Awardees

The 2019 Dyankov Translation Award was presented to Zornitsa Hristova for her translation of the novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities” by Tom Wolfe (List, 2019).  Born in Dobrich, Zornitsa Hristova graduated from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” with a degree in English Philology, having specialized in post-colonial literature at Oxford, with an emphasis on contemporary Indian literature in English.

In 2014, Zornitsa Hristova won the national “Hristo G. Danov” award, which is presented annually by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture and the Plovdiv National Book Center to recognize contributors to Bulgarian literary culture, for her work in children’s literature together with the team behind “Tasty Geography”.  She received the same award in 2015 for “When I Want to Be Silent”, together with the artist and co-author of the book.  In 2010, Zornitsa Hristova received the Literary Translation Award from the Union of Translators in Bulgaria for her translation of the novel “White Noise” by Don DeLilo.

Petya Petkova was awarded the first place 2018 Dyankov Translation Award for her translation of the novel “Here I Am” by Jonathan Safran Foer (List, 2018). Born in Sofia in 1979, Petya Petkova graduated from the National Secondary School for Classical Languages and Civilizations and holds a BA in Indian Studies from Sofia University. Between 2010-2015, she worked as an editor at Prozoretz Publishing House. She started working as a freelance translator in 2015 and has translated books by Kurt Vonnegut, Evelyn Waugh, Kiran Desai, Indra Sinha, Ben Okri, Lawrence Norfolk, David Mitchell and Jonathan Safran Foer.

Read an interview with Petya Petkova.

Angel Igov was awarded the second place Dyankov Translation Award for his translation of the novel “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead (List, 2018). Angel Igov teaches English literature and Translation at Sofia University. He has translated into Bulgarian several novels and poetry and has published three novels and two collections of short stories of his own. Angel has also worked as book reviewer for several print and electronic media. He was the recipient of the primary Dyankov Translation Award in 2016 for his translation of Jeremy Page’s “The Collector of Lost Things”.

Iglika Vassileva was awarded first place for her translation of the John Banville’s 1997 novel The Untouchable. This book, based largely on the life of Englishman Anthony Blunt, tells the story of an art historian who becomes a double agent working for both the Queen and the Kremlin during the height of the Cold War. Iglika Vassileva is a three-time Dyankov Translation Prize winner, having previously she been recognized for her translation of The Sea by John Banville in 2008 and for her translations of J.M. Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year and E.L. Doctorow’s Homer and Langely in 2011. Iglika Vassileva has also received much praise for her translations of works by celebrated English-speaking authors such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Lawrence Durrell, and Walt Whitman. Read an interview with Iglika Vassileva.

Bistra Andreeva was awarded second place for her translation of Stephan Kelman’s Pigeon English. It is the story of Harrison Opoku, an eleven-year old Ghanaian immigrant who, with his best friend, investigates the murder of a boy on the London estate where he lives. Read and interview with Bistra Andreeva.

Svetlozara Leseva was awarded first place for her translation of the novel In the Shadow of Banyan, by Vaddey Ratner (Hermes Press 2013). It tells the story of Raami’s struggle to survive under the Khmer Rouge. Ratner’s first novel was a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the 2013 PEN/Hemingway Award and the 2013 Book of the Year Indies Choice Award. Read an Interview with Svetlozara Leseva.

Nadezhda Rosova was awarded second place for her translation of Ruth L. Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being (Millenium 2014). It is the story of the diary of Nao—a 16-year-old Japanese schoolgirl, who declares herself a “time being”—which washes up in British Columbia many months after the great tsunami. Read an Interview with Nadezhda Rosova.

For his translations of The Brief Wonderful Like of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz, and The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen.