contests – Three Percent

Contests for Bulgarian Writers and Translators

Chad Post — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:33:56 +0000

You may remember that last year, after a wonderful trip to Sozopol where I skinny dipped in the Black Sea, drank wine, met the most amazing writers, and heard the phrase “Kentucky Fried Chicken Happy Hour,” Open Letter launched two Bulgarian literature contests sponsored by the The first contest sponsored a two-week fellowship here in Rochester for a Bulgarian translator, and the other led to the upcoming publication of Milen Ruskov’s amazing

Well, it’s time once again to announce the details and deadlines for this year’s contests . . .

In terms of the Bulgarian citizens who have published at least one novel should send a 30-50 page sample translation along with a synopsis and author bio to Simona Ilieva (silieva [at] ekf.bg) by September 16th. The winning book will be published in English by Open Letter in the fall of 2012.

Translators from Bulgarian into English should apply for the by submitting a 20-page sample (10-pages if it’s a short story collection) of the book they would work on during the fellowship, along with a statement of purpose and information about their project. Again, this should be submitted to Simona Ilieva (silieva [at] ekf.bg) by September 20th.

These were fun contests to judge last year, and everything worked out amazingly well. Milen’s novel is absolutely wonderful (more info on that when it’s featured as part of ), and it was a lot of fun having Zdravka Evtimova here for a few weeks while she worked on her translation of Master Mille’s Living Light and Other Stories by Boyan Biolchev. Hope we get a lot of entries again this year . . .

Open Letter & the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation & Two Bulgarian Contests

Chad Post — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:30:00 +0000

I never had a chance to write all that I wanted to write about the Sozopol Fiction Workshop (and some of what I wanted to write—skinny dipping in the Black Sea, “Kentucky Fried Happy Hour,” etc.—was maybe a bit too “you had to be there” to really make sense anyway, so, well, you’ve all been spared), but it was one of the most amazing literary trips I’ve been on in a while. (Along with Torino, naturally.) Sozopol is gorgeous beyond words, the seminar itself was fascinating, and the participants fantastic, but what has stayed with me the most is just how dedicated Elizabeth Kostova and Milena Deleva are to promoting Bulgarian literature. Not only have they helped create a fantastic seminar for both Bulgarian and English writers, but now they’ve launched two contests—in collaboration with Open Letter—to promote the spread of Bulgarian literature throughout the world:

First off is the which will result in Open Letter (and possibly a UK press) publishing a contemporary Bulgarian novel in translation. I’m going to be one of the judges for this, and to participate, all a Bulgarian writer has to do is submit the following to Milena Deleva (mdeleva [at] ekf [dot] bg):

Minimum 30, maximum 50 pages from your novel (Times New Roman, 12 pt, double space);

Biography (maximum 300 words);

Synopsis (maximum 1500 words);

All materials should be in English language.

Closing date: 20 September 2010

Each Bulgarian writer is allowed to submit one novel for this competition.

The second contest is to Basically, the winner of this contest will be able to spend three weeks here in Rochester working with us on their translation project, help us identify more Bulgarian books to publish, and learn about the U.S. publishing scene. Because of the funding for this grant, you must be a Bulgarian citizen who has published at least three translations either from English into Bulgarian or vice versa. Here’s the info on how to apply:

The applying translators should submit:

Professional biography listing their major literary translations from/into English;

Synopsis of originally written in Bulgarian language fiction work, which they are planning to translate or refine during their residency at Open Letter Books;

Agreement from the author or the publisher of the book for translation. The book should be written by a living Bulgarian writer;

Translation sample of fiction work: 20 pages for novel or 10 pages minimum if applying with short story (please send one or more complete stories in order to reach the required minimum) The samples could be from the intended text for translation during the work stay at Open Letter Books.

Statement of Purpose explaining the interest in the fellowship, the relevance of the residency to the translator’s career, areas of literary interests etc.

Deadline for Applications: 27 September 2010

Again, all info must be sent to Milena Deleva at mdeleva [at] ekf [dot] bg.

Both are excellent opportunities, and I feel very fortunate that Milena and Elizabeth chose us to work with. And I look forward to reading all your submissions and applications . . .

2010 SLS Unified Literary Contest

Chad Post — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:54:47 +0000

For anyone interested in attending one of next year’s — which will take place in ontreal, Quebec (June 13 – 27); Vilnius, Lithuania (August 1 – 14); and Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya (December) — you might be interested in entering the

Held in affiliation with this year’s contest will be judged by Mary Jo Bang (poetry) and Mary Gaitskill (fiction) and the winners in each category will have their work published in Fence (and journals in the respective SLS countries) and will receive paid airfare, tuition, and housing costs to any one of the three SLS programs. (Second place gets free tuition, and third receive a 50% discount.)

The deadline for entering is February 28th, 2010, and to apply you must submit previously unpublished material (25 pages total for prose, three poems for poetry) along with a $15 contest fee.

All the info can be found