site.btaWriter Georgi Gospodinov Kicks Off 2024 "Writers from the World Travel to Megaro Mousikis" Series in Thessaloniki

A discussion with Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov kicked off the 2024 edition of the Writers from the World Travel to Megaro Mousikis series of events in Thessaloniki (Solun), ANA-MPA reported.

"A six-year-old child cannot bear the weight of the nightmare he sees in his sleep every night", Gospodinov said. "He wants to get it out of him, but where he is, he must not share the bad dreams, lest he "fill everything with blood". So he decides to write down his nightmare and does it on a piece of paper he rips from his grandfather's notebook. This child continued to write throughout his life and today, exactly 50 years later, is an award-winning writer". This was the first story Gospodinov shared with the audience gathered in the foyer of Thessaloniki's Megaro Mousikis Hall to meet him and hear his conversation with Prof. Alexandra Ioannidou, Greek translator of many of his works.

During the event, which lasted an hour and a half with translation into Greek and Bulgarian and with Greek sign translation, Gospodinov reflected on other important moments from his childhood, his poetry, the connection of his work with Greece, his family, his country and the two regimes he lived through - socialist Bulgaria and the transition to the capitalist stage.

His latest book, The Gardener and Death, will be published in translation in Greece next spring.