Literary evening ‘What remains’

14th March, 7pm, ‘Sofia’ Gallery 

What remains. Turning life experience into literature

Get your free ticket HERE. 

A conversation from the perspective of three Bulgarian books with forthcoming English translations: Overlooked by Nataliya Deleva, Second Skin by Katerina Stoykova and the anthology Our Fathers Are Never Really Gone (ed. Nevena Dishlieva).

In English and Bulgarian language

Nataliya Deleva is a Bulgarian-born writer who lives in London, UK. Overlooked (Janet 45 Publishing, 2017) is her debut novel, which was recently translated and published in Germany by eta Verlag (2018). The book is about people, invisible to the society they live in due to stereotypes and fear of those who might be different to us. It tells the story of a young woman, who has grown up in an orphanage and who is trying to overcome the traumas from her childhood.

Overlooked was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Bulgarian National Literature Competition 13 Veka Bulgaria (2018), it won second prize for Debut novel at the National Literature Competition Juzhna prolet (2018) and won the Peroto Annual Literary Award in the Debut Category (2018). Also in 2018, Katerina Stoykova was among the nominees in the Poetry Category of the same prize.

Katerina Stoykova is Bulgarian-born award-winning poet, writer, translator, radio host, actress, and publisher, who moved to the USA at the age of 24. Katerina writes in both English and Bulgarian, and translates between the two languages. Her poems and stories have appeared in numerous literary publications throughout the United States and in Europe. Katerina’s latest poetry collection Second Skin is a powerful description of the childhood of a girl living with an abusive and alcoholic father. This concise, laconic poetry collection contains an enormous world of violence—the domestic violence that evokes the fear, horror, and guilt of a child forced to love her aggressor and to live with him. Second Skin appeared to remind us that no one, under any circumstances, has the right to terrorize others or force them to keep silent.

Nevena Dishlieva is a literary translator and a publisher. The edited anthologies My Brother’s Suitcase and Our Fathers Are Never Really Gone, as well as the poetry collection Second Skin, are the highlights of her publishing house’s catalogue. Our Fathers Are Never Really Gone (2017) collates 24 short stories, dedicated to the Father figure. This is a powerful polyphonic narrative about life, death, and loss. These pages offer far more than mere fiction based on personal memories—the stories build a diverse yet convincing portrait of life during the 20 century, from the years of WWII, throughout the Cold War era, to present-day. Among the authors are Maria Kassimova-Moisset, Biliana Kourtasheva, Dimitar Kotzev-Shosho, Nadezhda Radulova, Kamen Alipiev-Kedura… and Manol Peykov.

Manol Peykov is a publisher, translator (e.e.cummings, Dylan Thomas, Samuel Coleridge), natural-born leader. His charismatic, renaissance type of personality makes him a passionate fighter for social justice. He is the author of Without Him, one of the short stories included in the anthology Our Fathers Are Never Really Gone. His publishing house Janet 45 is the publisher of Nataliya Deleva’s novel Overlooked. Twenty-five years ago, Janet 45 established the most prestigious poetry prize in Bulgariary, which in 2015 was awarded to Katerina Stoykova.