Popov, Alek
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Biography
Alek Popov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1966. He graduated from St. Constantine Cyril the Philosopher College for Ancient Languages and Cultures in Sofia and later received his master’s degree in Bulgarian language and literature from the Sofia University.
Alek published his first collection of short stories The Other Death in 1992. Over the years he has contributed to numerous publications and has produced six collections of short stories.
His first novel Mission: London, based on colorful impressions from his time as the cultural attaché at the Bulgarian Embassy in the United Kingdom, was published in 2001. It has been widely acclaimed as “the funniest contemporary Bulgarian book” for its sarcastic projection of the Bulgarian diplomatic elite. So far it has been translated and published into 12 languages. The film Mission London based on the novel was released in 2010 and according to distributors was “a breakthrough phenomenon,” leading the Bulgarian box office for weeks.
Popov’s second novel The Black Box was published in 2007. It was translated into German under the title Dogs Are Flying Low and has already gone through several editions.The book also appeared in Serbian, Turkish and Polish.
He has won several literary awards including the National Radio’s Pavel Veshinov Award for the best criminal short story; the Graviton Award for best science fiction; the Rashko Sugarev Award for best short story; the Helicon Prixe for the best prose book of the year, 2002; the annual prize from Clouds magazine for the English translation of Mission London, 2004; and most recently the Ivan Radoev National Prize for Drama, the Elias Canetti Prize for his novel The Black Box, 2007; The Flower of Helicon Award, the United Bulgarian Banks Award for book of the year 2007, etc.
Alek’s short stories have been have been translated into German, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, Czech, French, Danish, English and Turkish. His novel Mission London was published in Serbian by Geopoetica publishing house and in Hungarian from Kijarat Kiado. It is currently in press in France. Today Alek is one of the most popular young writers in Bulgaria with a broad range of creative interests. He continues to focus on prose, but also authors screenplays and facilitates various creative workshops.
Excerpts
Mission London by Alek Popov, translated by Charles de Luppe
The Black Box by Alek Popov, translated by Charles de Lupe and Daniella de Lupe
Critical Reviews
- Alek Popov’s Mission London by Lucy Cooper
- Banica and Glamour
- Shark and Dog
Interviews
- The Black Box by Sebastian Fasthuber
- Interview for Dalkey Archive Press
Contact
- Alek Popov:
E-mail: alecpopov@yahoo.com