CONTEST FOR CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN WRITERS

The contest is for publication of contemporary Bulgarian novel in English language. All candidates should be Bulgarian citizens with at least one published novel. Each writer can apply with one translated excerpt from a novel. Closing date: 20 September 2010
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CONTEST FOR TRANSLATORS

The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and Open Letter Books are very pleased to offer a Fellowship for a Bulgarian literary translator. The applying translators should meet the following requirements: be literary translators working from Bulgarian into English; be Bulgarian citizens; have at least three published translation of fiction work from English into Bulgarian or vice versa.
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LAUNCH:: NEW WEBSITE PRESENTING CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN WRITERS IN ENGLISH

Contemporary Bulgarian Writers in English presents up-to-date profiles of living Bulgarian authors of fiction and short stories.
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FICTION PAGES

The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and Vagabond, Bulgaria's English Monthly, cooperate in order to enrich the English language with translations of contemporary Bulgarian writers. Each month we give you the chance to read a selected excerpt of a Bulgarian writer. Some of the presented writers will be translated in English for the first time. Enjoy our fiction pages.
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Interviews

Milen Ruskov on the Art of Translation

When did you start translating?
In 2001, I even remember the month – January.

What was the first literary work you translated?
For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor by Slavoj Žižek. I actually began my career as a translator in the sphere of the humanities, and still like it very much even if I don't work in it anymore.

What are the most common difficulties in your work as a translator?
Pretty simple: the language itself, and its figures.

Nadezhda Radulova on the Art of Translation

When did you start translating?
I’ve been seriously engaged with literary translation since 2003.

What was the first literary work you translated?
An excerpt from Tony Morrison’s novel Beloved (published in “Literaturen Vestnik” (Literary Newspaper) during the 90es).

What are the most common difficulties in your work as a translator?
The fact that I am not always in the position to choose the authors for translation. For me it is boring and hard to translate a text, which I don’t like. Such a task, however, has a disciplining effect.

Yordan Kosturkov - The Art of Translation

When did you start translating?
When I was in high school, 10th and 11th grade.

What was the first literary work you translated?
A comic short story by Hector Hugh Munro (Saki).

What are the most common difficulties in your work as a translator?
Translation has never been well-paid and one has to be able to afford it as a luxury.

Iglika Vassileva - The Art of Translation

When did you start translating?
My first translation came out in 1983, which means twenty six years ago.

What was the first literary work you translated?
Changing by Liv Ullmann.

What are the most common difficulties in your work as a translator?
There is no common denominator for all the different kinds of difficulties a translator encounters, because these depend on the different authors. As a whole the difficulties of a translation depend on the author, not on the translator. The specific problems with translating Joyce are not the same as those with translating Paul Auster, for example.