Biography

Velina Minkoff was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from UCLA with a track in Creative Writing – Fiction, and a Master of Arts in European Studies from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) with a track in European culture and history. She is a graduate of the École de Traduction Littéraire at the Centre National du Livre in Paris, France with a thesis in autotraduction (self-translation).

She started writing short stories in English within the UCLA Creative Writing Fiction program under David Wong Louie, Carolyn See and Aimee Bender. Her story The Old Woman received the Harry Kurnitz Award in Los Angeles, CA.

She is the author of a short story collection in English, Red Shorts (Colibri, Bulgaria, 2001) and a novel in Bulgarian, Доклад на зелената амеба за химическия молив (The Red and Blue Report of the Green Amoeba, Colibri, Bulgaria, 2015.) Her debut novel (self-translated) was shortlisted in the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation contest for the publication of a contemporary Bulgarian novel into English by Open Letter Books in Rochester, New York. Velina is co-translator, with translation professor Patrick Maurus, of the French version of her novel, published in France as Le Grand Leader doit venir nous voir (The Great Leader Must Come See Us, Actes sud, France, 2018.

Her Bulgarian language short story collection, Бразилски храст (Full-bush Brazilian, Colibri, Bulgaria, 2018) contains her own translations of several stories she originally wrote in English. It was nominated for the Portal Kultura literary awards and received the special prize of the Yordan Radichkov National Literary Award. Her short story collection Les Shorts Rouges (The Red Shorts, Hémisphères, France, 2020) introduced her French translations of stories she had written in both English and Bulgarian.

In 2014, Velina was awarded a Sozopol Fiction Seminars fellowship by the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation. She is a member of the French Société des Gens de Lettres. Besides English and French, her work has been published in Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, and Persian. Her stories have appeared in Literaturen Forum, Literaturen Vestnik, GRANTA Bulgaria, Spisanie Moré, Textil, Haemus, Nöbettepe, Jenata Dnes, ARTizanin, Almanach Ogosta, Vagabond, Split Peas Fiction &Photography, Drunken Boat, Exchanges Literary Journal, Public Republic, WIP: Littérature sans filtre, Mandragoras, Eurolitkrant, Magyar Lettre Internationale, etc., and are part of the anthologies Истории от 90-те (Stories from the 90’s, ICU, Bulgaria, 2019), After Communism (Hirmand Publications, Iran, 2020), Моята булчинска рокля (My Wedding Dress, Colibri, Bulgaria, 2020) and България за напреднали (Bulgaria: Advanced Level, Colibri, Bulgaria, 2020.)

Velina lives in Paris, where she freelances as a translator, editor, lecturer, and writer. She is currently a doctoral candidate in translation of Bulgarian Literature at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO).

Excerpts

• Rat by Velina Minkoff, translated by Ekaterina Petrova, Rayna Rossenova and Vladimir Poleganov
• The Old Woman by Velina Minkoff, translated by Velina Minkoff

Contact

• Velina Minkoff:
  E-mail: velinaminkoff@gmail.com
• Colibri Publishers:
  E-mail: colibri@colibri.bg
  Phone: +359 879 063 217
• Colibri Bookstores:
  Address #1: 36 Ivan Vazov Street, Sofia
  Phone: +359 2 988 87 81
  Address #2: 3 Slaveykov Square, Sofia (French Cultural Institute)
  Phone: +359 2 937 79 19

Related Links

• Velina Minkoff’s profile by Colibri Publishers, EN
• Velina Minkoff’s profile by Colibri Publishers, BG
• Rat by Velina Minkoff, VAGABOND, Bulgaria’s English Monthly, Issue 101, 2015
• Church by Velina Minkoff, GRANTA Bulgaria, Issue 5, 2015
• Wedding by Velina Minkoff, Literaturen Forum, Issue 35, 2001
• Book launch of The Red and Blue Report of the Green Ameba, video by Az Cheta
• The Red and Blue Report of the Green Ameba – debut novel by Velina Minkoff, BNT
• Velina Minkoff presents The Red and Blue Report of the Green Ameba, BNR
• An excerpt from the novel The Red and the Blue Report of the Green Ameba, Blister Magazine
• About Velina Minkoff and The Red and the Blue Report of the Green Ameba, Capital LIGHT
• About Velina Minkoff and The Red and the Blue Report of the Green Ameba, Eva Magazine
• About Velina Minkoff and The Red and the Blue Report of the Green Ameba, Novinar
• About Velina Minkoff and The Red and the Blue Report of the Green Ameba, Tema Daily
• About Velina Minkoff and The Red and the Blue Report of the Green Ameba, Vsichko za Semeistvoto
• About The Red and Blue Report of the Green Ameba, KAPANA.BG
• About The Red and Blue Report of the Green Ameba, Knijen Petar
• About The Red and Blue Report of the Green Ameba, Knizhka s Mishka
• About Velina Minkoff, Interview.to