passa Porta. CELA and the cultural institutes of these countries have been putting their forces together into welcoming the writers and translators during 28-30 March in Brussels.

According to Polirom Publishing House:

Iulian Bocai (born 1986) is a writer, editor and translator (from English, French and German). A graduate of the Department of Universal and Comparative Literature of the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, he later pursued a master’s degree in literary theory and comparative literature at the same faculty. He is preparing a doctoral thesis in intellectual history, on the introduction of the literary curriculum in Western universities in the 19th century. He is the winner of the Polirom Publishing House’s Debut Competition in 2018, with the novel Ciudata și înduioșătoarea viață a lui Priță Barsacu (The Strange and Touching Life of Priță Barsacu), which also brought him the Debut Prize of the Observator cultural magazine in 2019, as well as the First Novel Festival Prize in Chambéry, France.

According to CELA:

Charlotte van Rooden (1993) studied European modern history at Leiden University and translates from Romanian and German into Dutch. So far, she has translated four novels, two by Moldovan authors (Iulian Ciocan and Tatiana Țîbuleac) and two by Romanian authors (Ruxandra Burcescu and CELA-author Iulian Bocai). She has also translated a German non-fiction book, Sekscultuur by Bettina Stangneth, and a number of short stories for Dutch literary magazines. She works as a freelance translator and language teacher. She is also an editor for two Dutch online platforms: Pas Uit and Donau Magazine. 

New Voices From Eastern Europe through literature are taking over Brussels from 28th to 30th March. For its 10th edition, the Passa Porta Festival once again takes us on a wonderful journey of discovery into contemporary literature.

MAD, the Brussels knowledge platform for the fashion and design sectors, located in Nieuwe Graanmarkt 10, 1000 Brussel is also a translators’ café and will bring together: Lysanne Aarsman, Małgosia Briefjes, Lies Doms, Marieke Haenebalcke, Justin Van Heddegem, Leine Meeus, Roman Nesterenco, Charlotte van Rooden en Lena van Tijen.

Representative photo: CELA literature and translation map