Author Archives: Teodora Tzankova

Copyright spells author’s rights

Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on joins the cam­paign “Copy­right spells author’s rights” ini­ti­ated by Con­seil Per­man­ent des Ecrivains in France.

European writers are deeply con­cerned about the ongo­ing pro­ject for copy­right reform in Europe and have writ­ten an open let­ter to the EU author­it­ies call­ing on them to safe­guard authors’ rights, which guar­an­tee the free­dom to cre­ate and the vital­ity of European cul­ture. All writers, essay­ists, nov­el­ists, poets, authors of children’s books, com­ic artists, trans­lat­ors from all European coun­tries are invited to sign the online open let­ter, and all European writers’ organ­isa­tions are asked to join and pub­li­cise the ini­ti­at­ive.

Valentine Goby
Pres­id­ent of CPE (Con­seil Per­man­ent des Ecrivains)

Velina Minkoff

VelinaMinkoffPhotoWork­ing lan­guages: Bul­gari­an, Eng­lish, French

Field of work: fic­tion, art his­tory, theat­er, cinema, archi­tec­ture, psy­cho­logy, music

Short bio­graphy: Velina Minkoff was born in 1974 in Sofia, Bul­garia. She holds a BA in Eng­lish from UCLA with a track in Cre­at­ive Writ­ing – Fic­tion, and a Master’s degree in European Stud­ies from the Uni­ver­sity of Ams­ter­dam with a track in European cul­ture and his­tory.

She trans­lated The Love Machine, a nov­el by Amer­ic­an author Jaqueline Susann (Colibri, Bul­garia, 1992) while still a stu­dent at the Eng­lish Lan­guage School in Sofia. That same year, Velina trans­lated from Eng­lish to Bul­gari­an the film script of the Nor­weigan entry in the Inter­na­tion­al Tele­vi­sion Fest­iv­al Zlat­nata rakla (Plov­div, Bul­garia) which won first prize in the youth TV film sec­tion and was broad­cast on Bul­gari­an Nation­al Tele­vi­sion. In 1993, she trans­lated into Eng­lish a radio drama by aspir­ing Bul­gari­an play­wright Pla­men Sta­men­ov, which won the Brit­ish Council’s Inter­na­tion­al Play­writ­ing Com­pet­i­tion and was broad­cast on the BBC World Ser­vice. Later that year, Velina trans­lated Jacintha, a nov­el by Brit­ish author Kath­leen Win­sor (Bard, Bul­garia, 1993.)

While study­ing in the US, Velina col­lab­or­ated with Bul­gari­an artists and musi­cians for the trans­la­tion of poetry for song lyr­ics and con­tem­por­ary art exhib­i­tions. Dur­ing her gradu­ate stud­ies in the Neth­er­lands, she trans­lated into Eng­lish the film sub­titles of Let­ter to Amer­ica (Bul­garia, 2001) by dir­ect­or Iglika Tri­fonova, for its screen­ing at the Noor­delijk Film Fest­iv­al in 2003, where it won the grand prize of the jury.

Velina was selec­ted as a par­ti­cipant in the Trans­lat­ors’ Atelier Work­shop of the Eliza­beth Kostova Found­a­tion for three con­sec­ut­ive years (2013, 2014 and 2015.) In 2015, she trans­lated into Eng­lish What We Don’t Know About Love, a non-fiction psy­cho­logy and com­mu­nic­tion skills best­seller by Bul­gari­an author Milena Dinkova-Rodriguez (Colibri, Bul­garia, 2015.)

Velina lives in Par­is, where she teaches Eng­lish, freel­ances as a trans­lat­or and edit­or and is cur­rently work­ing on a short story col­lec­tion in Bul­gari­an, which will include her own trans­la­tions of stor­ies she ori­gin­ally wrote in Eng­lish.

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:

Con­tact: velinaminkoff@gmail.com

 

 

NORLA’s Translator’s Award 2015 goes to Bulgarian literary translator Eva Kaneva

The Bul­gari­an lit­er­ary trans­lat­or Eva Kaneva is the recip­i­ent of NOR­LA’s Translator’s Award 2015 for her trans­la­tions from Nor­we­gi­an into Bul­gari­an. Dur­ing the cel­eb­ra­tion of the pat­ron saint of trans­lat­ors, St. Jerome, on 01 Octo­ber in Oslo, NORLA’s translator’s award was announced for the tenth time. The award is giv­en annu­ally to a trans­lat­or of Nor­we­gi­an lit­er­at­ure and was estab­lished to bring into the pub­lic eye the con­tri­bu­tion for­eign trans­lat­ors make to Nor­we­gi­an lit­er­at­ure.

Eva Kaneva (1985, Dobrich) holds a master’s degree in Scand­inavi­an Stud­ies from Sofia Uni­ver­sity. Des­pite her young age she is the author of more than twenty trans­la­tions. Among the authors she trans­lates are Hen­rik Ibsen, Sigrid Undset, Karin Fos­sum, Anne Holt, Jo Nes­bø, Hilde Hagerup and Endre Lund Eriksen. Her trans­la­tion of Sigrid Undset’s his­tor­ic­al saga Kristin Lav­rans­dat­ter has been widely acclaimed.

Read more here.

Teodora Tzankova

Teodora TzankovaWork­ing lan­guages: Span­ish

Field of work: con­tem­por­ary Spanish-language fic­tion and non-fiction in the human­it­ies

Short bio­graphy: Teodora Tzankova is a Research fel­low at the Insti­tute for Lit­er­at­ure and has been a part-time Lec­turer at the St Kli­ment Ohrid­ski Uni­ver­sity of Sofia since 2004. She has a BA in Span­ish Philo­logy (2003), an MA from the Translator-Editor with Span­ish pro­gramme (2005) and anoth­er MA in Lit­er­ary Stud­ies (2007) at the St Kli­ment Ohrid­ski Uni­ver­sity of Sofia. She holds a PhD from the Uni­ver­sity of Sofia for her dis­ser­ta­tion on The Por­trait in Lit­er­ary Modernism(Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and José Martínez Ruiz – Azorín). Her interests are in the spheres of com­par­at­ive lit­er­at­ure and lit­er­ary trans­la­tion.

From 2013 to 2019 she has been Chair of Lit­er­ary Trans­la­tion Sec­tion at the Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on. Since 2011 she is a per­man­ent rep­res­ent­at­ive of BTU at CEATL.

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:

  • Ricardo Güirdaldes, Don Segundo Som­bra (Ergo, 2018);
  • Unai Elor­riaga, Un tran­vía en SP (Small Sta­tions Press, 2017); 
  • Javi­er Marías, The Man of Feel­ing (Colibri, 2017);
  • José Ignacio Tor­reb­lanca, ¿Quién gobi­erna en Europa? (Cri­ti­cism and Human­ism, 2015);
  • Javi­er Marías, Los enam­or­ami­en­tos (Altera, 2014);
  • Agustín Fernán­dez Paz, Aire negro (Small Sta­tions Press, 2013);
  • Enrique Vila-Matas, Bar­tleby y com­pañía. (Pan­or­ama, 2010);
  • Cam­i­lo José Cela, Madera de boj (Fama, 2009);
  • Jorge Luis Borges, El libro de los seres ima­gin­ari­os (Fama, 2008);
  • Tomás Eloy Martínez, “Peri­od­ismo y nar­ra­ción: desafíos para el siglo XXI” and “Fic­ción, his­tor­ia, peri­od­ismo: límites y márgenes” // Lit­er­at­urata magazine, v. 4, pp. 31–60;
  • Néstor Gar­cía Can­clini, “Noti­cias recientes sobre la hibrid­iza­ción”; Beat­riz Sarlo, “Jóvenes”, “El centro comer­cial” // Lit­er­at­urata magazine, v. 3, pp. 104–140;

Awards:

  • Prize of the Min­istry of Cul­ture for Con­tri­bu­tion to the Bul­gari­an Cul­ture on the occa­sion of 24th May: Bul­gari­an Edu­ca­tion and Cul­ture and Slavon­ic Lit­er­at­ure Day, 2009;
  • First Prize for the trans­la­tion of El libro de los seres ima­gin­ari­os by Jorge Luis Borges on a com­pet­i­tion organ­ized by the Fac­ulty of Clas­sic­al and Mod­ern Philo­lo­gies on the occa­sion of the 120 anniversary of Sofia Uni­ver­sity “St. Kli­ment Ohrid­ski”;

Con­tact: