157 poets from 26 countries attend the Bucharest International Poetry Festival in September

The Bucharest International Poetry Festival (BIPF) 2023 is due between September 11 – 17, gathering 157 poets from 26 countries and four continents, the National Museum of Romanian Literature announced in a Facebook post.

Considered by specialists as an important event of the genre in Romania and one of the most followed in Europe, this year’s edition of the festival will bring together poets from Albania, Austria, Bolivia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Morocco, Montenegro, Peru, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Moldova, Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands and Uruguay.

“The theme of this year’s Bucharest International Poetry Festival is expressed by the well-known paraphrase of Cicero: inter arma silent musae? – an ambitious exercise of celebrating the power of poetry and, by extension, of literature, and a plea for the eternity of the muses who have the power to inspire arts and free speech even in today’s troubled and difficult times, where we have been hearing the echo of the war on Romania’s northern border for two years now,” said Ioan Cristescu, the general director of the National Museum of Romanian Literature, the organizer of the event.

The program of the festival includes over 50 events, ranging from meetings with poets, translators and editors, public readings, round-table debates, poetry marathons or performances to theater shows, film screenings and concerts, exhibitions.

The National Poetry Book Fair will also be organized along with the festival.

Public access to the events of the Bucharest International Poetry Festival is free; the complete program can be consulted on the event’s website.

The festival enjoys the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, and is organized by the Bucharest City Hall through the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest.