Maraya Milanova, winner of the Third Prize for her ‘Whatever That Metal Sponge You Use to Scrub Pans Was Called’ in the 2026 Rashko Sugarev National Competition for a Published Short Story, answered questions specifically for Untold Stories:
- What do you think about the Rashko Sugarev National Competition of NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’?
I am most heartily glad that such an event as the Rashko Sugarev Competition exists, for it provides a platform for the young, and stimulates people to write and seek ways to publish, but it also reminds us of Rashko Sugarev himself and the creative writings before us, now, and after us.
- Is writing a short story easy?
Most people would say it’s harder because you have fewer pages to fit the pith and marrow of the story. I used to write mostly poetry, but now the short story feels like oceans to me.
- What inspired you to write your story?
Our everyday life, which changes but still some little things remain, like round-the-clock stores, our shopping, and, of course, whatever that metal sponge you use to scrub pans was called.
- Do you think short stories have a future?
Yes, absolutely. I think we live in a world where short things are particularly lovely, and a short story read at the right time and place serves as a compass and spurs change. Why should we deprive ourselves of something so magical for it not to be part of our future?
- What will your next story be about?
I have no idea, and that’s the best part of creative writing!
- What inspires you the most?
People.
- What do you dream of?
From now on my dreams will be simple and similar to those of any other person involved in art… Or as Jluch says in ‘Counterbalance’: ‘I have a whole lot of work to do: make some good rap music in Bulgaria, fix the bleedin’ lamps in the bathroom, love my family, see illusions from afar, not hesitate to feed one of those “sluggards”, especially if they hadn’t had breakfast.’ Like Jluch, I also aspire to compose a few good works, and in addition to this aspiration, to ‘fix a lamp or two in the bathroom’, to love my family, and help my ‘sluggards’.
‘Whatever That Metal Sponge You Use to Scrub Pans Was Called’, by Maraya Milanova, was published in the Moré [Sea] magazine in March 2025.
The author is twenty years old. She graduated from the National School for Ancient Languages and Cultures, and is currently a student in Public Relations at Kliment Ohridski Sofia University.
Milanova was a prize-winner of prestigious national and international literary competitions, including: the Petya Dubarova National Literary Contest in 2013 and 2014; the Veselin Hanchev National Youth Competition in 2022 and 2023; and the Art Against Drugs International Competition in 2023 and 2025. She won first prize in the competition of the Musagena Books and Art Publishers in 2024, as well as the grand prize in the Boyan Penev National Literary Competition in 2025.
Questions posed by Theodora Bankovska
14 May 2026
Translated by Nigrita Davies