Georgi Gospodinov

Georgi Gospodinov (1968, Bulgaria) is a poet, writer, and playwright. His books are translated in more than 25 languages. He became internationally known with his Natural Novel (1999). His second novel, The Physics of Sorrow, was the winner of the Central European Angelus Award (2019) and the Jan Michalski Prize (2016), and a finalist for many international awards, among them the PEN America Translation Prize, Premio Strega Europeo, etc. According to The New Yorker, “Georgi’s real quest in The Physics of Sorrow is to find a way to live with sadness, to allow it to be a source of empathy and salutary hesitation…” Recently, Gospodinov was awarded the Usedom Prize (Germany) for contribution to the European literature by a jury presided by Olga Tokarczuk.

His story ‘Blind Vaysha’ became an Oscar Academy Award nominee short animation in 2017 (dir. Theo Ushev).

His latest novel, Time Shelter, came out in March 2020, in the peak of the pandemic and now is forthcoming by Gallimard (France), Liveright/Norton (USA), Fulgencio Pimentel (Spain), etc.

He is may be the best example of a living writer who manages to continue the great European art of the novel with its mixture of narration and essay, philosophy and suspense, humour and melancholy…

Politiken, Denmark

Recent international and national awards

Zinklar Prize for Best Short Fiction, Denmark, 2021

Usedom Prize for European literature, Germany, 2021

Best Novel in the Year, Bulgaria, 2021 (for Time Shelter)

Central European Angelus Award, Poland, 2019

Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, Switzerland, 2016