Meeting in Armenpress. The CEO and the editor-in-chief of Newmag presented FRANCOFEST (video, photos)

On September 9, a festival of French books and francophone content will be held for the first time in Armenia. This is a unique event, because Armenia has never taken the first step and come up with a literary and cultural project on its own initiative, Artak Aleksanyan, the CEO of the publishing house, emphasizes. “During the hundred years of friendship, this is the first case that the initiator is not France, but Armenia. France is considered the second literary country in the world, after Anglo-Saxon. That's why we decided to hold this festival and present modern French literature”.

Gnel Nalbandyan, editor-in-chief of Newmag, notices that his generation and even older ones knew French fiction and classical literature very well, while the new generation is still unaware of what this country publishes today. Four new books will be presented at the festival. “Our young generation should know and be familiar with French culture and literature. This is an opportunity to perceive the French culture, to perceive the French in Armenian, an opportunity to get to know their humor, books, freedom from literature itself".

According to Artak Aleksanyan, September was not a random choice for the festival. No literary event or festival is held during the whole autumn in Armenia,, but the book season in the world starts in September. FRANCOFEST is not only a book festival, but a content festival. “The best books are usually published between September and December. Moreover, readers tend to buy more books during this period. And in order not to miss this book season, we decided to hold the "FRANCOFEST", the French Literature Festival. There will be French lessons for beginners, as well as for children. There will be a panel discussion and theatrical reading. According to tradition, we will also present new work from Aznavour's repertoire: a new video will be released dedicated to the children of Artsakh. The poem was translated by Lilit Bleyan, and performed by Shushan Petrosyan”.

At FRANCOFEST, Newmag will present 4 bestsellers: “Blue Beard” by Amélie Nothomb, “The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair” by Joël Dicker, “My Armenian Friend” by Andrei Makin, and “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee” by Agnès Martin-Lugand. Interesting dialogues, intellectual thoughts, word games, books that can be read in one breath and become bestsellers in Armenia.

According to Artak Aleksanyan, during the 5 years of its activity, Newmag held festivals throughout the year, never turning them into fireworks. "FRANCOFEST is not about fireworks. Our events are never separated from the reality where we live, and we have placed a selection of books in our reality. We will break book presentations with intellectual conversations and discussions, there will be intelligent and useful content”.

According to Gnel Nalbandyan, the festival of French-language literature in Yerevan is not a  Feast in Time of Plague at all, but, on the contrary, it is an opportunity to overcome the plague. “Because only through mental consolidation we will be able to overcome the severe consequences that our brothers of Artsakh and we ourselves are going through”.

THE PROGRAM OF FRANCOFEST

At the French Book and Content Festival, one can buy all books at a discount of up to 40%, so that readers have the opportunity to buy several books at once.