A Balkan Exchange

This exciting anthology maps a singular encounter between two groups of poets, one based in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, the other in the North East of England. Over a period of four years, these eight poets, working together as writers, editors and teachers, maintained a creative dialogue. The result is a diverse body of work including original poetry and new translations.

Bulgarian poetry, liberated by the casting off of communism, now looks coolly at an uncertain cultural and economic transition. The Bulgarian poets Kristin Dimitrova, Georgi Gospodinov, Nadya Radulova and VBV are all leaders in a remarkable resurgence of Balkan literature. Their British counterparts Andy Croft, Mark Robinson, Linda France and W.N. Herbert are all highly-regarded and widely-published poets in the UK whose original work in this anthology is marked by formal ingenuity and conceptual daring and is a fitting response to Bulgaria's new poetic voice.

The eminent British poet and editor of this innovative and exciting new anthology, W. N. Herbert, writes in his introduction:

Today it seems more necessary than ever to translate each other. The European Union continues to plan expansions and the relations between its member states is constantly changing. In the British Isles, our nations and regions are examining and reasserting their identities. In Britain and across Europe, the larger and more dominant are adjusting to take account of the smaller and more diverse. This book presents one dialogue between a small nation and an even smaller region: its method is original, its intention timely, and its content indispensable.

You can hear Nadia Radulova reading 'Fairy Lights' on Linda France's website.

Parallel text, Bulgarian / English

Paperback
156 pages
ISBN: 978 1904614 40 1
Published September 2007

» About W. N. Herbert