Bulgaria Writes Quality Poetry: An Interview with Vanya Angelova

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As part of our “Meet a Bulgarian Poet” series, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer interviewed poet, theatre dramaturg, and journalist Vanya Angelova, one of the brilliant voices featured in The Season of Delicate Hunger: Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry. Here is a translation of that interview.

What would you like for the American readers to know about Bulgarian poetry?

I’d be pleased if they looked up Bulgaria, my home country, on the map. Which would mean that they were impressed by what they’d read in the anthology.

The Season of Delicate Hunger represents the selection of the wonderful poet and translator Katerina Stoykova-Klemer. Her view is two-fold: she sees Bulgarian poetry from the inside, as a part of it, and from the outside, as a person sufficiently distanced from the literary situation in Bulgaria and sufficiently grown into the American. Probably these circumstances have determined the selections; probably these selections correspond to what the American reader is receptive to. In that regard I’m inclined to think that the readers will evaluate the chosen authors on their merits as poets, without being too interested in the fact that the authors are indeed Bulgarian.

If I must be more specific in my response –I’d like the American reader to learn that quality poetry is written in Bulgaria. I hope that doesn’t sound cocky.

What would you like for the American readers to know about you personally?

Nothing special. I write rarely, little, and succinctly. Poetry comes over me from time to time and I don’t resist it. I think my poems are more interesting than my personality. I hope that doesn’t sound like fake humility.

Our Romance

He and I are reading the same book,
separately but simultaneously,
we catch up and surpass one another—
we know that the other closely watches
how things are moving along.
Bookmarks of different color
pursue each other, converge and pass by—
that’s how things are moving along.
Notes of different color and handwriting
chat playfully and spontaneously.
Well, how’s this, he writes and further on I answer
you cannot not like this—
and so
amidst the fresh paper—
we both enjoy its scent
for us it’s erotic and ambiguous—
we finish composing our romance,
we finish composing our romance,
while reading another,
while reading another.

-Vanya Angelova,
translated from the original Bulgarian
by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer

Is there an American poet who has influenced you or has made an impression on you? How do you interact with American poetry?

Emily Dickinson. Without hesitation.

My English isn’t good enough. I am familiar with American poetry through translations, and they truly are not all that abundant. I have, if I can say so, a most general view of American poetry. And I’d immediately add that the situation with American prose is much better.

What forms of cultural exchange between Bulgaria and the U.S. would you find interesting, practical and helpful?

I truly don’t know. It’s a matter of mutual curiosity. It’s a matter of initiative and faith. A matter of government policy. And since these conditions don’t intersect so often, I personally believe in the good will of the individual. Here, Katerina dedicated two years to her idea and took it to a successful finale. While she was working, it’s unlikely that she thought of cultural exchange.

What do you wish for the anthology and its readers?

To the anthology I wish for good distribution, good reviews, and God willing—a second printing. To the readers—happiness.

More from Accents Publishing’s “Meet a Bulgarian Poet” series:

Vanya Angelova was born on November 4th, 1953 in Plovdiv. She holds a degree in Slavic philology from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia and has specialized in pedagogy of cinema at the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts. Vanya has worked as a teacher, theater dramaturg, cultural consultant, and journalist. She is the author of two poetry books, most recently Possible Travelogues of the Body (2010). Vanya currently lives and works in Thessaloniki, Greece.