Biography

Alexander Sekulov was born on January 6, 1964, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He graduated from the professional school for stage arts as an assistant producer and got his master’s degree in Bulgarian philology from Paisiy Hilendarski Plovdiv University.

He is the author of four books of poetry: Seventh Sky (1988), High above the Distance (1997), Enchanting and Light (2003), Maps and Geographies (2010).

He has also published collections of essays: The Master and the Stones (1996), a book with fragments The High Stone Hills (2006), as well as the journalistic book The History of the Minimum Resistance: A Chronological Novel in One Column (2008).

In partnership with the artist Atanas Hranov, he has published the art collections Nasco H. Stories with Rum, Ginger, Raisons and Honey (2005) and The Little Saint and the Black Pepper Men (2007). Sekulov and Hranov are also the authors of a travelling exhibition organized by the Cultural Institute of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, The Floating Town and the Black Pepper Men, which premiered at the Apollonia Arts Festival (Sozopol, 2008). Alexander Sekulov has also written the play Light Hotel Rooms (2005) and the novel The Collector of Love Sentences (2007). The book was one of six nominated for the VIK Foundation Prize. The novel went into a second edition in 2008. It has been translated into Serbian. In May 2009, the author published his second novel, The Little Saint and the Oranges. His poetry and prose have been translated in English, German, French and Hungarian.

He was journalist and editor for Maritza and Novinar newspapers (1991–1997). Since 1993, he has been the author of the daily column “Under the Yoke” in Maritza newspaper and was awarded with the Plovdiv Prize for Journalism in 1995 for this work. He is the author and publisher of Fragments (1990) and Petnoto (2004) magazines.

He has won the following national literature awards – Tzvetan Zangov (1985, 1986, 1987), Academica (1988), Ivan Nikolov (1998, 2004). For the book Enchanting and Light, he won the Plovdiv Prize for Literature.

Alexander Sekulov had worked as a radio announcer on Radio TNN (1993 -1995). He was the executive director of European Cultural Month – Plovdiv 1999. He is part of the open civil initiative I Love Plovdiv, created at the end of 2005. He is the creator and owner of two of the most popular music clubs in Plovdiv: The King’s Stables and Rorschach’s Spot. The clubs implement long-term programs in the fields of jazz, theater, literature, classic, pop and rock music, cinema, education in partnership with the British Council, Ciela Publishing House, the Czech Cultural Institute, the Polish Cultural Institute, as well as private and NGO organizations. Sekulov is creator of the Summer Time Art Festival in the old town of Plovdiv (1997 – present) and founder of the Plovdiv Music Stage organization.

Excerpts

• A Collector of Amorous Sentences by Alexander Sekulov, translated by Inna V. O’Brian

Interviews

• A Collector of Amorous Sentences, Interview with Aexander Sekulov by Silviya Choleva

Contact

• Alexander Sekulov:
  E-mail: asekulov@gmail.com