This talk will discuss the challenges of bringing a small literature such as Bulgarian into the English-language market, noting the pivotal role of the translator, who acts both as factotum and fakir in this process. Due to its size and influence, the English-language and particularly the US market often disregards translated literature, yet over the past ten years we have seen Bulgarian authors slip in through the cracks in this citadel, using the new opportunities the digital and decentering literary industry has provided and enjoying a ‘cluster effect’ as more works and authors become visible.

Angela Rodel is a literary translator from Bulgarian into English, who holds degrees from Yale and UCLA. Her translations have appeared in McSweeney’s, Two Lines, Ploughshares, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. She has received NEA and PEN translation grants; seven novels in her translation have been published in the US and UK. Her translation of Georgi Gospodinov’s Physics of Sorrow won the 2016 AATSEEL Prize for Literary Translation as well as an NEA Translation grant. Her translation of Gospodinov's novel Time Shelter was featured on The New Yorker’s list of Best Books of 2022 and won the 2023 International Booker Prize. Since 2015 she has served as executive director of the Bulgarian-American Fulbright Commission.

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