Ludmila Balabanova

Born in Novi Pazar, Bulgaria
Living in Sofia, Bulgaria

Abraham Freddy Ben-Arroyo

Born 1924 in Sofia, Bulgaria
Living in Haifa, Israel
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Todor Bikov

(12 December 1956 – 24 May 2016)

Todor Bikov was born on 12 December 1956 in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria. He graduated the Theological Seminary“St John of Rila” andholds a Master of Diplomacy and International relations. Resided and worked in Plovdiv since 1983. Bikov was a widely published poet, publicist, political scientist, and art critic. He was a lecturer at Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”. He worked in the 42nd National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria (2013-2014) as a senior expert in the Committee on Religions and Parliamentary Ethics; also worked as a freelance journalist and associate in the "Literature, Art, Culture" section of Radio Plovdiv, head of the "Society" and "Culture" department in the Plovdiv News (Пловдивски новини) newspaper and editor of the Glas(Глас) regional newspaper.

Bikov was founder and editor-in-chief of the Art Club (Арт клуб) newspaper (1994-2004). In 2003 along with Ivanka Yankova he co-founded the Haiku Club-Plovdiv (HCP) and later in 2005 he compiled and edited the bilingual anthology Прагове/Thresholds published by HCP and the Club of Cultural Figures in Plovdiv. In 2005 he participated in the 3rd World Haiku Association (WHA) Conference in Bulgaria and organised the delegates’ visit to Plovdiv and meetings with the HCP members. He was also an active member of the Union of Bulgarian Writers and five terms chairman of the Club of Cultural Figures in Plovdiv.

Bikov’s poems, articles, reviews, studies, etc. have been published in national anthologies (the most significant being his inclusion with five poems in the Anthology "Bulgarian Poetry of the XXI Century", published in 2015), in the Bulgarian and international press, in scientific collections and publications, broadcasted on Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, Radio Plovdiv and many other electronic media. He has published six collections of poems (1990-2016) incl. Стихосложения: цикъл хайку (Stihoslozheniya: Haiku Cycle, Sofia, 2012). His last poetry book was published shortly after his untimely death on 24 May 2016.

Selected haiku:

a storm is raving, then subsiding –
a shadow
cast by yet another shadow

a high and slender poplar –
a heron standing tall
is building a nest

cheerful warbling fills
the lover’s nests
it’s springtime

(Прагове/Thresholds, bilingual anthology, Plovdiv, 2005)

*

tidal wave
the land recedes
in front of the fish

thunder in broad daylight
ball lightning
chokes the throat

in the winter I read
and wrote a lot –asnowman...
no, a bookman

dragonfly over the river -
a sunny walk
on the ridge of the day

(Стихосложения: цикъл хайку(Stihoslozheniya: Haiku Cycle), Sofia, 2012)

*

a shadow hides
under the bird’s wing
July day

a floppy wheat ear
the smell of bread
floats around

frozen sunset
over the river
at home – embers

(Отвъд думите/Beyond Words, haiku anthology, Farago, Sofia, 2018)

Sources:

https://bikov.wordpress.com/

https://sbp.bg/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%8F%D1%82-%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80-%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2/

https://haikupedia.org/article-haikupedia/todor-bikov/

https://haikupedia.org/article-haikupedia/haiku-club-plovdiv-%d1%85%d0%b0%d0%b9%d0%ba%d1%83-%d0%ba%d0%bb%d1%83%d0%b1-%d0%bf%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b4%d0%b8%d0%b2/

https://e-lit.info/autors/1105-todor-bikov.html

Ginka Biliarska

Born1946 in Bulgaria
Died 2007

Born 1969 in Vratsa, Bulgaria
Living in Marietta, Georgia, USA

Nadejda Kostadinova

Born 1974 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Residing Sofia, Bulgaria.

Nadejda Kostadinova came back to writing after a long break in 2017. Getting to grips with the modern poetry she also encountered haiku and got fascinated by its depth and brevity. Since then, her work has been published in various online and printed magazines and has been awarded honorable mentions and prizes in competitions.

Maya Lyubenova

(12 September 1956 – 30 December 2016)

Maya Lyubenova was born on 12 September 1956 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She graduated from the English Language School in Plovdiv and later studied English Philology at Veliko Tarnovo University.

Maya wrote poetry in both Bulgarian and English, and published free verse, visual poems, haiku and haiga in various journals, e-zines and anthologies:  Frogpond, The World Haiku Review, Shamrock Haiku Journal, Moonset, Haigaonline, Sketchbook - a Journal for Eastern and Western Short Forms,

cattails, A Hundred Gourds, Under the Basho, Simply Haiku, Lynx, La Ville/Градът, Aha The Anthology, 3Lights Gallery, Gean Tree Press, Naad Anunaad etc.

In 2009 Maya won the WHA Haiga Contest and was declared a Master Haiga Artist of the World Haiku Association. In 2010 she published a bilingual haiku collection called ‘Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо’, Ars Publishing House, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, 2010. Although Maya left us with a rich collection of publications, photographs and haiga, her biggest legacy would have to be her mentoring and her participation in the translation of Jane Reichhold’s ‘Bare Bones School of Haiku’ into Bulgarian in 2012. This impressive amount of work proved to be an invaluable source of information for many Bulgarian poets - both beginners and more advanced on their haiku journey.

On 30 December 2016 our dear friend Maya left this world after a long and hard battle with the big C. A beloved mother and sister, a talented poet, translator and photographer, she will be sorely missed not only among her friends in the Bulgarian haiku community but worldwide!

Publications and other honours:

• Contest winner of WHA Haiga Contest: Master Haiga Artist of the World Haiku Association (2009);
• Second National Haiku Contest in Bulgaria - First Prize (2009);
• ‘Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо’, Ars Publishing House, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, 2010;
• 17th Kusamakura International Haiku Contest - Third Prize (2012).

Photo exhibitions:

• Minimalism - 2011
• Image & Sound  - 2012

Selected haiku:

a tern’s shadow
darts across the beach
herring clouds

(Frogpond31:2, Spring/Summer 2008)

humpty dumpty
in a puddle
I stomp the moon

(Sketchbook 3-2, February, 2008)

wishing well –
the words I whisper
back in my face

(Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо, 2010)

table for two
a scorched leaf falls
in the salad

(Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо, 2010)

stabbed
on an icicle
the hanging moon

(Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо, 2010)

the sparkles
in a stallion’s mane . . .
chestnut moon

(Simply Haiku – Spring 2011)

spring thunder –
the newspaper shakes
in my hands

(First Prize - The Second Bulgarian Haiku Contest – 2009; „Más-más csönd / Различна тишина“, Budapest, 2012)

a stallion
galloping through my dream
winter wind

(Lynx 28:1, February 2013)

children's feet...
I hope they never put on
army boots

(cattails, September 2016)

broken wall...
the barn and a cherry-tree
lean on each other

(Notes from the Gean, Issue 1, 2009; Naad Anunaad,2016)

Haiga:

• http://mayalyubenova.wixsite.com/maya-lyubenova/haiga
• https://plus.google.com/+MayaLyubenova
• http://haikuandhaiga.blogspot.co.uk/
• http://en.calameo.com/read/001196667515c6aca6759
• https://vidahaiku.wordpress.com/%d1%85%d0%b0%d0%b9%d0%b3%d0%b0/%d0%bc%d0%b0%d1%8f-%d0%bb%d1%8e%d0%b1%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b0-maya-lyubenova/

Sources:

• http://mayalyubenova.wixsite.com/maya-lyubenova
• http://maya-freestylepoemsandflashfiction.blogspot.co.uk/
• https://livinghaikuanthology.com/poet-portfolios/97-l-poets/maya-lyubenova.html
• http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/poet-details/?IDclient=263
• https://allpoetry.com/Maya_Lyubenova
• https://vidahaiku.wordpress.com/%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d1%83-2/%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b8%d0%ba%d0%b0-%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d1%83/
• http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook3-4Apr08/Sketchbook_3-4_April_2008_Maya_Lyubenova_Experimental_Haiku.htm
• http://www.public-republic.net/artist-of-the-week%E2%80%93-maya-lyubenova/
• https://vidahaiku.wordpress.com/%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8/bulgarian-haiku-after-2005/
• https://vidahaiku.wordpress.com/%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d0%bc%d0%b0%d1%8f-%d1%81-%d0%bc%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b3%d0%be-%d0%be%d0%b1%d0%b8%d1%87/

Maya Lyubenova

Born 1956 in Bulgaria
Living in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
A title-holder of the World Haiga Association Master Haiga Artist.

Radka Mindova

Born 1961 in Bulgaria
Living in Sliven, Bulgaria
Contact the poet

Diana Petkova

Born 1961 in Dolna banya, Bulgaria
Living in Dolna banya, Bulgaria
Contact the poet

Vessislava Savova

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria
Living in Sofia, Bulgaria
http://vessislava.blogspot.com

Dimitar Stefanov
(20 March 1932 – 19 October 2018)

Dimitar Stefanov, a Bulgarian poet, writer, editor and translator, also known as ‘the doyen of Bulgarian haiku’, was born on 20 March 1932 in a small village near Dryanovo, Bulgaria. In 1950 he graduated High School in Dryanovo and then studied Czech and Bulgarian philology at the Charles University in Prague. After graduation he was editor and editor-in-chief of the literary section at Radio Sofia (1955-1969). In the following years he was editor to various newspapers and journals, among them the popular Plamak magazine and the Literary Front newspaper.

Dimitar’s first collection of poems was published in 1957. He was the author of more than twenty books of poems, sonnets, essays; more than ten books for children. He translated mainly from Czech and Slovak languages. He was the first Bulgarian poet to publish his own book of haiku The Forest of Dandelion (Гората на глухарчето) in 1988. Dimitar also edited the first Bulgarian haiku anthology Rain Seeds (Дъждовни семена) in 2001 which included poems by ninety authors. This book played a great role in the popularizing of the haiku genre in Bulgaria.

Dimitar Stefanov was founding member and chairman of the first organization of haiku poets in the country - the Bulgarian Haiku Club. It was founded in 2000, when Jim Kacian and Dimitar Anakiev visited Bulgaria to organize the Haiku Movement in the Balkans. Later this organization was renamed to the Bulgarian Haiku Union (BHU). Dimitar Stefanov died on 19 October 2018 at the age of 86. He left a rich legacy as a poet, essayist and translator. He has translated over 50 books of poetry and prose from Czech, Old Czech, Russina, and Serbian, and with verbatim text - from Old French, Hindi and Japanese. Some of his books have been translated in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, England, and Slovenia. He was also presented in haiku anthologies, almanacs and magazines in many European countries, in Argentina, India, the United States and Japan, in more than twenty languages.

Awards and honours:

• the Czechoslovakian Peter Bezruc Award in the late 1960s;
• awarded the National Prize for Literature "Racho Stoyanov" in 1989;
• Hviezdoslav Prize for Translation of Slovak literature in 1998;
• an honorary diploma of the Ministry of Culture for his contribution to the development and promotion of Bulgarian culture in 2005;
• a Golden medal of the Slovak Foreign Ministry;
• award from the Bulgarian Union of Translators for his translation of Old Czech Satires from the 14th century;
• Honorary member of the Independent Writers' Club – Bratislava;
• the Doctor honoris causa of the World Academy of Arts and Culture (WAAC );
• In 2012 he was appointed an honorary citizen of the town of Dryanovo.

Haiku books and anthologies:

• The Forest of the Dandelion (Гората на глухарчето). Opiti za haiku, Sofia, “Bulgarski pisatel”, 1988; reprinted in 1994;
• Innocent essences (Невинни същности), haiku, 1996;
• Autumn Thrills(Есенни тръпки), Matsuo Basho Library, Serbia, 1996, tr. by Dimitar Anakiev;
• Non-flickering Blue. 303 haiku (НеприМИГващо синьо. 303 хайку), Hristo Botev, Sofia 1999;
• Rain Seeds (Дъждовни семена),
• Both of us. Haiku in Bulgarian, English and Russian (Двамата с тебе. Хайку на български, английски и руски ), 2003;
• Ptitsata(Птицата),
• Invisibilities (Невидимости), haibun , Sofia, 2005;
• All that. 40 poems and 40 haiku (Всичко онова. 40 стихотворения и 40 хайку), Sofia, 2012.

Selected haiku:

Bees searching through
yellow dandelions.
Spring is here.

In the full bucket
trembling
full moon

(The Forest of the Dandelion (Гората на глухарчето), Bulgarski pisatel, Sofia, 1988)

*

Cold moon –
shadows within shadows
along the snowy road.

(Knots, The anthology of Southeastern European haiku Poetry, edited by Dimitar Anakiev & Jim Kacian, Tolmin, 1999)

*

A seahorse!
A seahorse! My kingdom
for a seahorse!

You and I
were kids
last millennium

The moon is drawing
silky rustle
from the mulberry tree.

(Non-flickering Blue (Непремигващо синьо). 303 haiku, Hristo Botev, Sofia 1999)

*

cold moon –
shadows within shadows
along the snowy road

(Shamrock, issue 1, 2007 - transl. by the author)

village
bit by a blizzard
then bandaged up by it

(Shamrock, issue 1, 2007 - transl. by Ludmila Kolechkova and Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

*

coming from fog
                             the bird flies through fog
                                             fading into fog

(Innocent Entities (Невинни същности), Sofia, 1996; Haiku: The Gentle Art of Disappearing by Gabriel Rosenstock, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009)

*

Лятната луна
– но защо и животът? –
в последна четвърт.

The summer moon
- But why is life as well? –
in its last quarter.

(Haiku Svyat (Хайку свят) #1, 2013)

*

Пеперуда,
прикована с карфица –
нова Голгота.

A butterfly
fixed with a pin –
new Golgotha.

(The Leaves Are back on the Tree, International anthology, Athens, 2002, ed. Zoe Savina; Beyond Words/Отвъд думите, bilingual haiku anthology, Farrago, Sofia 2018)

*

Със жълти човчици
дрянът лови
февруарски снежинки.

With little yellow beaks
the dogwood catches
February snowflakes.

(Beyond Words/Отвъд думите, bilingual haiku anthology, Farrago, Sofia 2018)

Sources:

• https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%8A%D1%80_%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%84%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2_(%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB)
• https://literaturensviat.com/?p=91773
• http://www.worldhaiku.net/poetry/bul/d.stefanov.htm
• http://www.milanium.sk/vydavatelstvo/autori/dimitar-stefanov
• https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/2597b506fe8b26b164c504f7dd19fd09.pdf
• https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/67fb69997c62af05be2a7333cdf425db.pdf
• https://liternet.bg/publish13/d_stefanov/index.html
• https://literaturensviat.com/?p=151505
• http://destinationdryanovo.com/dimitar-stefanov-haiku-poeziya-dryanovo/
• http://1997.blog.bg/izkustvo/2017/04/20/prevodyt-e-viarnost-kym-poetikata-na-avtora-razgovor-s-dimit.1523044
• Haiku Svyat/Хайку свят, Bulgarian Haiku Union journal, p.11-15, Sofia, 2013

Iliyana Stoyanova

Born1969 in Sofia, Bulgaria
Living in St Albans, UK
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Diana Teneva

Born 1966 in Haskovo, Bulgaria
Living in Haskovo, Bulgaria
http://dianart-dten.blogspot.com
Contact the poet

Gergana Yaninska

Born 1960 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Living in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Gergana Yaninska works as a midwife.  She writes haiku from several years and she has published haiku in "A Hundred Gourds", "Bones", "Cattails", "Frogpond", "Modern Haiku", "Ershik", "The Heron's Nest", "Mainichi Daily News" and haiga in "WHA Haiga Contest", "Cattails", "Daily Haiga" in 2015 and 2016.