site.btaAuthors From 12 Countries Participate in 2023 Sofia Literature and Translation House Residency Programme

Writers, translators and literary professionals from 12 countries are expected to participate in the international residency programme of the House of Literature and Translation in Sofia in 2023, the organisers announced.

A total of 13 authors from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Spain, Latvia, Germany, Argentina, the Netherlands and the Republic of North Macedonia are to work on their projects in the capital of Bulgaria. "They were selected back in 2022, and some of them will be finishing their work in Sofia, interrupted due to the COVID-19 crisis," said the House.

Ekaterina Derisheva (Ukraine) is further developing an international experimental literature project, which is based on her experience with the KNTXT literary project, which she worked on before the war. She explores avant-garde and contemporary Bulgarian poets. Her creative stay in Sofia will continue until March.

Borjana Dodova (Czech Republic), whose creative residency in Sofia was interrupted in 2020 due to the pandemic is now working on the completion of her Balkan Cookbook. The word "cookbook" ("kuchařka" in Czech) carries various associations in the Czech language - the main meaning is "a collection of recipes", but it also means "a female cook" and is a slightly derogatory term for a naïve system of simplistic truths, the organisers of the programme say. All of these meanings play a significant role in her text.

Miha Mazzini (Slovenia) is an award-winning and translated author of over 30 books, screenwriter and director of short and feature films. After the intense promotion of his latest book It's Personal, Mazzini is expected to use his creative downtime in Sofia to focus on writing again.

Stefan Capaliku (Albania) is visiting the Literature and Translation House for a second time. Her residency is connected with the presentation of his novel Everybody Goes Crazy in His Own Way, published by Ergo in translation from Albanian into Bulgarian by Rusana Beyleri. Capaliku worked on part of the novel, which tells the story of the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha in the period 1967-1985, in 2018 during his first participation in the programme in Sofia.

Ksenija Banovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia) is expected to work on the translation of Georgi Burdarov's novel Absolvo te. Ksenija is finishing her interrupted residency from September 2022, when she was researching Vesna Parun's archive in Bulgaria and was one of the mentors at the first Balkan Literary Translation Studio Vice Versa in Sofia.

The focus of Maria Vutova's creative residency (Spain/Bulgaria) is the translation into Spanish of the short story collection Blood of a Mole by Zdravka Evtimova, to be published by Baile del Sol. Vutova will also be preparing further translation projects of works by contemporary Bulgarian authors.

The translation of the novel The Physics of Sorrow by Georgy Gospodinov into Latvian is a highlight of Dens Dimins (Latvia) residency. The translator intends to attend lectures on Bulgarian literature at the University of Sofia.

After the publication of the anthology of Bulgarian poetry in Croatian Na poslednjem katu neba ("Hrvatsko društvo pisaca", Zagreb 2022), Ivan Herceg (Croatia) came to Sofia to work on his new poetry book Zero life. He will be editing poems, "scanning" poems, harmonizing the entire cycle of works in the poetry collection in preparation for the book's publication in the fall of 2023.

Jörg Plath's (Germany) residency is related to his research interest in contemporary Bulgarian literature. He is expected to meet with authors and literary critics in preparation for a series of pieces for the German press.

During his creative residency at the House of Literature and Translation Eugenio López Ariazzu (Argentina) will work on the reception of Jorge Luis Borges in Bulgaria, and to present his translations of Konstantin Pavlov into Spanish.

The translation of the last parts of the novel The Small God of Earthquake by Petar Dentchev is the focus of the residency of Dushko Krstevski (Republic of North Macedonia). During his stay in Sofia, he is expected to keep in touch with the author, meet Bulgarian writers, translators and readers. 

Jan Paul Hinrichs (The Netherlands) joins the residency programme to work on the compilation and translation of an anthology of contemporary Bulgarian poetry into Dutch.

During her creative residency at the House for Literature and Translation, Jasna Jasna Zmak (Croatia) began work on her first novel, which will function as an informal continuation of her previous two works. Zmak's work deals with the position of women in society, reproductive rights, attitudes towards sex and sexual freedom. A highlight of her residency is working with a Bulgarian translator on the translation of her book of short stories, Moja ti.