site.btaUPDATED Bulgaria Participates in Publishers' Meeting in Skopje

Publishing house "Janet 45" and the Sofia Literary Agency, represented by Manol Peykov, took part in a professional meeting titled "Publishing Europe Fellowship" between representatives of the publishing sector in North Macedonia and from different European countries within the European Literature Festival "BookStar", which took place in Skopje from September 30 to October 3. 

Manol Peykov told BTA that the meetings of publishers, translators, bloggers and literary scouts from France, Austria, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria and the hosts from North Macedonia were useful and inspiring. In his words, "there is great interest in Bulgarian literature, despite the complicated procedure of the Culture Fund, which must be facilitated if we want to make cultural policy".

"The five participants in the programme had different profiles - representatives of publishing houses, a translator, a literary blogger - which shows that the organizers are looking for leading experience in the field of literary translation, book publishing, export and import of literature," said Peykov, sharing his impression of the meetings within the "Publishing Europe Fellowship" of the festival, which were not open to a wide audience.

"There is no such programme in Bulgaria yet and it is expected that it will be implemented in December, thanks to the Sofia Literary Agency which applied to the Ministry of Culture" Peykov told BTA.

On Thursday night the festival closed with an online conversation with Alessandro Baricco from Italy, called "Alessandro Baricco's Literary Metaphysics: Metamorphosis of the Imagination", and Baricco received a special BookStar award for outstanding achievements in literature. 

Bulgarian writer and translator Zdravka Evtimova participated in the literary part of the festival, as well as in several meetings, discussions and podcasts, and the Bulgarian Cultural Information Centre in Skopje is a partner of the European literary festival BookStar, which this year held its tenth edition.