Literary reading with Rumyana Ebert and the translator Ana Dimova
December, 11th from 2 p.m. – 3rd floor stage
In cooperation with Goethe-Institut Sofia

We will present to the audience translated excerpts from Rumyana Ebert’s book Ecken und Ovale (Corners and Ovals), recently published by Wieser Publishing House – Austria.

„In every language things are formulated differently” Aglaya Veterani

„The poem Bitpazar illustrates how two quatrains convey more than some authors manage to express in a novel. Learning to swim freely – perhaps this is the essence of these poems. The readers – which feels most beautiful about these verses – never feel patronized. Rumyana Ebert’s poems leave them free space to breathe. This space, it seems, is not given by nature. One has to acquire it. Rumyana Ebert’s poems have the swing.“ Volker Sielaff

Elias Canetti Reader Team: Penka Angelova, Vladimir Sabourin, Boris Minkov, Ana Dimova
December, 12th from 3 p.m. – 3rd floor stage
In cooperation with KulturKontakt and Goethe-Institut Sofia

„When one can achieve so much with words, why not use them to prevent things?” Elias Canetti, The Poet’s Profession

„I have been following with great empathy the events in Bulgaria. These are hard times but they will be overcome. The natural warmness of these people will bring them together again. In time all this separation will seem like a bad dream. I trust the insight of those, who remained humane… and will never change in this respect.”
From Elias Canetti’s letter to Penka Angelova from April, 9th 1992

Even nowadays Canetti’s works remain little known in the country of his birth.  Therefore, this collection aims to offer for educational purposes some representative excerpts from his works, accompanied by scientific articles and studies of Bulgarian researchers of Canetti, through which the reader can get acquainted with both the most representative texts of the author and their interpretation and have access to the conceptual universe of his work.

A team of authors and translators – Prof. Penka Angelova, Prof. Ana Dimova, Prof. Vladimir Sabourin and Assoc. Prof. Boris Minkov will present the collected works to the audience of the International Book Fair.

Literary reading and presentation of Marianne Gruber’s novel Memories of a Clown
translator: Ana Dimova, moderator: Vladimir Sabourin
December, 14th from 1 p.m. – 3rd floor stage
In cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Austria in Sofia

Marianne Gruber is an author of prose, poetry, essays, utopian novels, children’s and youth literature and also radio and television associate. She gives lectures in Europe, Asia and the US. Form 1994 to 2014 she is president of the Austrian Society for Literature, the largest Austrian association in contact with artists from around the world. A winner of numerous awards, including the George Orwell prize, prizes for poetry, short story, children’s and youth literature, Marianne Gruber is also a Honorary Doctor of the University of Nizhny Novgorod (1997) and member of the International advisory council of the International Elias Canetti Society.

Marianne Gruber’s works translated in Bulgarian: The Protocols of Fear (1994), To the Castle (2010).

In an interview she says she is deeply spiritual and believes in the creative power of art. And if a society can afford to create culture, it can also find the models to solve its problems. Marianne Gruber has remarkable achievements in creating such models both in her works and in her cultural and political activity.

Literary reading and presentation of Iren Nigg’s book Wording the Places Oneself
translator: Nedka Nikolova, moderator: Penka Angelova
December, 14th from 2 p.m. – 3rd floor stage
With the support of the Cultural Foundation of Liechtenstein

For her book Wording the Places Oneself (2006) Iren Nigg receives the European Union Prize for Literature.

In this book we get in touch with a free play with speech, punctuation, the meanings of words and the feelings they evoke. With children’s naivete, creative imagination and philosophical deepness this work builds all possible and intermediate worlds that inspire us for the freedom needed to experience the beauty of life.

Iren Nigg shows us that it is important not to live in another’s tale in a foreign text, but to find your own story, your own text in a world creating wording and overcoming of death.