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December 2, 2025
BODY, Prague
FOUR NEW
BULGARIAN POETRY BOOKS
IN TRANSLATION
By Drew Rollins
There is not another writer like Iana Boukova, and one need read only a few pages of Notes of the Phantom Woman for that truth to rattle home. Occasionally, Boukova’s moves bring other poets to mind—Monica Youn’s intellectual rigor and formal inventiveness, Rita Dove’s ability to somehow address all of human history in the space of ten lines, Robert Pinsky’s eye for the perfect searing anecdote—but the final product is entirely her own, and absolutely stunning.
Boukova is a whiz at pulling off one of my favorite poetic techniques: to present phenomena that seem unrelated, describe them poignantly, then evince their indisputable relationship. “The Evolution of Monsters in Children’s Literature” suggests that such relationships are almost unavoidable: “One of the most difficult things / to achieve is true randomness. / Numbers or events in a series / that do not form any pattern.” Everything is interconnected if you know how to look at it, which Boukova surely does. She tethers Scream to Duchamp, early hominins to sheep clones, String Theory to braised pork. In holding these (and other) concepts up—not only to the light, but also next to each other—she achieves a multiplicative effect, such that we understand them all better, and in deeper, more personal ways, than we otherwise might have.
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13 March 2025
London Book Fair
PRESENTATION OF THE BULGARIAN
POET AND WRITER IANA BОUKOVA
and the translator Ekaterina Petrova in conversation with the
British writer and translator Christopher Buxton
London Book Fair 2025 will take place from 11th to 13th March. We are proud that for the second consecutive year, the Bulgarian Cultural Institute London will provide a stand for Bulgarian authors and publishers at this global book festival in London. To further showcase our literature, the Bulgarian Cultural Institute London is organizing a Month of Bulgarian Literature from February 13th to March 13th. During this period, some of the most prominent Bulgarian writers and poets will be presented along with their English-language publishers.
“Presentation of Iana Bоukova and the translator Ekaterina Petrova in conversation with the British writer and translator Christopher Buxton” is one of the most important events, organised by BCI London. It will take place on 13th March 2025 from 19:00 PM at Bulgarian Cultural Institute.
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Capital:Light, Sofia, 7-13 February 2025
By Tamara Valcheva
HUMAN HISTORY IS FULL OF
WELL-CONSTRUCTED THEORIES
WITH DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES
The triple premiere of Iana Boukova's poetry collection Black Haiku is not only a joyful event for Bulgarian poetry but also a rare success and recognition on the international stage. In Bulgaria, the beautiful edition is published by Janet 45, in Greek by Ikaros Publishing, and in English, one of the most prestigious and intriguing publishers in the U.S., Ugly Duckling Presse, released a collection that includes poems from Black Haiku as well as her previous collection Notes of the Phantom Woman. The Brooklyn-based American publisher is known for its focus on poetry, translations, experimental prose, performance texts, and books by visual artists. The translations from Bulgarian and Greek are by Ekaterina Petrova and John O’Kane.
Why did you choose this title?
Some of the themes in this book are truly difficult, dark: the violence of passing time on us and our loved ones, our helplessness in the face of others’ pain, the fragility of our defenses, and the vulnerability of the human body. Haiku poetry, on the other hand, is one of the brightest and most beauty-filled forms of poetry. The paradox in the title was intentional for me. I experience life as an unpredictable blend of terrifying truths and beautiful insights, where neither cancels nor erases the other. I wanted to convey that feeling in my texts. In my case, paradox, along with dark humor, is the means through which I speak about these things.
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21 January 2025
Asterism, New York
10 TITLES OF NOTE:
UGLY DUCKLING PRESSE
Annabel Jankovic, Los Angeles Review of Books
In descending, these last few wintry weeks and changes, into the backlists and new hits of Ugly Duckling, you could say I met the new year luxuriously. The Presse, with an e, are based in the remote township of Brooklyn, NY, in a 1800s-era brick building that produced, in an earlier America, tin cans. Taking a look, there's a lot to choose from and something for most every mood, need, and occasion: literature—namely, poetry—in translation; delicately-thread chapbooks; no insignificant number of "experimental" pamphlets (each demonstrating, with greater dexterity-dazzling than the last, the irrepressible fact: that literary theory is as formidable an art form as any).
Choosing a few favorites was my impossible task.
Notes of the Phantom Woman, doubly composed in and translated from Bulgarian and Greek, betrays a sticky, meaning-mining mind. In Boukova’s acts of constellating wide-ranging trivia—from the evolutionary answer of moths to the Industrial Revolution to Tarkovsky's early designs to film Stalker in the lands adjacent to the Chernobyl site to the guillotine's exerts on French fashion—I felt witness to a kind of poetics of information: something I feel fine calling a uniquely 21st-century possibility. One of my favorite pieces speaks of 16th-century philosopher-occultist Giordano Bruno, who posited (and burned at the stake for) an infinite theory of the universe: “stars,” he imagined, “were distant worlds, inhabited"—that “in each one there was a trial." Elsewhere, Boukova quarries the predicament most incomprehensible to us now: that for most of human time, before the advent of mirrors, "people lived without a clear picture of themselves."
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Sofia, 21 December 2024
By Tatiana Vaksberg
NOTES OF THE PHANTOM WOMAN
HOW YANA BOUKOVA’S BOOKS BEGAN SPEAKING
IN THREE LANGUAGES SIMULTANEOUSLY
She celebrated a triple book launch with works released almost simultaneously in Greece, Bulgaria, and the United States. In these and other countries, Yana Boukova seeks the same thing—communities that inspire and recharge.
Every achievement is worth telling, but what if the achievements come in threes? Yana Boukova finds herself in precisely this situation, unsure where to begin recounting her journey after her books were published simultaneously in Plovdiv, New York, and Athens. To start, she orders tea for two in a cozy caf? in Sofia.
Just weeks ago, the publishing houses Janet 45 and Ikaros released her new poetry collection, Black Haiku, in Bulgaria and Greece. At nearly the same time, Ugly Duckling Presse in the United States published her collected poetry under the title Notes of the Phantom Woman.
Ikaros is the exclusive Greek publisher of the country’s two Nobel laureates—George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis.
Ugly Duckling Presse is one of the leading American publishers of poetry, introducing U.S. readers to voices like Daniil Kharms.
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БНР|26.12.2018|Артефир
„Записки на жената призрак“ – познавателната страна на поезията
Най-новата поетична книга на Яна Букова „Записки на жената призрак“ разкрива пред нас един съвсем различен подход към стиха и поезията. Това споделиха на премиерата на книгата и поетите Марин Бодаков и Силвия Чолева – редактор на изданието.
„Записки на жената призрак“ беше представена в НДК по време на 46-ото издание на Софийския международен панаир на книгата.
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БНТ 1|25.11.2018|Библиотеката
"Литературен гид"
В рубриката "Литературен гид" днес Светлозар Желев препоръча книгите: "Пътуване по посока на сянката" на Яна Букова, "Селото на самодивата" на Антон Борисов и "Аврамови хроники" на Стефка Венчева.
Вижте видеото.
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