Bistra Velichkova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2011, she received a joint Masters of Science degree in European Studies from the University of Twente, Netherlands, and the Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster, Germany. She also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. As a journalist, Bistra has published articles in various print and online editions, such as Pressa Daily, Dnevnik, Kultura, Trud, Duma, E-vestnik, WebCafé, OFFNews, and Kultur Bench. As an author, her poetry and short fiction has appeared in various newspapers and journals, such as Literaturen Vestnik, Vagabond, LIK, More Magazine, and 39 grams, as well as in online magazines such as LiterNet, Public Republic, Dictum,and Crosspoint. In 2012, Velichkova was a Fellow at the Sozopol Fiction Seminars, and in 2010 she was awarded first place in the literary competitionParis Without Love, organized by Ciela Books. Her first book, a collection of short stories entitled Rock Bottom, is forthcoming this year.
Natalie Bakopoulos’s debut novel, The Green Shore, is just out in paperback in the US, and has been recently released in Bulgaria as Зеленият бряг. Bistra Velichkova talks with Bakopoulos about her recent time in Bulgaria as a Sozopol Fiction Seminar Fellow, and the historical events of the military dictatorship of Greece (1967-1973) that inspired her novel.
