Public Republic

Story: Dessislava Berndt Translation from Bulgarian: Dessislava Berndt Proofreading: Polina Georgieva Once upon a time, there was a little peasant. He worked very hard and with love and perseverance rose to an influential and wealthy industrialist and benefactor, and not only in his own city. It was important for him to help the young and […]

Interview by Dessislava Berndt with the author, publisher and translator Ilija Trojanow Translation from Bulgarian: Dessislava Berndt Proofreading: Polina Georgieva The City Church in Wuppertal is known for its high-quality and sophisticated event program, as well as for the good cooperation with other partners. At the invitation of the Catholic Educational Institute and in cooperation […]

Photo by the author They are the only people on the boat. The woman is sitting in the manner that a woman sits when holding a child on her lap, or when nursing a child. The boat is getting closer to the shore and the boy working there is fastening it, tightly. He is doing […]

Photo by the author Dedicated to Christophe C. Small souvenir shop full of all kinds of stuff. A man is entering. The shop girl sitting in front is setting her book aside and standing up. ‘Hello!’ ‘Hi!’ A little time would pass before she’d ask: ‘Are you looking for something in particular?’ He is shrugging […]

Kevin P. Keating The Natural Order of Things, comprised of 15 interconnected stories, is properly thought of as a novel in the tradition of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio or John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven―but with a gothic sensibility. The novel concerns the adventures and exploits of a small group of students, teachers, employees, and […]

novel by Irina Papancheva Photo: Umberto Fistarol Part one David -1- „…there are inevitable things in life or at least we consider them inevitable which is indeed the same thing…” Christian Bobin, “La Folle Allure” In the dust of the spacious garret words are blending into a buzz. Words are thronging and brimming from all […]

by Valentin D. Ivanov Photo: European Southern Observatory: VLT Survey Telescope snaps wide-field view of NGC 253 “Astronomer,” Clive told the boy. “This is what my badge says.” The kid was startled. It is one thing to stare at the uniform of the man at the next table, and another to hear him talking to […]

by Stefan Bonev translated by Jasmina Tacheva edited by Lauren Sophie Kearney Photo: AMagill The quiet sounds of the piano were floating across the empty bar like a fresh sea breeze. The light jazz was raining down on the tables, pouring over the polished glasses hanging above the bar, and would finally hide on the […]

Valentin Ivanov Photo: Monroe This article originally appeared on Valentin Ivanov’s bilingual blog and The World SF Blog. I honestly admit it – this post was timed to take advantage of the announcement of the anthology “Diamonds in the Sky”, to try reaching more English-speaking readers, because the SF of my country is confined to […]

Vladimir Zarev. Worlds. Sofia: Five Plus, 2006 Translated by Zlatko Anguelov and Elizabeth Frank Continued from: “Worlds”, Excerpt I Photo: drvglvd1 3. [The love encounter between Diana and Samuel takes place in a typical Balkan setting, far away from the world, amidst gunshots, self-aggrandizing talk, madness, and mysticism. It is the plot’s culmination where two […]

The two short stories by Zdravka Evtimova: “She Understood” and “The Miracle Maker” (published in the anthology of short stories “Drastic Measures (Short Story Collection)” in the UK in January 2012) inspired the following critical notes on the works of the Bulgarian writer: Again, the idea is a study of where the human mind goes […]

Galya Mladenova interviews the writer Vladimir Zarev Translated from the Bulgarian by Maya Mircheva Your novel Destruction has been very well received by both the German media and literary critics. What is your explanation for that? After the end of the Second World War during the subsequent rearranging of the world, natural development was halted […]

Stefan Bonev Translated by Jasmina Tacheva Edited by AnnMarie Rudin Photo: carderel And so, I was appointed Minister of middle affairs. Since there had been ministries of the foreign and domestic affairs for such a long time, the government met in a special session and decided that something had to be done for the middle. […]

Nikola Nikolov Translated by Jasmina Tacheva Edited by AnnMarie Rudin Photo: Kheel Center, Cornell University Teenese raised his hand sharply and shot the cockroach onto the clay ground with a careful motion of his left hand without losing sight of the sheet on which his right hand continued scribbling as if guided by a reason […]

Vladimir Zarev. Worlds. Sofia: Five Plus, 2006 Translated by Zlatko Anguelov and Elizabeth Frank Photo: NJ.. 1. [Diana is the main female character in the novel. She was at one time married to Ventzi, an actor with a prestigious theatrical company in Sofia, and they have a daughter. Diana and Ventzi are divorced, but during […]

Dalia Al-Halil Translated by: Yana Radilova Photo: winzor2007 Under the bridge is the street gallery – self-creating and self-sufficient. There is a portrait of Christ. Moist has tried to take over the halo. On the left, a girl with umbrella is depicted. Stretching her hand to see whether it rains, but the rain is only […]

by Mario Kronenberg Photo: doug88888 October 2 – Sunday, New York “Every beginning is difficult” On the day when in 1789 George Washington sent the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification, the “British Airways” plane from London had a minimum of delay – instead of 11:35 as […]

by Mario Kronenberg Dedicated to my mother Photo: CubaGallery “We think, that we live and think, that we die. There is no life or death – everything in this world is just an illusion ” Buddha “The events described in this book, with the exception of places and historical facts, are fiction and any resemblance […]

An interview with Sigitas Parulskis by Klara Barcic (Vilnius, August 25, 2011) Photo by Klara Sigitas Parulskis, a Lithuanian contemporary poet, playwright, essayist, novelist and translator, who has translated into Lithuanian works of A. Chekhov, D. Charms, L. Andreyev, J. Brodskij, O. Mandelshtam, V. Yerofeyev, D. Gorchov, A. Turgenev and S. Shepard among others, was […]

Erin Chandler Photo: torbakhopper The boulevard of broken dreams is never quite as glamorous as the painting of a handsome James Dean in his long navy coat walking through a colorful puddle. He looks disgruntled but clean and healthy. The real boulevard of broken dreams isn’t so appealing. My friend Sean looks a little like […]