Georgi Gospodinov

Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgarian: Георги Господинов; born January 7, 1968 in Yambol) is a poet, writer and playwright, one of the most translated Bulgarian authors after 1989. He has four poetry books awarded with national literary prizes. First of them, Lapidarium (1992), won the National Debut Prize. Volumes of his selected poetry came out in German, Portuguese, Czech, Macedonian.

Gospodinov became internationally known with his Natural novel, which was published in 21 languages, including English (Dalkey Archive Press, 2005), German, French, Spanish, Italian, etc. The New Yorker described it as an “anarchic, experimental debut”,^[1] according to The Guardian, it is “both earthy and intellectual”,^[2] Le Courrier (Geneve) calls it “a machine for stories.”

And Other Stories (2001), collection of short stories, came out in German, French, English, Italian and was longlisted for Frank O'Connor Award. He is author of two plays, screenplays for short feature films, the last of which is Omelette ^[3] (4.44’; Honorable Mention at the Sundance Film Festival 2009), and an art graphic novel The Eternal Fly (2010, with the artist N. Toromanov).

His second novel, Physics of Sorrow (2012), won three national awards for best fiction 2012-2013, among which the National Award for Best Novel of the Year 2013. Physics of Sorrow is published in Italian, German, Serbian, and in English in the US by Open Letter Books. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised the novel as “a gorgeous work that should definitely be read”. According to Neue Zurcher Zeitung “with Physics of Sorrow Gospodinov launches not only the Bulgarian literature but also himself in the European writers’ first league.” ^[4] In 2014, the Italian edition of the novel, Fisica della malinconia, Voland Edizioni, is shortlisted for Premio Strega Europeo and Premio Gregor von Rezzori ; the German edition, Physik der Schwermut, Droschl Verlag, was a finalist for Internationaler Literaturpreis - Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Brücke Berlin Literatur- und Übersetyerpreis.^[5]

Georgi Gospodinov resides and works in Sofia, Bulgaria.

References

External links

• Natural Novel at Complete review
• Gospodinov at his Bulgarian publisher's web page
• Gospodinov at his American publisher's web page
• Gospodinov at the Contemporary Bulgarian Writers website