The territory of what is today the Republic of Bulgaria was for more than five centuries part of the Ottoman Empire and I think it is fair to say that the fight for liberation from what Bulgarians call either the “Ottoman Yoke“ or “Ottoman Slavery” is until today a defining moment for the identity of … Continue reading Two Books on the Ottoman/Turkish Heritage in Bulgaria
In John Updike’s short story “The Bulgarian Poetess” the narrator reports the following short dialogue with the eponymous Bulgarian Poetess: "Your poems. Are they difficult?" She smiled and, unaccustomed to speaking English, answered carefully, drawing a line in the air with two delicately pinched fingers holding an imaginary pen: "They are difficult—to write." He laughed, … Continue reading Bulgarian Poetry in English Translation (III/2): the period 1944-1989 – Blaga Dimitrova
Konstantin Pavlov was one of the most important and gifted Bulgarian poets of the period after 1944. His immense talent and poetic imagination, and his independent personality brought him in frequent conflict with the Communist regime. Fortunately, two of his poetry collections are available in English: Cry of a Former Dog (translated by Ludmilla G. … Continue reading Bulgarian Poetry in English Translation (III/1): the period 1944-1989 – Konstantin Pavlov
Balchik is a small coastal town at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, approximately 30 kilometers north of Varna. A century ago, it was not much more than a fishing village, but its natural location at a small bay, its Mediterranean climate and its picturesque houses and small streets made it a magnet for the Romanian … Continue reading Marina Konstantinova: The White Coast – A Review by Thomas Hübner
Poetry is very popular in Bulgaria; I am still very much surprised about the sheer amount of new poetry collections that are published on the small Bulgarian market every year by „regular” publishers, but also by authors themselves (self-published, or “Samizdat” as they say in Bulgaria – an expression that hints at the subversive tradition … Continue reading Bulgarian Poetry in English Translation: Some Anthologies – an overview by Thomas Hübner
Kapka Kassabova Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe 2017 (UK: Granta Books; US: Graywolf Press) Halfway through her exhilarating narrative of travels through the borderlands of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, Kapka Kassabova tells the story of the Spring of the White-Legged Maiden, popularized in a nineteenth century poem but dating back much earlier. … Continue reading “Our Bitter Beloved Borderless Balkans”: Kapka Kassabova’s Border – by Dorian Stuber
John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995) was an important American computer pioneer; his father was born in Bulgaria and came to the United States as a young boy. Due to his Bulgarian origin and some factors about which I will speak in this review, Atanasoff had a special relationship to the home country of his father, where … Continue reading John Atanasoff – The Electronic Prometheus, by Blagovest Sendov: A Review by Thomas Hübner
Everything Happens As It Does, by Albena Stambolova Translated from the Bulgarian by Olga Nikolova Published in 2002, in English in 2013 by Open Letter Books, winner of 2013 Contemporary Bulgarian Writers Contest Everything Happens As It Does is something of a mosaic whose pieces, some not visibly related, eventually go to make up a … Continue reading Albena Stambolova’s Everything Happens As It Does: A Review by Jean Ping
Natural Novel, by Georgi Gospodinov (originally published in 1999, English translation 2005 by Zornitsa Hristova, Dalkey Archive Press) "People take pictures of each other just to prove that they really existed" Georgi Gospodinov's first novel begins not with the Kinks lyric quoted above (that shows up on page 55), but with an epigraph from Foucault … Continue reading Georgi Gospodinov’s Natural Novel: A Review by Scott Bailey
In the opening chapters of Mission London by Alek Popov (Istros Books, November 2014, translated by Daniella and Charles Gill de Mayol de Lupe), the staff of the Bulgaria’s UK Embassy awaits the arrival of the newly appointed ambassador. “They sat fidgeting ... beneath the map of Bulgaria, with its cold pink and yellow colouring. … Continue reading The Satire of Alek Popov: A Review by Ellis Shuman
