THE NATIONAL AND THE INTERNATIONAL LITERARY PRIZES "PENYO PENEV" WERE AWARDED TO MIRELA IVANOVA AND DYORD SONDI
The literary awards for poetry "Penyo Penev" for 2026 were presented in Dimitrovgrad this evening. The two laureates - Mirela Ivanova and Dyord Sondi received the prizes for their contribution to the development of national and world literature.
"This award is a symbol of aspiration, values and ideals, which we lack in our time. It is my pleasure that you are this year's laureates. By receiving the award, you become part of the history of our city." said the mayor of Dimitrovgrad Municipality Ivo Dimov when presenting the award to the 29th laureate Mirela Ivanova. He thanked the selection committee, chaired by Prof. Vladimir Atanasov.
Mirela Ivanova thanked for the award and shared her warm words: "I thank the citizens of Dimitrovgrad for preserving the memory of their poet".
The Bulgarian poet, playwright, literary historian, and the previous laureate of the Penyo Penev Award for 2022, who is also a rector of the New Bulgarian University, Prof. Plamen Doinov, presented his short speech for this year's laureates. He defined Mirela Ivanova as a true European poet of freedom, who knows how not to be silent.
The Chairperson of the Municipal Council in Dimitrovgrad, Ms Gergana Krasteva, presented the International Penyo Penev Award to the 6th laureate - the Hungarian Dyord Sondy, who has translated over 11,000 pages of prose, 20,000 verses from Bulgarian literature by over 400 authors. He also thanked for the recognition and shared his admiration for the warm welcome and the exhibition "The Architecture of a Dream", which was opened an hour before the award ceremony. Excited, he read some of his translations of Bulgarian poetry into Hungarian.
The audience enjoyed the poetry of the two laureates. The ceremony began with a speech about Penyo Penev by Prof. Vladimir Atanasov, a lecturer at Sofia University and a leader of the selection committee. Poems by Penyo Penev were performed by students from the Ivan Vazov High School. The musicians from the Acoustic Jazz Trio completed the festive mood of the evening.
MIRELA IVANOVA was born on May 11 in Sofia. She studied at the German High School in Sofia and Bulgarian Philology at the Plovdiv University of Plovdiv. She lives and works in Sofia. For many years he was the curator of the Ivan Vazov House Museum, and since 2016 - a playwright at the Ivan Vazov National Theater. He made his debut in the magazine Rodna Rech in 1977. She is the author of dozens of poetry collections: ‘Stone Wings’, ‘Whispers’, ‘Lonely Game’, ‘Memory for Details’, and many others. She is the winner of the poetry award of the newspaper "Trud" in 1999 and the National Award "Hristo G. Danov" for 2003. In 2001, she was awarded the prize for modern poetry from Eastern and Southeast Europe. In 2018, she received the Sofia Literature Award and the "Nikolai Kanchev" and "Peroto" poetry awards. Mirela Ivanova's poems, stories and essays have been translated into different languages.
DYORD SONDI was born on March 15, 1946 in Feffernitz, Austria. He graduated in Hungarian and Bulgarian philology in Budapest. Since 1975 he has worked at the National Library for Foreign Languages. From 1975 to 1979 he was a lecturer in Hungarian at Sofia University. He was a director of the Hungarian Cultural Institute and advisor to the Embassy of the Republic of Hungary in Sofia (1999 - 2004). He was an editor-in-chief for Bulgarian and Hungarian magazines. In his careee as a translator, he has translated over 11,000 pages of prose, 17,000 verses from Bulgarian literature by over 400 authors.
He is the recipient of the following awards: Honorary Badge of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences "Marin Drinov" for his contribution to Bulgarian studies and the development of cultural ties between Hungary and Bulgaria; Honorary Badge "1300 Years of Bulgaria"; Order of Cyril and Methodius; Pzize for excellent literary translation from the Ministry of Culture of Hungary; Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Veliko Tarnovo; National Award for Artistic Translation "Stoyan Bakardzhiev"; "Golden Age" of the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria. In 2016, for his 70th anniversary, the collection “The Bridge of Language’ was published in Bulgarian.
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