April, Portugal, around 10:00 in the morning, the phone rings, Mrs. Rositsa Petrova.
– Milena, we’ll see each other again this year in Sliven, right?
– Oh, of course!
– Please talk to Pepi Stanimirov, and we’ll be waiting for you in May!
And so on May 10, Pepi Stanimirov, Ralitsa Manuilova, and Sotir Gelev found themselves in my car covered in linden pollen, and we sped off on dirty Sofia gas to the city below the Blue Rocks.
The twenty-fourth edition of the National Children's Book Festival - Sliven, 2022, organized by the Regional Library "Sava Dobroplodni" - Sliven in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Municipality - Sliven, Regional Administration - Sliven, State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, the largest children's publishing houses, began with a festive program and a richly decorated lobby the very next day - May 11 and will last for 3 whole days. This, as we have noted more than once, is the only forum in Bulgaria dedicated entirely to children's books, to the problems related to their publication, distribution and reading, and I am with great joy attending for the sixth consecutive year to make you part of the celebration (as much as I can).
For 24 years now, the Festival has been very successfully implementing several main goals – it promotes the work of contemporary Bulgarian children's authors who work both in the country and abroad, actively contributes to improving the interaction between authors, illustrators, publishers and distributors of children's books, provokes debate and influences publishing policies, imposes new models for creating interest in books and reading, inspires children to be creative through numerous competitions and open-air events, and the National Award "Konstantin Konstantinov" (we will talk about it tomorrow).
Traditionally, the Festival will be opened with a concert on May 11 at 10:00 a.m. in the festively decorated foyer of the Drama Theater "Stefan Kirov" - the city of Sliven. The official start of the festival will be given by Mr. Stefan Radev - Mayor of the Municipality of Sliven.
The program of this year's edition of the festival includes many and diverse events: premieres of the latest books by Ivan Radenkov, Donika Rizova, Yordanka Beleva and a literary marathon with guest writers of the festival in the largest Sliven schools with Marin Troshanov.
An exhibition will be opened at the Dimitar Dobrovich Art Gallery - illustrations by Sotir Gelev - winner of the Konstantin Konstantinov National Award, Illustrator category for 2021. The artist shared that this is his first exhibition, and in it the guests were able to peek into the pages of one of his future projects.
Opening of an exhibition and awarding of the distinguished participants in the International Student Illustration Competition "From the Fairytale World of Elin Pelin". The jury consisting of Prof. Viktor Paunov, Boris Stoilov and Petar Stanimirov presented the awards, which this year were extremely numerous.
An important moment in the program of the 24th edition of the festival is the holding of a round table with international participation this year on the topic: "The Art of Writing for Children Today - Between Modern Messages and the Fantasy World". 19 reports of participants /authors and publishers/ will be presented, and you can read their reports in the publication accompanying the conference
This year too, the central square and the largo of the city will turn into a street of fairy tales. During the three festival days, several performances will be presented on the open stage in front of the Sliven Municipality, which will bring children and adults together with their favorite fairy-tale characters.
And now, we are going to a festive concert on the square..
Text and photos: Milena Radeva
(Please, if you decide to use our photos for your news, correctly cite the source of the materials: website "Bulgarian Illustration", Milena Radeva!)
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