Константин Илиев

The Author

 

The dramatic art of Konstantin Iliev, which has accumulated over a period of three decades, is considered a part of the greatest achievements in Bulgaria's literature of this century.

Prof. Peter Wunderli Ph.D.,
chairman of the curatorium,
in the document upon the presentation of the Herder Award

 

It is rightfully that this distinctive author who possesses great artistic power is considered the most significant playwright to have ever emerged from Bulgaria.

Prof. Friedrich Szholtz Ph.D.
(a member of the curatorium)
From the laudation speech at the delivering of the Herder Award at the Vienna University, May 8, 1996

Brief information

 

Official site of the Bulgarian writer Konstantin Iliev. Contains biographical notes, synopses of his plays and prose writings, essays, articles and interviews, press clippings, full and partial translation of the texts, contact and copyright information.

 

Playwright, novelist, translator. Born on October 16, 1937 in Gorno Pavlikeni (Bulgaria).  Graduated German Philology at Sofia's University St. Kliment of Ohrid. Specializes Theatre Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he defends his Doctorate Dissertation on the plays of Friedrich Duerrenmatt. He worked as a dramaturge in Blagoevgrad's Theatre Nikola Vaptsarov and the Drama Theatre Sofia. From 1995 until 2007 he is Head Dramaturge at Bulgaria's National Theatre Ivan Vazov.

Plays (in the order in which they were written): Longing For Colours (1961), Without You In October (1968), The Mousy King (1968, a puppet play), Music From Shatrovets (1971), The Window (1977), Basil For Draginko (1978), Easter Wine (1979), Nirvana (1982), Odysseus Travels To Ithaca (1984), Red Wine For Goodbye (1989), Lame-Leg or Lupine Holy Mother (1994), Francesca (1999), Beethoven 21 (2006), Golden Bridges and Sequoia (2010).)

Prose: French Donkey (1988) – a novel, The Defeat. A Chronicle From The Short Century (2003) – an autobiographical book, The Memory of the Raven. Texts on theatre, drama and politics (2005).

He translates from the German (Brecht, Buechner). Plays of his have been produced in Austria, England, Estonia, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and elsewhere.

Konstantin Iliev  has received a number of state drama awards, the international Herder Prize of 1996 for overall achievement, the Helikon 2003 award for new Bulgarian prose writing and the Elias Canetti  Literary Prize 2005.

© 2006 Konstantin Iliev. All Rights Reserved

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