"East of no East" - a literary reflection of Bulgarian reality Interview with Bulgarian writer and translator Zdravka Evtimova

By: Svetlana Dicheva, Bulgarian National Radio

---

The problems of the "small languages" in Europe are not only a concern of the EU enlargement - tons of EU documents have to be translated in the near future.

Bulgarian is one of these "small languages" spoken only by 7 million citizens.

Bulgarian literature suffers the consequences of this linguistic "flaw".

Contemporary Bulgarian authors are not known abroad. Some translations of classic writers appear sporadically on special occasions.

According to the critics Zdravka Evtimova is one of the most interesting fiction writers in contemporary Bulgarian literature. As a brilliant literary translator into English she is trying to promote other Bulgarian writers in England and USA. Thanks to her efforts the English literary website www.routemagazine.co.uk published a virtual book entitled "East of No East - Bulgarian Stories". Four short stories by Bulgarian writers are trying to fill the gap of ignorance about the contemporary tendencies in Bulgarian literature.

In an interview published on the website the English author and editor Daithidh

MacEochaidh emphasizes on the fact that many years after the fall of the "iron curtain" Eastern Europe is still very much an unknown, East still seems as "East is East" - a stereotype of estrangement. In the same interview Zdravka Evtimova describes Bulgarian writers as people who "had never been rich; they cannot give their countrymen money, but they can give them truth. In thirteen hundred years of Bulgarian history, truth meant courage to spreak it, to stand up for it and to die for it. In the 1300 year Bulgarian history truth was Bulgarian survival".

Svetlana Dicheva from the Bulgarian National radio asked Zdravka Evtimova some

questions about the literary project " East of no East".

more Comments...