site.btaBTA Unveils January Issue of LIK Magazine in English Dedicated to LIK's 60th Anniversary

The January edition of the LIK magazine for art and culture, entitled LIK at 60 celebrating the anniversary of the debut issue of 1965 has been published in English. The first issue of the magazine came out on January 8, 1965, the abbreviation behind its name stands for Literature, Art and Culture.

The English Language version will be presented for the first time on March 27, World Theatre Day, at BTA's National Press Club in Ankara, Turkiye. An exhibition of posters of Bulgarian plays translated in Turkish by Prof. Huseyin Mevsim and staged in Turkiye will be a part of the event.

The Bulgarian language issue called LIK at 60 was presented on January 23. The event was held at BTA’s MaxiM Hall with participation of news agency's press clubs across the country and abroad via video conference.

In the introduction to the issue, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev asks the question whether LIK is needed today after having existed for 125 years. He proceeds to list five statements that justify LIK's existence. First, LIK is needed for the truth; second, the magazine should be free to access; third, it is needed for the knowledge; fourth, because a jubilant community is needed; fifth, for the sake of remembrance.

Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, LIK's editor-in-chief, begins his article saying: “The issue dedicated to LIK poses a question that others may not ask, but the editor-in-chief is obliged to ask and answer. Isn’t it a manifestation of media narcissism for the magazine to deal with itself?” He believes that the answer is no, because “it is its own editorial policy that makes it an object of its own interest, which envisages the resuscitation of the collective memory of significant figures and events from Bulgarian culture, and LIK is exactly that.”

LIK Managing Editor Yanitsa Christova talked about the third stage of the magazine. “If before 1989 the publication introduced us to examples of Western culture, after 1989 it set high standards for our own culture. Now, in its third stage, LIK is looking for the timeless values ​​and examples that have left their mark on its history. This is the basis of one of the specific characteristics of the revived magazine. Each issue is dedicated to a specific topic – a significant figure, event or phenomenon from the cultural and social life of the country, with part of the content presenting chronologically how the topic appeared in news and BTA’s archives,” Christova said.

Among the authors of the issue are Prof. Totka Monova, who examines LIK through the prism of her academic teaching practice, and Panayot Denev, BTA Director General between 1997 and 2002. Denev recounts curious moments from the history of the magazine in his article entitled Detonator LIK.

Fragments of LIK’s history are presented in a separate text. They are collected both from archive issues of the magazine and news published on BTA.

The survey LIK, a Window to the World Not Just for Its Readers but Also for Its Creators features answers of some of the journalists and translators who have written for BTA over the years. Among them are Petya Aleksandrova, Nina Venova, Mariana Melnishka, Lyudmila Dimova, Rada Sharlandjieva, Raymond Wagenstein, and Yuri Lazarov.

LIK also recalls world renowned names in the field of art and culture who found a place on its pages over the years. Special interviews for the magazine with celebrities such as Agatha Christie, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, and Maya Plisetskaya are included. The story of how Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kenneth Clarke, Karl Lagerfeld, Federico Fellini, Luciano Pavarotti, and Umberto Eco were presented is also included. Stefan Markov, a long-time designer and artist of LIK, is presented in a separate interview.

Similarly to the tradition that started before 1972, this issue ends with a story. The readers of the anniversary issue will be able to enjoy Mikhail Bulgakov's prose.

Since January 2024, LIK magazine has been freely accessible. All issues since its restoration in 2022, including LIK at 60, can be downloaded from the BTA website.