25th short story competition for authors up to 35 years old held by the ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund
The permanent jury of the short story competition in the name of Rashko Sugarev for authors up to 35 years old nominated Hristo Rayanov’s ‘The Carp’ as the winner of the 25th edition organised by the ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund. Ryanov came to the awards ceremony with his wife and their 8-month-old daughter, Bozhidara, who was wide-eyed watching the activity. Jury members Theodora Dimova and Deyan Enev pointed out that the competition is a way to encourage young people to compose and create quality literature. Deyan Enev added that an author dedicated to belles-lettres, who breaks all standards, as did Rashko Sugarev, is the right one to be the competition’s patron. He emphasised that, over the years, more than 75 young writers have won awards, some already having earned a prominent place in Bulgarian literature, such as: Alek Popov, Georgi Gospodinov, Yordan Eftimov, Angel Igov, Stoil Roshkev, Boris Minkov, Olya Stoyanova, Dimitar Ganev, Yordanka Beleva, Silvia Tomova, Vasil Georgiev, Andon Staykov, Alexander Shpatov, Anton Terziev, and Vladimir Poleganov.
Theodora Dimova expressed the hope that, in the next competition, participants would be of equal quality, but greater in number.
In the Prof. Vasil Gerov Hall, the winner of the first prize received a diploma as well as books published by NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’. Books were similarly presented to all the other prize winners. Hristo Rayanov thanked the jury and the Fund for the prize, with its cash award of BGN 700. The winner is a Doctor of Science in Literature, Cinematography and Screenwriting. His dream is to teach screenwriting because this is what he is best at, and he wants to share his skills and knowledge. He has written scripts for the ‘Sofia Residents in Excess’ and ‘Stolen Life’ series. He was a producer of the ‘Survivor’ reality show, and works for ‘The Evening Show of Nikolaos Tsitiridis’, ‘The Voice of Bulgaria’, and ‘Bulgaria Searches for Talent’. Hristo joked that it was only to culinary shows he was not invited as an author, as there they risked him eating all their food. Rayanov has also published two books: ‘The Hard Way’ and ‘What If: Bulgaria on Three Seas’.
The runner-up, Tea Moneva, lives in Germany, so sent a representative, Radostina Ganova, who received the diploma on her behalf. Moneva will receive BGN 500 by bank transfer. Tea composes beautiful poetry and prose in Bulgarian and German and manages to combine literature with her work in pharmacy. The story that fascinated the jury is titled ‘Collector of Eyes’.
Ivelina Dobreva graduated in advertising and works at a recruitment agency; she has two children but finds time to write for pleasure. A friend of hers who admires her writing, persuaded her to submit her story to the competition. The jury was evidently of the same opinion, since she was awarded third prize and BGN 400.
Slava Ivanova, Executive Director of NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’, congratulated the young authors awarded in the competition and told them the history of the books they received as a gift.
The traditional presentation of the prize occurs on 23 April—the World Book, Copyright and Readers’ Day. This year, owing to the Easter holidays, the ceremony was postponed by several days. It took place among the natural decor of artworks from the national youth digital drawings competition, entitled ‘Together in Art for a Better Future—Let’s Rebuild Our Children’s World’.
This competition was initiated on the occasion of UNESCO’s 75th anniversary, and 40 years since the founding of the ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund—both organisations working for causes in support of children, families, and developing equal opportunities for all.