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