ARCS Project

The Meteorite by Cristina Hermeziu
2026-03-29 09:00 UTC | Online
Join us for the latest installment in our literary series exploring short stories from the anthology Lucruri mărunte. Copilăria în comunism (Small things. The childhood during communism).
We look forward to a virtual discussion with author Cristina Hermeziu about her short story "The Meteorite". A link to the text (in Romanian) will be provided after registering below for the event. Please
We invite children in the Romanian diaspora who are interested in learning more about what a typical childhood looked like in communist Romania. Proficiency in Romanian is not required, however the discussion is likely to be bilingual. We will accommodate questions in English as needed. All are welcome!
This 2023 FILIT editorial project was compiled by the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Iași and it brought together 22 Romanian authors to share a story about one of the objects on display at the Museum of the Childhood during Communism.
Please register below and join us for a thoughtful conversation about the recent past and the joy of reading.Participants will receive a zoom link after registration,

Cristina Hermeziu is a writer and journalist. She was born in Iași in 1971 and has lived in France since 2005. She has published the novel Nickel (Cartier, 2024); the poetry collections Parisul nu crede în lacrimi (Paris Doesn’t Believe in Tears, Junimea, 2016), which received the First Book Award at the Tudor Arghezi International Festival; Între timp îți vezi de viața ta (In the Meantime, You Go On with...
Cristina Hermeziu is a writer and journalist. She was born in Iași in 1971 and has lived in France since 2005. She has published the novel Nickel (Cartier, 2024); the poetry collections Parisul nu crede în lacrimi (Paris Doesn’t Believe in Tears, Junimea, 2016), which received the First Book Award at the Tudor Arghezi International Festival; Între timp îți vezi de viața ta (In the Meantime, You Go On with Your Life, Junimea, 2020); and Elegii postHumane (PostHuman Elegies, Junimea, 2024), a bilingual Romanian–Spanish edition. She is also the author of the nonfiction/publicistic volume Vedere din Turnul Eiffel (View from the Eiffel Tower, 2017). Her short fiction appears in the anthologies Cartea copilăriilor (The Book of Childhoods, Polirom, 2016), Lucruri mărunte (Small Things, Editura Muzeelor Literare Iași, 2023), and Garderoba (The Wardrobe, Paralela 45, 2024). She also coordinated the collective volume Viața pe Facebook. Dau like, deci exist (Life on Facebook: I Like, Therefore I Am, Polirom, 2020). In 2018, she created Zoom France Roumanie, an online cultural magazine that promotes Romanian literature translated into French. She is a founding member of the Cosmose cultural association in Paris and writes literary reviews for ActuaLitté and Revue des Deux Mondes. Since 2025, she has been editor-in-chief of the new series of the magazine Scriptor.
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CRISTINA HERMEZIU este scriitoare și jurnalistă. S-a născut la Iași, în 1971. Din 2005 s-a stabilit în Franța. A publicat: Nickel, roman (Cartier, 2024), volumele de versuri Parisul nu crede în lacrimi (Junimea, 2016, Premiul Opera Prima, Festivalul internațional Tudor Arghezi), Între timp îți vezi de viața ta (Junimea, 2020), Elegii postHumane (Junimea, 2024, ediție bilingvă româno-spaniolă) și volumul de publicistică Vedere din Turnul Eiffel (2017). Este prezentă cu proză...
CRISTINA HERMEZIU este scriitoare și jurnalistă. S-a născut la Iași, în 1971. Din 2005 s-a stabilit în Franța. A publicat: Nickel, roman (Cartier, 2024), volumele de versuri Parisul nu crede în lacrimi (Junimea, 2016, Premiul Opera Prima, Festivalul internațional Tudor Arghezi), Între timp îți vezi de viața ta (Junimea, 2020), Elegii postHumane (Junimea, 2024, ediție bilingvă româno-spaniolă) și volumul de publicistică Vedere din Turnul Eiffel (2017). Este prezentă cu proză scurtă în antologiile Cartea copilăriilor (Polirom, 2016), Lucruri mărunte (Editura Muzeelor Literare Iași, 2023) și Garderoba (Paralela 45, 2024). A coordonat volumul colectiv Viața pe Facebook. Dau like, deci exist (Polirom, 2020). În 2018 a creat Zoom France Roumanie, revistă culturală online, unde promovează literatura română tradusă în franceză. Este membru fondator al asociației culturale Cosmose din Paris. Scrie cronici literare în ActuaLitté și Revue des Deux Mondes. Din 2025, este redactor-șef al revistei Scriptor, serie nouă.
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Explore Cristina Hermeziu's work: Nickel, Life on Facebook, and Scriptor.

Night of Ideas 2026
2026-04-18 - 2026-04-19 | Town Hall Seattle and Gage Academy of Art
ARCS is a proud partner of this year's Night of Ideas, organized by the Alliance Française of Seattle and Villa Albertine.
Night of Ideas is an annual event dedicated to exploring pressing topics through culture and dialogue. This year’s global edition marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, inviting us to revisit the Enlightenment ideals that shaped both French and American democracy.
Across keynotes, panels, community conversations, and hands-on workshops, the event will examine the legacy of “progress” amid today’s challenges—from democratic backsliding and the climate crisis to algorithmic systems and cultural erosion. It will also explore how art, philosophy, literature, music, and community work can inspire new forms of optimism and agency.
Saturday, April 18: Town Hall Seattle – Keynotes + panelsSunday, April 19: Gage Academy of Art – Hands-on workshops, round table, and collaborative paint-by-numbers mural
Details and RSVP: https://www.afseattle.org/nightofideas

I Must Betray You
2026-04-30 18:00 | Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Seattle, WA, 98103
We starting back our book club!Join us and together we'll discover a diverse selection of books and connect over themes that inspire reflection. Our first pick is the award-winning book "I Must Betray You" by Ruta Sepetys. Please RSVP below. About the book: Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: either betray everyone and everything he loves, or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe.Cristian risks everything to unmask the truth behind the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. He eagerly joins the revolution to fight for change when the time arrives. But what is the cost of freedom? "I Must Betray You" is available for purchase at most large book stores. April 30 at 6pmGood Shepherd Center4649 Sunnyside Ave NRoom 221Seattle, WA 98103

Ferenike by Doina Ruști
2026-06-06 10:00 - 11:30
Books from Homeland
Our next read for the book club is Ferenike by acclaimed novelist Doina Ruști, who will join our virtual discussion!
Signed copies of the Ferenike (in Romanian) are available for purchase. Scroll down to get yours!
About the bookFerenike is a confessional, autobiographical novel built on the idea that no choice is entirely subjective. There exists a demon of grand History — a force that, for Eastern Europe, has always been a subtle architect of both individual and collective decisions. In the essential reality, every choice is orchestrated.
Having as a starting point a childhood event, the novel gradually outlines experiences related to our present. Every insignificant deed has consequences, generates other events and a new perspective of the past. This premise leads to a gripping and powerful story about the discreet role that any individual has in the metamorphoses of great history.
An autobiographical novel, Ferenike is also an experiment researching confession, from its mystical to histrionic or manipulative areas, with the stated intention of reminding the world that, beyond intention, there’s always the force of the storyteller.
Please RSVP below to receive the zoom link.
Doina RuștiDoina Ruști is „a writer of the first rank in today’s literature", in the words of Nicolae Breban , and „a writer of great talent and intuition”, as Norman Manea has described her, distinguished by a powerful and vibrant style. Her novels and short stories have received major awards, been translated into several languages, and are studied in schools, enjoying wide critical recognition. Her work is marked by the blending of the fantastic with stark social realism. Her landmark novel is The Ghost in the Mill (2008), a powerful fiction about Romanian communism, included in the post-communist neo-Gothic both in J. A. Weinstock’s Routledge encyclopediaand in Studies in Gothic Fiction (Zittaw Press). Thematically complementary, Ferenike (Humanitas, 2025) is her most personal novel, a political and autobiographical fiction about memory, guilt, and feminine resistance. Equally acclaimed is Lizoanca at Eleven (2009), a novel about child prostitution, whose style was compared by Western critics to Camus’s The Plague (Il Libero), and which has been included in several European academic programs, among them the Doctoral School of the University of Barcelona. The Phanariot Trilogy—The Phanariot Manuscript, The Book of Perilous Dishes (Mâța Vinerii), and Homeric—has enjoyed wide popularity. These novels explore the 18th-century Balkan imagination in an original, fabulatory mode that reinterprets history. Mircea Muthu devoted a chapter to her work in his volume Romanian Literary Balkanism. Among these, The Book of Perilous Dishes is the most widely translated, published in English in London (2022), recommended by EUFestival and featured by the Historical Novel Society. Her distinctions include the Writers’ Union Prize (Bucharest Association, 2007), the Romanian Writers’ Union Prize for Prose (2008), the Ion Creangă Prize of the Romanian Academy (2009), and the Hungarian Writers’ Prize (Budapest, 2018) for Best Translated Book. Website: www.doinarusti.ro

📌 June 6 at 10amvirtual discussion with author Doina Ruști
Please RSVP below to receive zoom link.
About the author
