Background

Blaga Nikolova Dimitrova was born on January 2, 1922, in Byala Slatina, Bulgaria. Blaga was born to a mother teacher and a father lawyer. She was raised in Veliko Tarnovo and then moved to Sofia.

Education

Blaga Nikolova Dimitrova finished High School in 1942. Blaga Nikolova Dimitrova studied Slavic Philology at the University of Sofia and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1945. In 1950 Blaga Nikolova Dimitrova gained a doctor of philosophy at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. She also studied piano with Andre Stoyanov.

Career

During Blaga Dimitrova’s youth and undergraduate education, she published poetry in various student and professional journals: Blgarska rech, Prometey, Uchenicheski podem, Izkustovo i kritika and Literaturen zhivot. She was a novelist, poet, and translator at the beginning of the 1940s.

After graduating, Blaga Dimitrova explored her country and the literary world; she worked as an editor for Septemvri from 1950 to 1955 and did construction work in the Rhodopa Mountains from 1952 to 1953. Her mountain work seems to have shaped her sense of labor and womanhood. At the beginning of 1962, Blaga Dimitrova was an editor at Bulgarski pisatel and Narodna kultura.

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

During the Vietnam War (1955-1975), Dimitrova visited the country several times as a journalist. In 1991 Blaga Dimitrova became a deputy of Bulgarian parliament. In 1992 Blaga Dimitrova worked as a vice president of Bulgaria. She became a pre-eminent supporter of democracy, and one of its architects in Bulgaria.

Achievements

• Blaga Dimitrova was the inspiration behind John Updike's short story "The Bulgarian Poetess." In the 1980s Blaga Dimitrova rose to eminence as a Bulgaria’s greatest female poet. Dimitrova won the Lundkvist Prize in Stockholm in the 1980s for her translations of Swedish literature and also received the Herder Prize for poetry in 1992.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Forbidden Sea

    ("Forbidden Sea" is a lyrical poem, which arrived suddenly...)

    2000
  • Journey to oneself 1969
  • Because the Sea Is Black: Poems of Blaga Dimotriva 1989
  • The Last Rock Eagle: Selected Poems of Blaga Dimitrova 1992
  • Scars 2002

Politics

Although Blaga Dimitrova's earliest writings were critical of Bulgarian social conditions, intellectually Dimitrova was, by and large, a Stalinist both politically and culturally. By the 1960s, Dimitrova felt disgusted with the repressive Stalinism of the Zhivkov regime. She had democratic views.

Views

Quotations: "Don't compromise, because later on there may be no time to say what you wanted to then."

Membership

• founding member

  Club for Democracy , United Kingdom

• member

  Bulgarian Writers’ Union , Bulgaria

• founding member

  the Club for Glasnost and Perestroika , Bulgaria

  1988

Personality

Blaga Dimitrova was sophisticated, intellectual, deep and empathetic. She had her own principles and views and Blaga followed them through all her life.

Interests

• reading

Connections

In 1967 Dimitrova was married to literary critic Jordan Vasilev. Blaga adopted a Vietnamese girl.

husband:

Jordan Vasilev

colleague:

Rada Sharlandjieva

colleague:

Maria Georgieva

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, TV, & Other Fields
  2010