Mircea Cărtărescu in conversation with Ileana Marin
2023-04-05 19:00 UTC | Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, 98104, United States
Mircea Cărtărescu, one of Romania’s most well-known contemporary authors, is embarking on a US book tour for Solenoid. He will be making a stop at the Seattle Public Library on April 5 at 7pm!
“[S]omething of a masterpiece . . . Solenoid synthesizes and subtly mocks elements of autofiction and history fiction by way of science fiction… The mesmerizing beauty of creation, of reality giving way to itself: that, above all, lies behind the doors of Solenoid.” —Federico Perelmuter, Astra Magazine
This event is made possible by Cărtărescu’s American publisher Deep Vellum, the Romanian Cultural Institute, and the American Romanian Cultural Society.
University of Washington scholar Ileana Marin, co-founder and President of the American Romanian Cultural Society, will join in conversation.
Venue: Seattle Public Library (Central Branch), Microsoft Auditorium, 1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle, WA 98104
Time: 7pm
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required in advance.
RSVP
This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book, or request a hold at your local library.
Please note: Solenoid is currently out of stock. A reprint from the publisher is expected soon and copies of Solenoid will be made available at the event.
About Solenoid. . .
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 by the New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, The Financial Times, Words Without Borders
A highly-acclaimed master work of fiction from Cărtărescu, author of Blinding: an existence (and eventually a cosmos) created by forking paths.
Based on Cărtărescu’s own role as a high school teacher, Solenoid begins with the mundane details of a diarist’s life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork? On a broad scale, the novel’s investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines reconcile the realms of life and art.
The novel is grounded in the reality of late 1970s/early 1980s Communist Romania, including long lines for groceries, the absurdities of the education system, and the misery of family life. The text includes sequences in a tuberculosis sanatorium, an encounter with an anti-death protest movement, a society of dream investigators, and an extended visit to the miniscule world of dust mites living on a microscope slide.
Combining fiction with autobiography and history— the scientists Nicolae Tesla and George Boole, for example, appear alongside the Voynich manuscript—Solenoid ruminates on the exchanges possible between the alternate dimensions of life and art, as various, monstrous dimensions erupt within the Communist present.
Mircea Cărtărescu is a writer, professor, and journalist who has published more than twenty-five books. His work has received the Formentor Prize (2018), the Thomas Mann Prize (2018), the Austrian State Prize for Literature (2015), and the Vilenica Prize (2011), among many others. His work has been translated into twenty-three languages. His novel Blinding was published by Archipelago in Sean Cotter’s English translation. His novel Solenoid, translated by Cotter and published by Deep Vellum, was named one of the best books of 2022 by the New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, The Financial Times, and Words Without Borders.

Ileana Marin teaches interdisciplinary courses at the University of Washington, Seattle, and at the Center of Excellence in Image Studies of the University of Bucharest, where she chairs the “Space, Image, Text, Territory” Doctoral School. She has published books on tragic myths, Pre-Raphaelite artists, and on Victorian aesthetics of erasure in fiction and illustration. Several of her conference papers on the de-humanizing power of art, the artistic legacy of communism, and the materiality of texts have been selected for publication in prestigious journals and collective volumes. Increasingly interested in multimediality, she has focused on artists’ books, E-Literature, and digital arts. Since 2020, she has taken on translating Romanian female writers. She is co-founder, and currently the President of the Seattle non-profit American Romanian Cultural Society.

Book Signing with Roxana Arama
2023-05-04 18:00 - 19:00 | ARCS Center at MLK Fame Community Center, 3201 E Republican St, Ste 104, Seattle, WA, 98112, United States
Meet Seattle author Roxana Arama at a book signing for her debut novel, Extreme Vetting.
About the book: An immigration lawyer fights to keep her client from being deported to the country where his family was murdered many years ago.
Then she finds out the killers are coming here—for both of them.
“Extreme Vetting was unlike any thriller I have ever read; Arama kept me on my toes the entire novel, eager to know what the future holds for Emilio and his family. I appreciated how knowledgeable Arama was about the immigration process and her sensitivity to the struggles and major obstacles these peoples face. Truly a timely book, this novel can be an eye-opener to the violence and aggression so many immigrants are fleeing from.”
— Theresa Kadair, Seattle Book Review
“Arama’s taut narrative brims with tension and indelible characters. ( . . . ) A remarkable cast sparks this incisive, riveting tale of intolerance.”

— Kirkus Reviews
Please RSVP here.
The book will be available for purchase at the event, but you
can also order a copy here.
May 4 @6pm
MLK Fame Community Center
3201 E Republican St, Ste 104
Seattle, WA 98112

Roxana Arama
Roxana Arama is a Romanian American author with a master of fine arts in creative writing from Goddard College. She studied computer science in Bucharest, Romania, and moved to the United States to work in software development. Her short stories and essays have been published in many literary magazines. Extreme Vetting: A Thriller is her first novel. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her family. More at roxanaarama.com.

Eastern Europe in Translation
2025-10-15 18:00 - 20:00 | Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Seattle, WA, 98103
Join us October 15th for a book signing and discussion with Romanian-American translator and poet Monica Cure.She will present her most recent translation of "Too Great a Sky" a novel by Liliana Corobca, as well as the anthology "Cigarettes Until Tomorrow", with her poetry translation of Adela Greceanu.A limited number of books will be available for sale.📌October 15 at 6pm Good Shepherd Center4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Room 221Seattle, WA 98103 RSVP Here
Too Great a Sky, written by Liliana Corobca, translated by Monica Cure, and published by Seven Stories Press, recounts the deportation of Romanians from Bucovina by the Soviets during World War II. It is an exercise in historical memory which demonstrates how to maintain humanity in impossible conditions. The story centers on Ana Baljinschi as she recounts her life to her great grand-daughter. Ana was eleven when the Soviet soldiers sent...
Too Great a Sky, written by Liliana Corobca, translated by Monica Cure, and published by Seven Stories Press, recounts the deportation of Romanians from Bucovina by the Soviets during World War II. It is an exercise in historical memory which demonstrates how to maintain humanity in impossible conditions. The story centers on Ana Baljinschi as she recounts her life to her great grand-daughter. Ana was eleven when the Soviet soldiers sent her and her mother from Bucovina, Romania, to Kazakhstan. She recounts surviving the three week long journey via train. The trip is a harsh, humiliating one, but in spite of the closeness of death, life persists in the boxcar in the form of story-telling, riddles, ritual, and even humor. This survival continues in the harsh steppe of Kazakhstan through faith, love, and generosity, and returns to her what she lost at the end of the novel. Her story, told with unflinching candor, is a chronicle of a life lived during a time of great political and national change, a story of an existence defined and curtailed by lines drawn on a map.
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Too Great a Sky, scris de Liliana Corobca, tradus de Monica Cure și publicat de Seven Stories Press, povestește deportarea românilor din Bucovina de către sovietici în timpul celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial. Este un exercițiu de memorie istorică care arată cum se poate păstra umanitatea în condiții imposibile. Povestea o are în centru pe Ana Baljinschi, care își povestește viața strănepoatei sale. Ana avea unsprezece ani când soldații sovietici...
Too Great a Sky, scris de Liliana Corobca, tradus de Monica Cure și publicat de Seven Stories Press, povestește deportarea românilor din Bucovina de către sovietici în timpul celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial. Este un exercițiu de memorie istorică care arată cum se poate păstra umanitatea în condiții imposibile. Povestea o are în centru pe Ana Baljinschi, care își povestește viața strănepoatei sale. Ana avea unsprezece ani când soldații sovietici au trimis-o pe ea și pe mama ei din Bucovina, România, în Kazahstan. Ea povestește cum a supraviețuit călătoriei de trei săptămâni cu trenul. Drumul a fost dur și umilitor, dar, în ciuda apropierii morții, viața persistă în vagonul de marfă sub forma poveștilor, ghicitorilor, ritualurilor și chiar a umorului. Această supraviețuire continuă în stepa aspră a Kazahstanului prin credință, iubire și generozitate, aducând-o la sfârșitul romanului înapoi la ceea ce a pierdut. Povestea ei, spusă cu o sinceritate necruțătoare, este o cronică a unei vieți trăite într-o perioadă de mari schimbări politice și naționale, o poveste despre o existență definită și limitată de liniile trasate pe hartă.
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The anthology of Romanian poetry Cigarettes Until Tomorrow was published by Two Line Press as part of their biannual Calico Series, which offers the voices of previously inaccessible, highly innovative writers from around the world today. The anthology features translations of poetry by eight contemporary Romanian poets, each by a different translator. With black humor and in cutting, contemporary language, the poets assemble a series of profound moments from their...
The anthology of Romanian poetry Cigarettes Until Tomorrow was published by Two Line Press as part of their biannual Calico Series, which offers the voices of previously inaccessible, highly innovative writers from around the world today. The anthology features translations of poetry by eight contemporary Romanian poets, each by a different translator. With black humor and in cutting, contemporary language, the poets assemble a series of profound moments from their daily lives and explore themes of language, technology, and memory. Adela Greceanu’s poems, translated by Monica Cure, come from the collection Words Are Also a Province. The lyrical poems have a prose-like quality and are spoken or viewed through the subjectivity of Adila, the poet’s alter-ego, focusing on the marginalized, in life as well as language.
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Antologia de poezie română Cigarettes Until Tomorrow a fost publicată de Two Lines Press ca parte a seriei lor bienale Calico Series, care prezintă vocile unor autori extrem de inovatori, anterior inaccesibili, din întreaga lume. Antologia include traduceri ale poeziei a opt poeți contemporani români, fiecare realizată de un translator diferit. Cu umor negru și un limbaj tăios, contemporan, poeții alcătuiesc o serie de momente profunde din viața lor cotidiană...
Antologia de poezie română Cigarettes Until Tomorrow a fost publicată de Two Lines Press ca parte a seriei lor bienale Calico Series, care prezintă vocile unor autori extrem de inovatori, anterior inaccesibili, din întreaga lume. Antologia include traduceri ale poeziei a opt poeți contemporani români, fiecare realizată de un translator diferit. Cu umor negru și un limbaj tăios, contemporan, poeții alcătuiesc o serie de momente profunde din viața lor cotidiană și explorează teme precum limbajul, tehnologia și memoria. Poeziile Adelei Greceanu, traduse de Monica Cure, fac parte din volumul Și cuvintele sînt o provincie. Poeziile lirice au o calitate aproape prozastică și sunt exprimate sau privite prin prisma subiectivității Adelei, alter-ego-ul poetei, concentrându-se asupra celor marginalizați, atât în viață, cât și în limbaj.
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Monica Cure is a Romanian-American poet, translator, and dialogue specialist. She is a two-time Fulbright grantee and has a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Southern California. Her poems have appeared internationally in journals such as Poetry Northwest, Poet Lore, and Graywolf Lab. Her poetry translations likewise have been published internationally in Kenyon Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, and elsewhere. She won the 2023 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize...
Monica Cure is a Romanian-American poet, translator, and dialogue specialist. She is a two-time Fulbright grantee and has a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Southern California. Her poems have appeared internationally in journals such as Poetry Northwest, Poet Lore, and Graywolf Lab. Her poetry translations likewise have been published internationally in Kenyon Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, and elsewhere. She won the 2023 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for her translation of Liliana Corobca’s novel The Censor’s Notebook (Seven Stories Press). Her most recent translations are the novel Too Great a Sky by Liliana Corobca (Seven Stories Press, shortlisted for the 2025 EBRD Literature Prize) and translations of poems by Adela Greceanu in the anthology of Romanian poetry Cigarettes Until Tomorrow (Two Lines Press). She has been based in Bucharest for the last six years.
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Monica Cure este o poetă şi traducătoare româno-americană, specialistă în dialog colectiv. Şi-a făcut doctoratul în literatură comparată la University of Southern California, în Los Angeles, şi i s-a acordat în două rânduri bursa Fulbright. Poeziile ei au fost publicate în reviste precum „Poetry Northwest”, „Poet Lore” şi „Graywolf Lab” iar traducerile ei în engleză din poeți români au apărut in reviste precum „Kenyon Review”, „Modern Poetry in Translation”, şi „Asymptote”....
Monica Cure este o poetă şi traducătoare româno-americană, specialistă în dialog colectiv. Şi-a făcut doctoratul în literatură comparată la University of Southern California, în Los Angeles, şi i s-a acordat în două rânduri bursa Fulbright. Poeziile ei au fost publicate în reviste precum „Poetry Northwest”, „Poet Lore” şi „Graywolf Lab” iar traducerile ei în engleză din poeți români au apărut in reviste precum „Kenyon Review”, „Modern Poetry in Translation”, şi „Asymptote”. A câștigat Premiul de Traducere Oxford-Weidenfeld 2023 pentru traducerea romanului The Censor’s Notebook de Liliana Corobca (Seven Stories Press). Cele mai recente traduceri ale ei includ romanul Too Great a Sky de Liliana Corobca (Seven Stories Press, selectat pe lista scurtă a Premiului de Literatură EBRD 2025) și traduceri de poezii de Adela Greceanu în antologia de poezie română Cigarettes Until Tomorrow (Two Lines Press). E stabilită de şase ani în Bucureşti.
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Exploring Our Parents' Childhood
2025-10-26 09:00 - 10:30 | Online
ARCS is thrilled to partner with the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Iași for a new series of virtual events. This first event will be part virtual tour, part book discussion of the anthology Lucruri mărunte. Copilăria în comunism (Small things. The childhood during communism) This 2023 FILIT editorial project brought together 22 Romanian authors to share a story about one of the objects on display at the Museum of the Childhood during Communism. We invite children in the Romanian diaspora who are interested in learning more about what a typical childhood looked like in communist Romania. If you're interested in reading some of the text, please let us know. However, it is Not a requirement for attending the event! *The virtual tour will be mostly in Romanian, while the discussion will be bilingual. Romanian proficiency is not required! We will accommodate any questions in English during the discussion portion. All are welcome! 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 the day before the event.

The Meteorite by Cristina Hermeziu
2026-03-29 09:00 | 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
