DANIEL DRAGOMIRESCU:

CLH and Bibliotheca Universalis in 2024

                                                                           

     The year we are ending was, despite some shortcomings, a fairly favorable year for us. Our magazine continued its activity with quite aplomb and success, maintaining the rhythm of publishing a new issue every two months. Collaborators and friends from here and abroad continued to publish in the pages of the magazine. From Romania, Mihai Cantuniari, Radu Igna, Gheorghe Glodeanu, Petru Istrate, Dan Sandu, Theodor Damian, poet, theologian, professor, founder of the magazine "Gracious Light" from New York, Ion Dulugeac, short story writer and novelist, with a constant presence throughout the year with his short prose, Jean Dumitraşcu, critic, essayist, cultural mentor and Constantin Marafet, novelist and editor, founder of the Rafet publishing house from Râmnicu Sărat. More recently, we have also included Cosmin Constantin, author, cultural animator and director of the “Vasile Militaru” Cultural Center in Vărăşti, among our collaborators. From abroad, Jacklynn Beckman, Serge Lapisse, Noëlle Arnoult, Jean-Robert Dray, Jean-Claude Sartelet, Jeannine Gilles, Daniel Okroglic, Jean-Claude Jayet, E.A.C. Lenoble, Rémy Gillet, the visual artist Marie Enjalran, all from France, Marie Cholette from Canada, Michael White and John Tischer from the United States. We would like to specially mention the presence in the magazine’s pages of personalities such as Pascal-Payen Apfenzeller, director of the “Courtoisie” radio station in Paris, and Linda Bastide, poet and movie star, who in the past made films with Cary Grant and other stars as partners.

     2024 was also the year in which we celebrated, 100 editions of the magazine. The first issue was published in May 2008.

     During this year, new authors joined the older collaborators, as Pero Pavlović, poet from Croatia, Renzo Ernesto Rosso Heydel and Mario Toro, valuable poets from Chile, Joel Mancinas, Mexican prose writer and so on.

     In November 2024, left us Gerard Dominć, painter, memoirist, fighter for justice and freedom, who had a constant presence in the magazine from 2021-2022.

     Monica Dragomirescu, responsible for the Hispanic sector, took care of the translations from and into Spanish, and Noëlle Arnoult, responsible for the translations from and into French, as well as from and into other languages. This year, translations from and into English were taken care of by Roxana Doncu, English teacher at the Medical University of Bucharest, who has been on our editorial team since 2014.

     As for the “Bibliotheca Universalis” collection, it was enriched during 2024 with 13 new books, from no. 265 to no. 277 – by authors as Sally Evans, Neil Leadbeater (UK), Tomislav Marijan Bilosnić, Perp Pavlović (Croatia), Mario Toro (Chile) etc., - plus several anthologies, one of which with prose writers from Uruguay, edited by Niza Todaro and Marta Estigarribia.

     We hope that 2025 will be just as good for the evolution of our independent cultural magazine.