“Is it possible for us to solve a problem our ancestors struggled with and by doing so liberate not only ourselves but also them, retroactively, and allow them repose as well? Reversing the direction of time’s arrow was an idea I wanted to explore in this novel.”
“So little of the book was clear to me when I began writing”: Garth Greenwell discusses What Belongs to You, his debut novel from Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, with Mary Stewart Atwell.
Steven Wingate talks with Georgi Gospodinov about his new novel, The Physics of Sorrow, translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel and published by Open Letter Books earlier this year.
“Writing is nothing but entering the memories of the body”: Bulgarian writer Viriginia Zaharieva talks with Steven Wingate about her novel Nine Rabbits.
Albena Stambolova’s short, fable-like novel Everything Happens As It Does brings a whole new sensibility to the body of English translations from her native Bulgaria’s contemporary literature.
Angel Igov talks with Steve Wingate about his first book translated into English, A Short Tale of Shame, as well as history as a branch of knowledge, the influence of high modernism, the role of critics, and more
Bulgarian Writer Zachary Karabashliev and Steve Wingate discuss the pleasures of semi-autobiographical fiction and the pain of trying to laugh in a foreign language.
Step two: engage. Sozopol 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.
Step One: Leave home. Three fellows from the Sozopol Fiction Seminar consider questions of travel, culture, and translation. Part I: John Struloeff on international diplomacy and collaboration, Jane E. Martin on finding home abroad, and Michael Hinken on how we rediscover home by leaving it. Later this week: Molly Antopol and Lee Romer Kaplan.
Bulgarian-American author Miroslav Penkov’s debut short story collection East of the West (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) comes at a time when his native country’s literary star is on the rise in the west. In this auspicious moment, Penkov delivers a heck of a book.
