Nikolay Boykov, “for Ventsi”, “Dream of the Wall and Key”
Another writer who attended the 2010 Sozopol Fiction Seminar and then wrote a poem about it is Niki Boikov. In fact he wrote two, both of which are reproduced here in my translation. The second is dedicated to the important Australian writer Alex Miller, an inspiring member of this year’s faculty.
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Open Call: Sozopol Fiction Seminars 2013
Sozopol Fiction Seminars (23-26 May 2013)
The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation offers its sixth annual summer fiction writing seminar in the ancient town of Sozopol, Bulgaria. The seminar program consists of intensive daily fiction workshops, roundtable discussions, guest lectures and literary readings by faculty and participants. Fiction writers from Bulgaria and fiction writers from English-speaking countries, including but not limited to the U.K. and the U.S., are invited to apply. A total number of ten applicants will be selected for participation and funding.
SCHOLARSHIPS:
Five participants writing in English and five writing in Bulgarian language will receive scholarships. A scholarship covers tuition, room and board, in-country transportation, and 50% of international travel expenses.
PROGRAM AND FACULTY:
Morning workshops will be led in English by Elizabeth Kostova (US), author of the best-selling novels The Historian (2005) and The Swan Thieves (2010), and in Bulgarian by Vladimir Levchev (BG), author of nineteen poetry collections (four published in the U.S.) and the novels Krali Marko: The Balkan Prince (2006), 2084 (2009) and The Man and the Shadow (2012).
Guest lectures will be provided by Richard Russo (US), a writer and a screenwriter, a Pulitzer Prize winner for the novel Empire Falls (2002), author of the filmed novel Nobody’s Fool (1994), and Vladislav Todorov (BG/US), a writer and a screenwriter, author of the filmed novels Zift (2010) and Zincograph (2010).The program in Sozopol, Bulgaria, includes also roundtable discussions, meetings with distinguished international and Bulgarian editors, publishers, translators, as well as literary readings.
Follow-up events, organized as part of the long-term program of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation CapitaLiterature, will take place on 28 and 29 May 2013 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Read MorePoems from the 2010 Sozopol Fiction Seminar
The Sozopol Fiction Seminar, a yearly event held in Sozopol on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and organized by the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation for Creative Writing, in May 2010 celebrated its third edition.
Read MorePostcards From A Resident Translator in Rochester
You’re picked up at Rochester airport at 11am, checked into a nice room overlooking the Genesee River at 11:30, introduced to the other two people in the Open Letter office at 12:00, and then by 12:30 you find yourself in a Literary Publishing class at Rochester University, discussing with Literary Translation MA students whether Amazon propelling ultimate democracy of literature and being the king of the US book market is good or bad.
Read MorePostcards From A Resident Translator in Rochester – #2
And then, several days later, you suddenly find yourself spending yet another day in the rather magnificent Rush Rhees library, surrounded by college kids of all races and nationalities, with a laptop and a hefty pile of books in front of you. I should be translating now, but I’d really rather be reading. Not a day goes by without me dropping by the Open Letter office and taking something new home. I have to return them before I go. I want to keep them all. I have to order them. But they won’t fit in my luggage. I need a Kindle. I need more time. I’ll see you later. Best, Bistra
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