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