The Bulgarian writer Nikola Vaptsarov (1909-1942) was one of the most significant European poets of the twentieth-century, a radical Modernist whose work has often been compared to that of Mayakovsky and Lorca. A marine engineer, fireman, fitter, railway-stoker, trade-unionist and a Communist, Vaptsarov was executed during the Second World War for his part in the Bulgarian resistance. He was thirty-three.
Although only one book of Vaptsarov's poems, Motor Songs, was published in his life-time, since his death his poetry has been translated into over fifty languages. He wrote a quick, colloquial, concrete, argumentative poetry that transcended the usual idioms of Communist ideology to include cinema, radio, adverts, popular culture and modern technology.
"I consider Vaptsarov my brother in poetry and struggle"
Yannis Ritsos
Georgi Gospodinov is a Bulgarian poet and novelist. He has published three books of poetry, Lapidarium (1992), The Cherry-Tree of the Nation (1996) and Letters to Gaustin (2003). His debut novel, Natural Novel (1999) has been translated into nine languages, including English, French and Danish. His collection of short stories, And Other Stories (2001) has been published in Austria, France and the Czech Republic. He has also published a book Poetry and Media (2005) on Vaptsarov's poetry. He edits the Sofia literary and cultural weekly Literaturen Vestnik.
Kino: The Poetry of Nikola Vaptsarov, edited by Georgi Gospodinov
ISBN 978-0-9554028-0-7
Price: £7.95
Publication date: October 2007
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