Suspend Your Disbelief

Search Results: miroslav penkov

Interviews |

Maybe the World is a Story: an Interview with Miroslav Penkov

by Steven Wingate

…at least sit down with them and understand how they have shaped our lives. Miroslav Penkov teaches creative writing at the University of North Texas, where he edits The American Literary Review. I will now step out of the way and let him talk about his work. Interview: Steven Wingate: Can you talk a bit about the transition from the short story to the novel? I’m particularly interested in the way you inhabit your characters. In East of the West yo…


Reviews |

East of the West: A Country in Stories, by Miroslav Penkov

by Steven Wingate

…Links & Resources Check out other FWR pieces on Bulgarian literature. Here’s an interview with Penkov in The Dallas Observer’s book blog. Read an archive of Penkov’s work on Blackbird. Penkov offers a list of how to write about Bulgaria in GRANTA….


Essays |

The 2011 Sozopol Fiction Seminar: Part II

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

…oundtable discussion about “The Future of Translation,” that I encountered Miroslav Penkov, whose stories I had already enjoyed in a number of American journals. Penkov was born in 1982 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, and arrived in America in 2001, where he entered the University of Arkansas, earning a BA in Psychology, followed by an MFA in fiction. His debut story collection, East of the West: A Country in Stories, has recently been published in the U.S….


Shop Talk |

Book of the Week: East of the West, by Miroslav Penkov

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

This week’s feature is Miroslav Penkov’s debut collection, East of the West, published this year by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Penkov was born in 1982 in Bulgaria and came to the U.S. to study in 2001. He completed a bachelor’s degree in Psychology followed by an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas, and now teaches creative writing at the University of North Texas, where he is a fiction editor for the American Literary Review. His…


Shop Talk |

First Looks, December 2012: BBC International Short Story Award and The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

by Erika Dreifus

…Further Resources On the Lambda Literary blog, Ayana Mathis explores the absence of joy in literature. “Our Favourite Short Story Writers”: recommendations from Miroslav Penkov and the other authors included in The BBC International Short Story Award 2012….


Interviews |

Close Up the Little Devil: An Interview with Zachary Karabashliev

by Steven Wingate

…a foreign country, we should write about it accordingly. What I’ve read by Miroslav Penkov captures glimpses of unique Bulgarian experience and makes them universally intriguing, hilarious, and widely recognized—no Bulgarian writer has done this before. The author bio mentions that you’ve written a screenplay for 18% Gray, which is in development. The novel has its cinematic elements, most obviously its use of third person present tense narration….


Essays |

The 2011 Sozopol Fiction Seminar: Part I

by Jeremiah Chamberlin

…coverage continues with Molly Antopol’s conversation with Bulgarian author Miroslav Penkov and Lee Kaplan Romer’s meditation on writing as an act of defiance and grace.   Contributors: John Struloeff grew up in the mountainous rainforests of northwestern Oregon. His debut poetry collection, The Man I Was Supposed to Be, was published by Loom Press in 2008, with individual poems in The Atlantic Monthly, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, ZYZZYV…




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