Israeli Writer with Bulgarian Roots Won a BBC award
Israeli-born Bulgarian writer Vacko Sauf won the BBC Short Story Award. Sauf won the award for his short story "Table for Two". The short story competition has been running since 2006. This year, exceptionally, authors from outside the UK were admitted. Vacko Sauf has been living in Germany since 2015. Sauf, 34, currently teaches creative writing at the University of Freiburg. South African writer Henrietta Rose-Ines won second prize for her story "Asylum".
The winner of the competition was announced at a ceremony in the British capital London, which was broadcast live on Radio 4 and online on the media platform.
"Honestly, I don't like to write autobiographical prose, because for me the most interesting thing about literature is the freedom to live someone else's life and look at the world through the eyes of someone else, completely fictional," Vacko Sauf said late last year. His collection of short stories "Balcedon Nostalgia" was published in Bulgarian.
The first story in the collection - "Secrets of Zorkia" is from the point of view of a 72-year-old man, another story - "Crystal Water" is from the point of view of a 16-year-old girl. It is a challenge. If you create a strong literary voice, because most of the stories in the book are first person singular and they are guided by the strong sound of the narrator's voice, creating this voice you manage to immerse yourself in the image and feel like another person," Vacko Sauf said at the time.