Panel of Judges 2005

 

Diko Fuchedzhiev

Diko Fuchedzhiev is one of the most significant modern Bulgarian novelists. He is the author of more than 20 books, he has realised two movies. He is actively engaged in journalist activities. He has worked as a journalist in the Vecherni Novini newspaper, editor in the Narodna Mladezh publishing house and in the screenplay commission of the Bulgarian Cinematography. For 14 years he has worked in the Bulgarian Writers Union.

From 1973 to 1976 he was responsible of the cultural activities in the Bulgarian Embassy in Paris. For 16 years he was a chief art director and head of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre.

Diko Fuchedzhiev was born in 1928 in the village of Gramatikovo, District of Burgas. He has completed his higher education in the Law Faculty of Sofia University.

 

 

Kiril Topalov

Kiril Topalov is a professor of Bulgarian literature at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Art Kr. Sarafov. He also lectures at New Bulgarian University.

He is the author of many scientific research, novels, children short stories, scenarios for feature and documentary films, as well as a number of plays. A great part of his novels are translated abroad.

He is a member of the Association of Bulgarian Writers, the Journalists Union, the International PEN, the International Hellenic Academy Arcadia, the International Academy of Hellenic Research Kozmas Etolos, Honorary Member of the National Union of Greek Writers and the Union of Greek Translators. He chairs the Balkan Civilization Academy, the National Association G. S. Rakovski and the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Security. He is a Director of the Institute for Democracy and Stability in Southeast Europe.

Kiril Topalov was born on 21 May 1943 in Sofia. He has studied New Greek Philology at the Athens University; from 1997 to 1998 he was Director of St. Cyril and Methodius National Library; from 1998 to 2002 he was Bulgarian Ambassador to Greece and from 2003 he is municipal councilor in Sofia.

 

 

Nikolai Stoyanov

Nikolai Stoyanov is establisher and founder of the Balkanica International Foundation, which has established the annual award for literature of the Balkan people, known as the Balkan Nobel. He is decorated the Cyril and Methodius golden order.

He is the author of 12 books (fiction), many radio plays and screenplays of several motion pictures. He has translated works of the French authors G. O. Chateaureynaud, Patrick Modiano and Francoise Sagan.

Nikolai Stoyanov is member of the Bulgarian Writers Union and the Union of Bulgarian Journalists. He has won many literary awards and the prestigious European award for poetic fiction.

He was born in 1948 in the town of Karlovo. He has graduated the SU St. Kliment Ohridski, major in Bulgarian Philology. Specialized modern world literature in France.

Nikolai Stoyanov has established the first readers' club in Bulgaria and the catalogue Club of Book Connoisseurs. He has worked in the Pulse newspaper, the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) - literary department, the Feature Movies Studio - the scenario commission and for many years he has worked in the Plamak magazine, where he was deputy editor-in-chief and editor-in-chief.

At present, he is Director of the Biblioteka 48 publishing group and editor-in-chief of the World and Diplomacy newspaper (Le Monde Diplomatique).

 

 

Vladimir Trendafilov

Vladimir Trendafilov is a poet, author of publications in academic miscellany and periodicals, a translator. Participates in a number of debates on literary, cultural and media issues.

Author of the following books - The Indelible Face in the Mirror (1996), During the Week in the Literary Aquarium (1999). He has also published the collections of poems The Four Magic Tricks (1997) and The Dance of Death of the Magician and other poems (1999).

Together with Alexander Shourbanov he has prepared the Translator Reception of European Literature in Bulgaria, Volume 1: English Literature (2000).

Vladimir Trendafilov was born in Varna in 1955. He graduated English Philology at SU St. Kliment Ohridski, where he was lecturing by 2001. For two years he worked as an editor in the Narodna Kultura publishing house. From 2001, he is an editor-in-chief in Bulgarian Text EOOD - a private agency for translations and film subtitling.

He translates from English into Bulgarian, mainly poetry. He has translated selected pieces of poetry and fiction of the Irish classicist and Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats, published in 1990 under the title The blood and the Moon. He is a translator of authors such as: Silvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Douglas Dunn, poems by James Dickey, Mark Strand, Robert Creeley, Charles Simic, Howard Nemerov, etc.