Category Archives: Members

Darin Tenev

Work­ing lan­guages: Japan­ese, Eng­lish, French

Trans­la­tion Field: Lit­er­at­ure, The­ory, Philo­sophy

Short bio­graphy: Dar­in Tenev is an asso­ci­ate pro­fess­or at the Uni­ver­sity of Sofia “St. Kli­ment Ohrid­ski”. He is also a dir­ect­or of the Insti­tute for Crit­ic­al Social Stud­ies. He has bach­el­or degree in Bul­gari­an Philo­logy and Japan­ese Stud­ies and Mas­ter Degree in Lit­er­ary Stud­ies. He holds a PhD in Lit­er­ary The­ory. He has pub­lished two books: Fic­tion and Image (2012) and Digres­sions. Essays on Jacques Der­rida (2013).

Selec­ted trans­la­tions in Bul­gari­an:

  • Tanikawa Shuntaro, Patuvane, Sofia: Lit­av­ra, 2001.
  • Ern­esto Laclau, Emancipation(s), Sofia: Lit­av­ra, 2004.
  • Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human (a nov­el), In: No Longer Human and oth­er stor­ies, Sofia: Altera, 2011.

Con­tact:

Aneta Dantcheva-Manolova

Work­ing lan­guages: Eng­lish, French, Dutch and Rus­si­an; read­ing skills in Hindi

Field of work: Lit­er­ary trans­la­tion – Dutch and Flem­ish poetry and prose; Film trans­la­tion

Short bio­graphy:

  • Born in Sofia.
  • The “St. Kli­ment Ochrid­sky” Uni­ver­sity of Sofia - Journ­al­ism; Dutch lan­guage (a second spe­cialty).
  • Course “Dutch lan­guage and cul­ture” in the Neth­er­lands (The Nijen­rode Uni­ver­sity, Breuk­elen), 1989.
  • Works for the Bul­gari­an Nation­al Tele­vi­sion – Depart­ment “Films and For­eign pro­grams”.
  • Trans­lated for the tele­vi­sion fea­ture films, series, doc­u­ment­ar­ies (incl. George Orwell’s “1984”).
  • Inter­view for the Dutch news­pa­per “NRC Han­dels­blad” as a trans­lat­or.
  • Author/lector of Course “Bel­gi­um and Hol­land – Lan­guage, Cul­ture and Soci­ety” – New Bul­gari­an Uni­ver­sity, Sofia (1998).
  • Trans­lat­or and super­vising edit­or of four Dutch and Flem­ish issues of the lit­er­ary magazine “Pla­mak”.
  • Trans­lat­or of the poem “Het weer” by Hugo Claus for The Bel­gian Poetry Wall in Sofia”.
  • Cor­res­pond­ent for Bul­garia of the Dutch radio (since Janu­ary 1998).
  • A por­trait on the Dutch radio as a cor­res­pond­ent, author and trans­lat­or (2, August, 2002).
  • A pub­lic­a­tion “Lit­erair ver­talen in Bul­gar­ije – een geluk of een nacht­mer­rie” (“Trans­la­tion in Bul­garia: a hap­pi­ness or a night­mare?”), lit­er­ary magazine “Filter”(2010, Utrecht, The Neth­er­lands).
  • Trans­la­tion of “Bel­gie op het eer­ste gezicht”(2012, Bel­gi­um).
  • Mem­ber of Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on.
  • Mem­ber of the Uni­on of the Bul­gari­an journ­al­ists.
  • Mem­ber of The Bel­gian Social Club by the Bel­gian embassy in Bul­garia.
  • Mem­ber of De Maatschap­pij der Neder­landse let­ter­kunde (Soci­ety for Dutch Lit­er­at­ure).
  • Officer in the order of Leo­pold II (Bestow­ing in 2007).

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:  Books from Dutch lan­guage:

  • Turks fruit, a nov­el, Jan Wolk­ers;
  • Zeesteen, a choice from the poetry of Hans van de Waarsen­burg;
  • De jager heeft een zoon, poetry, Jozef Deleu;
  • Het museum van aller­daagse leven, a choice of poems by Willem M. Rogge­man;
  • Kleine raad­sels, a choice of novel­las and short stor­ies by Louis Couper­us;
  • Het Ver­lan­gen, a nov­el, Hugo Claus;
  • De ogen en de roep, selec­ted poems, bilin­gua, Eddy van Vliet;
  • De kleur­en van de droom, selec­ted poems, Willem M. Rogge­man;
  • De wetten, a nov­el, Con­nie Pal­men;
  • De Eetclub, a nov­el, Saskia Noort;
  • Menuet, a nov­el, Louis Paul Boon;
  • Kosovo: de uit­gestelde oor­log, non-fiction, Ray­mond Detrez;
  • Rituelen, a nov­el, Cees Noote­boom;
  • Een schitt­er­end gebrek, a nov­el, Arthur Jap­in;
  • Ser­en­ade, a nov­el, Leon de Winter;
  • Wel­doen­ers, a nov­el, Els de Groen;
  • Grote Europese roman, a nov­el, Koen Peeters;
  • Mr. Fin­ney en de wereld op zijn kop, Lauren­tien van Oran­je;
  • Goden cirkel , selectd stor­ies, M.A. Biesheuvel.

Awards:

  • Annu­al prize of the Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on, 2013, for Grote Europese roman by Koen Peeters

Con­tact:

Yordan Kosturkov

Y Kosturkov portraitWork­ing lan­guages: Eng­lish, Bul­gari­an

Field of work: Lit­er­ary Trans­la­tion

Short bio­graphy: Born Paz­ard­hik, Bul­garia, 3 July 1948; Fin­ished Eng­lish Lan­guage Sec­ond­ary School in Plov­div, M Lett. in Eng­lish from St Kli­ment Okhrid­ski Uni­ver­sity of Sofia, Spe­cial­ized at Leeds Met­ro­pol­it­an Uni­ver­sity, UK, Uni­ver­sity of Louis­vill, Ken­tucky, USA, Salzburg Aus­tria, Lough­bor­ough, UK etc. PhD from The Pais­sii Hil­en­darski Uni­ver­sity of Plov­div; Edit­or 1975–1988, Asso­ci­ate Pro­fess­or at The Pais­sii Hil­en­darski Uni­ver­sity of Plov­div

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:

  • Laurence Sterne Sen­ti­ment­al Jour­ney through France and Italy,
  • Nor­man Mail­er Tough Guys Don’t Dance,
  • Gore Vid­al Wash­ing­ton D. C., 1876, Empire,
  • Willa Cath­er My Mor­tal Enemy,
  • Edith Whar­ton Eth­an Frome etc.

Awards: Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on award, Plovidv Muni­cip­al­ity Award etc.

Con­tact:

Vladimir Georgiev Penchev

Work­ing lan­guages: Czech, Slov­ak, Rus­si­an

Field of work: Fic­tion, Socio-political lit­er­at­ure

Short bio­graphy: Born Janu­ary 1st, 1957 in the city of Stara Zagora. Gradu­ated from a Slavic philo­logy major, Czech pro­file, Sofia Uni­ver­sity “St. Kli­ment Ohrid­ski”. Com­pleted a spe­cial­iz­a­tion in the Charles Uni­ver­sity in Prague. Worked briefly at Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on and since 1983 has been work­ing for the Insti­tute of Folk­lore (today: Insti­tute of Eth­no­logy and Folk­lore with an Eth­no­graphy museum, BAS). He was a PhD. at 1992, since 1996 has been asso­ci­ate pro­fess­or, since 2017 – pro­fess­or.

His sci­entif­ic interests are mainly in the field of Bulgarian-Czech folk­lor­ist­ic rela­tions, his­tory of Czech pres­ence in Bul­gari­an lands, his­tory of Bul­gari­an folk­lor­ist­ics, Slavic eth­no­logy, prob­lems of Slavic ethno-cultural iden­tity, etc. He’s a lead­ing research­er in the field of eth­nic com­munit­ies in a foreign-speaking envir­on­ment. He’s authored more than 200 sci­entif­ic pub­lic­a­tions, includ­ing mono­graphs, books, col­lec­tions, stud­ies, art­icles, etc.

Since 1994 he’s been doing lec­tures at the SWU “Neofit Ril­ski” – Bla­go­ev­grad, and later also at Plov­div Uni­ver­sity “Pais­iy Hil­en­darski”, at New Bul­gari­an Uni­ver­sity and at the dis­con­tin­ued Slavic Uni­ver­sity. His lec­tures include Slavic eth­no­logy, Slavic cul­tur­al anthro­po­logy, Slavic folk­lore, Slavic iden­tit­ies, Czech stud­ies, Czech real­it­ies, etc. At this moment he is present­ing lec­tures on Czech and Slov­ak cul­tur­al and his­tor­ic­al real­it­ies at Sofia Uni­ver­sity “St. Kl. Ohrid­ski “. He has lec­tured at a num­ber of for­eign uni­ver­sit­ies.

He is found­ing mem­ber and also chair­man of Bohemia Club Asso­ci­ation; mem­ber of the Uni­on of Sci­ent­ists in Bul­garia, of the Nation­al Com­mit­tee of Slav­ists and of the Com­mis­sion of Folk­lore of the Inter­na­tion­al Con­gress of Slav­ists. He is a mem­ber of a num­ber of inter­na­tion­al edit­or­i­al boards of sci­entif­ic journ­als abroad.

He is a trans­lat­or of Czech and Slov­ak lit­er­at­ure and mem­ber of the Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on.

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:

  • Joseph Kadlec. Viola. Sofia, Nar­odna kul­tura, 1988;
  • Radek Jon. Memento. Sofia, Nar­odna kul­tura, 1989;
  • Eda Kriseova. Vaclav Havel – poet i pres­id­ent (Vaclav Havel – poet and pres­id­ent). Sofia, Pub­lish­ing House of the BAS, 1992 (with Sv. Hristova);
  • Irena Douskova. Kak val­cite me izy­adoha (How the wolves ate me). Sofia, Colibri, 2005 (with A. Penche­va);
  • Len­ka Pro­hazkova. Slance v zen­ita. Roman za Jan Palach (A sun in its zenith. A nov­el about Jan Palach). Sofia, Para­dox, 2013;
  • Jiří Hájíček. Ribja krav (Fish blood). Sofia, Para­dox, 2016.

Awards:

  • Hon­or­ary medal from the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs of the Czech Repub­lic (2003)

Con­tact:

email: vladimir_penchev@yahoo.com

Vesela Katsarova

Work­ing lan­guages: Eng­lish

Field of work: lit­er­ary trans­la­tion

Short bio­graphy:

Born – July 4, 1944 in Per­nik, Bul­garia

Gradu­ated from Sofia Uni­ver­sity, Depart­ment of Eng­lish Philo­logy (1967)

Lec­turer in Eng­lish Lit­er­at­ure in the Depart­ment of Eng­lish and Amer­ic­an Stud­ies, Sofia Uni­ver­sity since 1976. Prof. D.Litt.

Delivered lec­tures as a Ful­bright schol­ar in North­west­ern Uni­ver­sity, USA (2000)

Delivered lec­tures in Uni­ver­sity at Albany, USA (2005)

Pres­id­ent of the Bul­gari­an Soci­ety for Brit­ish Stud­ies (2002–6)

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:

  • Dombey and Son by Dick­ens (1984)
  • Seren­is­sima by Erica Jong (1999)
  • The Golden Note­book by Dor­is Less­ing (2008)
  • Middle­march by George Eli­ot (2012)
  • Adam Bede by George Eli­ot (forth­com­ing).

Awards:

  • Win­ner of the prize of the Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on for “The Golden Note­book” in 2010.

Con­tact: