The 27th edition of Gaudeamus Radio Romania Book Fair

Gaudeamus Radio Romania Book Fair was held online because of the sanitary crisis

Corina Cristea, 23.11.2020, 13:45

As an absolute first, this year, the Gaudeamus Radio
Romania Book Fair was held online, in keeping with the restrictions imposed by the ongoing pandemic. The
fair drew to a close on Sunday evening, The Romanian-born writer Norman Manea
described this year’s edition of the fair as a heroic one, organized with
utmost trustworthiness. Norman Manea has been a US resident for more than 30
years and was the name several countries put forward for the Nobel Prize in
Literature hopefuls.

Gaudeamus is a cultural project which has been staged
for more than a quarter of a century now. This year, the event brought together
more than a hundred companies, among which some of Romania’s most prestigious publishers, distributors of Romanian
and foreign books, music and educational games. For seven days running, book
lovers enjoyed accessing more than 200 cultural events. Online purchases were
made, with buyers benefitting from the special offers exhibitors come up with for
every edition of the fair. There were more than 50,000 unique visitors. With
details on that, here is the coordinator of the Gaudeamus Radio Romania team,
Connie Chifor.

” It is hard to have a fair
quantification of our online visitors as I’m sure there was also a great number
of visitors on elefant.ro, the main partner of this edition, since there a
great many stands of publishers could be accessed as well. But then again, there
will be a slight delay, most likely, in finding out the exact number of
visitors we had, of those who opted for visiting the sites of the participating
publishers, being aware of the fact that those publishers took part in
Gaudeamus as well. We found it really hard to quantify that, these days, but we
are positive, judging by the feedback we’ve had so far, that the recently-held
edition was a real success.”

Hundreds of book launches and book presentations were
held during the fair, while the most sought-after book was the volume
titled Forgive me for Loving you by Ela E.H., brought out by the Creator
Publishers.

The coordinator of the Gaudeamus Radio
Romania team, Connie Chifor:

”It was a test, for us. I believe
that, with this edition, we proved Gaudeamus Radio Romania can still be a
powerful event, irrespective of the circumstances according to which it is
held. It was more like a game, played by us and those who follow us on our
Facebook page and it was a real pleasure for us to offer the awards. And at
this point, allow me to appreciate the readiness and the whole-heartedness with
which the publishers responded, the ones who also took the challenge, they
consented to us hiding the clues in their stands.”

The winners of the Mircea Nedelciu national reading
contest were made public at the fair. The contest was organized as a tribute to
the late prose writer Mircea Nedelciu, who was one of the founders of the
Gaudeamus Book Fair. Initiated and organized by Radio Romania since 2002, the
contest seeks to stimulate and encourage the youngsters’ interest for reading.
The same Gaudeamus team has organized a project themed I Want an Ideal School.
The project will be carried this week as well. The visitors and the publishers
cast their vote on pupils’ and teachers’ messages focusing on the learning
process which has taken a completely different turn because of the ongoing
sanitary crisis. The testimonials have been grouped under the form of brief
reports. The beneficiaries of the awards will be the schools that have
registered for the contest.

(Translation by Eugen Nasta)