REMARKS ON THE CONTEMPORARY VISIBILITY OF BULGARIAN LITERATURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
REMARKS ON THE CONTEMPORARY VISIBILITY OF BULGARIAN LITERATURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Summary/Abstract: This article provides a summary of the current status of Bulgarian literature in the United Kingdom through the prism of works featured in four of the main British literary translation prizes: the International Booker Prize, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, and the EBRD Literature Prize. Initially, after a brief overview of perspectives on literary translation in United Kingdom, the four prizes are contextualised within wider developments. Using available online data from the websites of each award, the prize-winners, shortlists, and longlists are examined to determine if literary works translated from Bulgarian are present, with the finding that very few have featured to date. However, with the award of the 2023 International Booker Prize to Georgi Gospodinov’s novel Time Shelter, translated into English by Angela Rodel, selected media and popular responses to this news are also briefly presented, as is the immediate impact of Time Shelter’s victory on the profile of translated Bulgarian literature in the United Kingdom. In identifying nascent but growing interest from publishers and readers in English translations of Bulgarian literary works, the article acknowledges existing initiatives to promote Bulgarian-English literary translation. It also provides some suggestions on how to capitalise on this newfound visibility in the British context.

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