site.bta5th Bulgarian Book Festival Takes Place in Brussels over Weekend

The 5th Bulgarian Book Festival is taking place in Brussels on June 10 and 11.

The annual event is organized by the Bulgarian Cultural Association in Belgium with the support of Bulgaria's Embassy in Brussels and in partnership with several Bulgarian publishing houses.

Opening the Festival on Saturday,the founder of the Bulgarian Cultural Association in Belgium Tanya Staneva said that it has been developing for five years now, reaching out to new publishers and authors.

Programme Director Rada Gankova called the Festival "a dream come true" and thanked everybody who made it possible.

The event includes readers' Q&A with visiting Bulgarian writers and poets and book signing. All meetings during the 5th Festival will be moderated by Kremena Dimitrova. "There is a sea of books here, I hope you'll find yours," she said.

This year's guests include writers Viktoria Beshliiska, Gergana Georgieva, Momchil Nikolov, Yordan Slaveykov, Maria Kassimova - Moisset, and Vladimir Zarev, and book publisher Manol Peykov.

"Ever more writers and publishers come from Bulgaria, and ever more Bulgarians from Belgium and even from the neighbouring countries come to this festival, which is probably the largest cultural event of the Bulgarian community in Belgium," said Bulgaria's Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg Plamen Bonchev.

A poll conducted by the Festival's organizers found that Georgi Gospodinov is expats' favourite Bulgarian writer.