Panel of Judges 2004

 

Anton Donchev

Academician Anton Donchev is a prominent Bulgarian writer of historical novels.

Anton Donchev is a master of the epic genre with international popularity, and this is why he is often called “The Lord of the Past”. His novels The Awakening, A Saga for the Time of Samuil, Time of Parting, A Saga for Khan Asparouh, Royal Prince Slav, and the High Priest Teres and The Strange Knight of the Holy Book are not only examples of high literature, but also a true research of the Bulgarian history and way of life. In his work, Anton Donchev puts strong emphasis on the moral values necessary for asserting the Bulgarian national identity. In his work, including novels, essays, film scripts, short stories and articles, Anton Donchev tries to find the lasting identity of the Bulgarian national character evolving over centuries.

Anton Donchev was born in 1930. He graduated in law from the Sofia St. Kliment Ohridki University. Anton Donchev is the winner of many national and international awards, among which the Balcanica Foundation Prize for literature for 1998. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

 

 

Svetlozar Igov

Professor Svetlozar Igov is one of the leading Bulgarian experts in classical and modern philosophy and literature. He has always been actively engaged in operational criticism. Professor Igov also writes fiction, including poetry, prose, fragments, aphorisms, essays and plays. He is a prominent translator and author of anthologies.

Sveylozar Igov was born in 1945 in the village of Raduil, Sofia district. He graduated Slavic Philology from the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridki. He specialised in the field of Slavic Literature in Belgrade and Zagreb. Between 1967 and 1969 Igov taught at the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridki and he has taught at the Plovdiv Paisii Hilendarski University since 1985.

Svetlozar Igov was editor at the Literature Forum newspaper, Suvremennik magazine and he is the editor-in-chief of Language and Literature magazine. He has worked at the Art Criticism Institute with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Literature with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

 

 

Yordan Eftimov

Yordan Eftimov is a poet, literary critic, and a lecturer in literary theory at the New Bulgarian University. He is the author of four books of poetry, and over 300 publications in the media.

Yordan Eftimov has won the Gold Chain Literature Prize for a short story of the Trud newspaper and the Rashko Sugarev 1998 Short Story Award. He is the winner of the II Prize of the Agatha Competition for a detective short story.

Yordan Eftimov was born in 1971 in Razgrad. He finished the National Highschool for Classical Languages and Cultures and later graduated in Bulgarian Philology from the Sofia St. Kliment Ohridki University. Yordan Eftimov taught classical and western European literature at the Sofia St. Kliment Ohridki University till 2003 and now teaches creative writing at the New Bulgarian University. Yordan Eftimov has been an editor at the Literary Newspaper newspaper for many years now. He has published the book A Bulgarian Anthology. Our poetry since Gerov in cooperation with Georgi Gospodinov, Plamen Doinov, and Boyko Penchev. Eftimov is the author of many literary criticism articles in Bulgarian periodicals, among which the annual reviews of the Bulgarian Literature in the Democratic Review magazine. He has also published in the Kultura, Literature, Literature Forum newspapers as well as the Stranitsa, Sezon magazine, Suvremennik, Kant, and Fakel magazines, together with the web sites of the Literature Club, Liternet, and Slovoto. Yordan Eftimov was the host of the Paper Tigers Literature Program at RFI from January 2001 to March 2003.

 

 

Simona Mircheva

Simona Mircheva is the author of hundreds of publications on topics relating to culture.

She has worked as an editor at the magazines Sofia, Egoist, Power and BG Air as well as the 1000 Days and Kulture newspapers and as a literary observer at the Capital weekly.

Ms Mircheva is currently a columnist and a literary observer at the Playboy magazine. Simona Mircheva has majors in Bulgarian Philology and Psychology from the Sofia St. Kliment Ohridki University.