writers in residence
In Residence
Zurich, Switzerland
January — June 2019

Georgi Gospodinov

Bulgaria

Author

Georgi Gospodinov was born in Jambol, Bulgaria in 1968. He studied Bulgarian Philology in Sofia, was the editor of a literary magazine, worked as a columnist at the daily newspaper Dnevnik, and is now at the Institute for Literature of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. His work includes poetry, short stories, novels, essays, plays, screenplays, opera librettos as well as graphic novels and was translated into more than 20 languages. After receiving several awards for his first two poetry collections, it was his book “Natural Novel” (1999) that garned international attention. Critics equally praised his second novel “Physics of Sorrow” (2012). In 2016 he received the renowned Swiss Jan Michalski Prize for Literature. /// As of December 4, 2018

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A Short Passage

“8 Minuten und 19 Sekunden”

“In der Minute, in der du diesen Text zu lesen beginnst, kann die Sonne bereits erloschen sein, du weisst es nur noch nicht. Dir bleiben noch 8 Minuten und 19 Sekunden, bis dich die Nachricht von ihrem Tod erreicht. So lange braucht das Licht auf seinem Weg. Danach wird es dunkel. Bis hier sind 9 Sekunden vergangen. Was kannst du tun?”

— From “8 Minuten und 19 Sekunden” (Droschl, Graz 2016), from Bulgarian to German by Alexander Sitzmann

Georgi Gospodinov explains his work during a reading in the Literaturhaus. Photo Foundation PWG