Monthly Archives: September 2015

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:

Vera Kirkova

VERA.KIRKOVAWork­ing lan­guages: Por­tuguese, Bul­gari­an

Field of work: Lit­er­ary trans­la­tion

Short bio­graphy: She was born in Sofia and raised in Bud­apest, Hun­gary. She first stud­ied in Rus­si­an school and then gradu­ated from the French Sec­ond­ary School in Sofia (Span­ish lan­guage class). She stud­ied Por­tuguese Philo­logy at Sofia Uni­ver­sity St. Kli­ment Ohrid­ski with second spe­cialty also com­pleted at Sofia Uni­ver­sity – Radio Journ­al­ism. Imme­di­ately after gradu­at­ing with hon­ors she began work­ing as a teach­er of Por­tuguese Lan­guage and Cul­ture at Sofia Uni­ver­sity St. Kli­ment Ohrid­ski. She has been teach­ing, trans­lat­ing and edit­ing books, writ­ing art­icles, par­ti­cip­at­ing in nation­al and inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ences and she is a mem­ber of the Asso­ci­ation of Por­tuguese Speak­ing People in Bul­garia and the Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­ors’ Uni­on. She com­pleted sev­er­al spe­cial­iz­a­tions in Por­tugal (at Lis­bon Uni­ver­sity and the Uni­ver­sity of the Azores) and Brazil (at Uni­ver­sity of Sao Paulo). She is the trans­lat­or of fam­ous Por­tuguese authors who are well-known world­wide. Among them is the hold­er of Nobel Prize for Lit­er­at­ure José Sara­mago, Paulo Coelho, Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Baptista-Bastos, Gra­cili­ano Ramos, Machado de Assis, Igná­cio de Loy­ola Brandão, Fernando Sabino, Már­cia Dens­er and more num­ber of con­tem­por­ary Brazili­an authors pub­lished on the ini­ti­at­ive of the Embassy of Brazil in Bul­garia. She loves to travel the world and is fond of pho­to­graphy. She has pho­to­graphs pub­lished in many prin­ted edi­tions and dozens of inter­views in the media. She is mar­ried with two daugh­ters.

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:

  • Blind­ness by José Sara­mago (Colibri Pub­lish­ing House),
  • The Witch of Por­to­bello by Paulo Coelho (Obsidi­an Pub­lish­ing House), with a prize for trans­la­tion from the Sofia Uni­ver­sity St. Kl. Ohrid­ski,
  • The Manu­script Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho (Obsidi­an Pub­lish­ing House),
  • Aleph by Paulo Coelho (Obsidi­an Pub­lish­ing House),
  • Mak­tub by Paulo Coelho (Obsidi­an Pub­lish­ing House),
  • The Win­ner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho (Obsidi­an Pub­lish­ing House),
  • Brida by Paulo Coelho (Obsidi­an Pub­lish­ing House),
  • Brazili­an stor­ies by Gra­cili­ano Ramos and Machado de Assis (Brazili­an Embassy, Ogledalo Pub­lish­ing House),
  • The Diary of a Magus by Paulo Coelho (Obsidi­an Pub­lish­ing House),
  • Fly Away from Silence (in a team) – Slavy­ani Pub­lish­ing House,
  • More Brazili­an Stor­ies (Embassy of Brazil),
  • Frozen in Winter Per­son by Baptista-Bastos (Pet Plus Pub­lish­ing House),
  • Sud­den light by José Manuel Mendes (Pet Plus Pub­lish­ing House),
  • Con­fes­sions of Lúcio by Mário de Sá-Carneiro (Pet Plus Pub­lish­ing House).

Awards:

  • Award by BUSINESS LADY CLUB for Out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the pro­mo­tion and sup­port of women in soci­ety, polit­ics and busi­ness, 2013;
  • Award for trans­la­tion of the nov­el “The Witch of Por­to­bello” (Paulo Coelho) by Sofia Uni­ver­sity St. Kl. Ohrid­ski, 2008;
  • First Prize in poetry com­pet­i­tion ded­ic­ated to Sza­bó Lőrinc by the Hun­gari­an Cul­tur­al Insti­tute, 2000.

Con­tact: verakirkova@abv.bg

 

 

Ventseslav Konstantinov

Venceslav Konstantinov-2011Work­ing lan­guages: Ger­man, Eng­lish, Rus­si­an

Field of work: Poetry, Prose, Essays

Short bio­graphy:

Vent­seslav Kon­stantinov was born on Septem­ber 14, 1940 in Sofia. He gradu­ated in Ger­man­ic stud­ies and philo­sophy and wrote a thes­is on influ­ences of Ger­man lit­er­ary expres­sion­ism on the Bul­gari­an poetry between the wars. Since 1987 he has been teach­ing trans­la­tion of German-language poetry at the Uni­ver­sity of Sofia. 1991–1992, Kon­stantinov was in Ber­lin as grantee of the Ber­liner Künst­ler­pro­gram (the Ber­lin Artist­ic Pro­gram) of the Deutsche Akademis­che Aus­taush­di­enst DAAD (the Ger­man Aca­dem­ic Exchange Ser­vice). He had lec­tures and con­fer­ence par­ti­cip­a­tions in Ber­lin, Leipzig, Mar­burg, Vienna, Prague, Bern, Zurich and Lausanne. Kon­stantinov spent 1993–1994 at SUNY Geneseo, New York. He pub­lished poems and art­icles also made radio-contributions on Ger­man, Aus­tri­an, Swiss and Bul­gari­an lit­er­at­ure. His book trans­la­tions amount to 70 volumes. Vent­seslav Kon­stantinov is the author of the books:

  • 2007: Writers on the Work of Art, Sofia, LiK.
  • 2010: The Dream Flute. Lit­er­ary Stud­ies, Sofia, Ciela.
  • 2011: Gobelin, Embroidered with Dev­il Tails. Essays, Sofia, Ciela.
  • 2012: The Secret Life of the Rain. Aph­or­isms, Sofia, Ciela.
  • 2013: The Invis­ible Cer­tain Things. Poetry, Sofia, Ab.

Vent­seslav Kon­stantinov lives in Sofia and in the Rhodope Moun­tains vil­lage Sol­ishta as a freel­ance writer and trans­lat­or.

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:

  1. Ber­to­lt Brecht, Life of Galileo. Drama, 1964.
  2. Erich Maria Remarque, Heav­en Has No Favor­ites. Nov­el, 1972.
  3. Friedrich Dür­ren­matt, The Sus­pi­cion. Nov­el, 1972.
  4. Stefan Zweig, Chess Story, 1973.
  5. Max Frisch, Homo Faber. Nov­el, 1973.
  6. Ber­to­lt Brecht, Cal­en­dar Tales. Poems and Stor­ies, 1975.
  7. Max Frisch, Stil­ler. Nov­el, 1978.
  8. Max Frisch, Don Juan, or Love to Geo­metry. A Play, 1979.
  9. Ber­to­lt Brecht, A Short Organ­um for the Theatre. Essay, 1985.
  10. Hen­rik Ibsen, The Mas­ter Build­er. Drama, 1979.
  11. Eli­as Canetti, Wed­ding. Drama, 1980.
  12. Lion Feucht­wanger, The House on “Green Way”. Selec­ted Stor­ies, 1981.
  13. Franz Kafka, The Meta­morph­os­is’. Selec­ted Stor­ies, 1982.
  14. Mar­tin Walser, Run­away Horse. Selec­ted Stor­ies, 1982.
  15. Ber­to­lt Brecht, The Trophies of Luc­ul­lus. Selec­ted Stor­ies, 1983.
  16. Chris­toph Meck­el, Hotel for Sleep­walk­ers. Selec­ted Poems, 1984.
  17. Max Frisch, Man in the Holo­cene. Story, 1984.
  18. Peter Hacks, Peace. A Play, 1985.
  19. Peter Hacks, The Beau­ti­ful Helene. A Play, 1986.
  20. Her­mann Hesse, The Stolen Suit­case. Selec­ted Stor­ies, 1986.
  21. Kurt Tuchol­sky, Inter­view with Myself. Poems and Stor­ies, 1986.
  22. Wal­ter Ben­jamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mech­an­ic­al Repro­duc­tion. Essay, 1989.
  23. Hein­rich Böll, The Dwarf and the Doll. Selec­ted Stor­ies, 1987.
  24. Alfred Ander­sch, Diana and the Flute-Player. Selec­ted Stor­ies, 1988.
  25. Katja Mann, My Unwrit­ten Mem­oirs, 1989.
  26. Hans Mag­nus Enzens­ber­ger. The Sink­ing of “Titan­ic”. A Com­edy, 1990.
  27. Friedrich Chris­ti­an Deli­us, Mogadishu Win­dow Seat. Nov­el, 1992.
  28. Erich Käst­ner, A Real­ist­ic Romance. Poetry and Prose, 2009.
  29. Franz Kafka, In the Pen­al Colony. Selec­ted Stor­ies, 2010.
  30. The Great Ger­man Poets from the 12th to the 20th Cen­tury. An Antho­logy, 2012.

Awards:

  • 1993: The Trans­la­tion Prize of the Min­istry for Edu­ca­tion, Arts and Cul­ture, Vienna.
  • 2006: The Prize of the Bul­gari­an Trans­lat­or’s Uni­on for his entire work.
  • 2013: The Lit­er­at­ure Prize of Sofia for The Great Ger­man Poets from the 12th to the 20th Cen­tury. An Antho­logy.

Con­tact: e‑mail : vkonstantinov@gmx.de

 

 

Vassily Ivanov Ivanov

Work­ing lan­guages: French, Eng­lish, Rus­si­an

Field of work: fic­tion, tech­nic­al trans­la­tion activ­ity

Brief Bio­graphy: Uni­ver­sity ” Cyril and Meth­o­di­us” – 1978, proofread­er, edit­or, journ­al­ist, trans­lat­or cor­res­pond­ent in Alger­ia,  tech­nic­al com­mand­er of the First Private Bank, Min­istry of For­eign Affairs 1998 – Mis­sion of Bul­garia to the Coun­cil of Europe in Stras­bourg , Dip­lo­mat­ic Insti­tute, Embassy of Bul­garia in Par­is, Mis­sion of Bul­garia to UNESCO – Par­is, where I work now.

Selec­ted trans­la­tions:

recent trans­la­tions of poetry

  • ” Ver­laine ” – edi­tion RIVA – 2011,
  • “Baudelaire” – edi­tion RIVA 2011.

Con­tact: