Blaga Dimitrova

Blaga Dimitrova
Born	2 January 1922 Byala Slatina, Bulgaria
Died	2 May 2003 (aged 81) Sofia, Bulgaria

Blaga Nikolova Dimitrova (Bulgarian: Блага Димитрова) (2 January 1922 – 2 May 2003) was a Bulgarian poet and Vice President of Bulgaria^[1] from 1992 until 1993.

Life

Born in Byala Slatina to a mother teacher and a father lawyer, Blaga Dimitrova was raised in Veliko Tarnovo and then moved to Sofia. She finished High School in 1942, and Slavic Philology at the University of Sofia in 1945.

In the 1970s, her works became more critical of the communist government, and she received reprimands for not being politically correct. Four of the poetry books Dimitrova wrote in the 1970s- "Fireflies Fading", "Rubber Plant", "Questions", and "Hobbyada"- were all rejected by state publishing houses with no specific reason given.^[2]

Blaga Dimitrova was the inspiration behind John Updike's short story "The Bulgarian Poetess".^[3]

During the Vietnam War, Dimitrova visited the country several times as a journalist, and in 1967 adopted a Vietnamese girl. Dimitrova was married to literary critic Jordan Vasilev.

She died on May 2, 2003.

Works

• Because the sea is black: poems of Blaga Dimitrova. Translators Niko Boris & Heather McHugh. Wesleyan University Press. 1989.
• Because the sea is black. Translators Ludmilla G. Popova-Wightman & Elizabeth A. Socolow. Ivy Press Princeton. June 2003. ISBN 1-930214-06-5.
• The last rock eagle: selected poems of Blaga Dimitrova. Translators Brenda Walker, Vladimir Levchev, Belin Tonchev. Forest Books. 1992. ISBN 978-1-85610-009-0.
• Forbidden sea: a poem. Ivy Press. 2000. ISBN 978-1-930214-01-9.

Anthologies

• Vasa D. Mihailovich, ed. (1977). "The Old Man and the World". White stones and fir trees: an anthology of contemporary Slavic literature. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-1194-4.
• Walter M. Cummins, ed. (1993). "Almost a Prophecy; Night-light -- A Night-bird's Eye; The Great Wall; Amnesia in Reverse; Bee Lesson; The Shadow of the Trees; Overstepping One's Rights; Frost". Shifting borders: East European poetries of the eighties. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-3497-4.

References

1. Official results from the 1992 Bulgarian Presidential Election
2. Thefileroom.org
3. A Major Literary Event: The Novel "Avalanche"

External links

• Alida Brill, ed. (1995). A rising public voice: women in politics worldwide. Feminist Press. ISBN 978-1-55861-111-5.
• Katharine A. Dean (2004). The undergraduate's companion to women poets of the world and their web sites. Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 978-1-59158-044-7.