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Oct 2, 2024 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Patricia Lockwood |Paul Beatty |Georgi Gospodinov |Angela Rodel
It should not be surprising to learn that many shortlisted and winning books across both the Booker and International Booker prizes are by authors who have also written poetry. After all, telling stories has long been a part of the poet’s role across cultures and traditions; while the prizes have always celebrated writers who use language in ways that allow us to see the world anew.
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Aug 27, 2024 | 
wordswithoutborders.org | Małgorzata Gorczyńska |Olga Tokarczuk |Georgi Gospodinov |Patryk Pufelski
“Poets are just as smart as generals and more dangerous.” —Danilo Kiš I. Czesław Miłosz apparently once said that the main difference between a Western and an Eastern European intellectual is that the former has never had a good kick in the ass. This rather blunt aphorism, referred to in Witold Gombrowicz’s 1953 Diary,1 sprang to mind when I saw the poem “Clay” by Tomasz Różycki in English translation in the New York Review of Books.
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May 24, 2024 | 
thebookerprizes.com | Granta Books |Michael Hofmann |Georgi Gospodinov |Angela Rodel
The skies opened on the afternoon of 21 May in London, just ahead of the International Booker Prize 2024 ceremony, this year sponsored by Maison Valentino. The event was at Tate Modern, home to the world’s most exciting contemporary art – a fitting location. The cavernous industrial space offered a welcome reprieve from the evening’s downpour for over 200 guests who hailed from across the cultural sector.
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Feb 16, 2024 | 
asymptotejournal.com | Georgi Gospodinov
This week, our editors report on (attempts) at elucidation in the humanities and the cruelties of historic expatriation; the instating of Living National Treasures in the form of indigenous practitioners and their singular crafts; and a word that is meant to sum up a year.
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Dec 21, 2023 | 
thebookerprizes.substack.com | Georgi Gospodinov |Penelope Lively
2023 has been a bumper year for the Booker Prizes. In fact, we’ve crammed in so much that it’s impossible to fit our highlights into a single newsletter, so here’s part one of two. Let’s start with the main headlines: in May, Georgi Gospodinov became the first Bulgarian author to win the International Booker Prize, for his novel Time Shelter, translated into English by Angela Rodel.
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Nov 6, 2023 | 
wordswithoutborders.org | Georgi Gospodinov |Sohini Basak |Alex Aguayo
Georgi Gospodinov gave the third Lancaster International Fiction Lecture on Monday, October 23, 2023, as part of Litfest’s “Autumn Weekend.”What can fiction (including in translation) do in times like ours? Nothing. That would be the shortest, punchiest, and most pessimistic answer to this question.
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Sep 1, 2023 | 
laregione.ch | Georgi Gospodinov
Mi ricordo bene cosa ho pensato nel varcare per la prima volta la soglia di Notre-Dame de Paris. “Mia nonna avrebbe dovuto essere qui, adesso...” Il secolo si stava avvicinando al suo ultimo anno, sovraccarico di profezie e apocalissi non realizzate. Ricordo che all’incirca trent’anni prima mia nonna aveva iniziato a lamentarsi del fatto che il mondo sarebbe finito nel 2000.
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Aug 25, 2023 | 
standaard.be | Georgi Gospodinov
Het licht wordt ouder, merkt Booker Prize-winnaar Georgi Gospodinov. Betekent het dat het kan sterven? Hij doet ons een voorstel: schrijf je eigen lichtgeschiedenis.
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Jul 6, 2023 | 
internazionale.it | Georgi Gospodinov
La prima cosa che ho pensato la mattina del 24 febbraio 2022, quando ho sentito la notizia dell’invasione russa, è stata che Vladimir Putin aveva dichiarato guerra a tutti noi – all’Europa – e che eravamo a un passo dal disastro nucleare. Ho pensato a mia figlia, che stava dormendo nella stanza accanto.
Ogni guerra ci riporta ai tempi bui del passato, impedendoci di guardare al futuro.
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Jun 15, 2023 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Georgi Gospodinov |Angela Rodel |Aditya Sinha |Rahul VermaRahul Verma
My father had Alzheimer’s for the past decade and a half and died this year. I was writing a memoir about him when Georgi Gospodinov’s Time Shelter landed. This left me both chagrined and happy because Time Shelter riffs on Alzheimer’s, the slipperiness of time, and the treachery of memory. Chagrined because Gospodinov beat me to it, and happy for the same reason because Gospodinov has taken an idea and flown with it in the maddest manner possible.
