The winners of the first literary competition of BMF Port Burgas were honored at an official ceremony on October 13, 2022 at the Center for Contemporary Art and Library.
The pilot edition of the contest was a great success and inspired 106 authors aged 10 to 80, from 36 towns in Bulgaria, Great Britain, Belgium and Canada.
The competition was held in two age categories, and those wishing to participate were offered two topics: “The Tree That Tells Tales” for students up to the age of 18 and “The Tree with the Good and the Bad Fruit” for authors over 19 years old. The works – poems, short stories and essays – were evaluated by a jury consisting of: Elka Vasileva – poet and journalist, Nikolay Fenerski – fiction writer, translator, essayist and screenwriter, winner of numerous national literary awards, and Vesela Dzhunjurova – chief legal advisor at “BMF Port Burgas”.
In the age group up to 18 years, where the fairytale genre naturally dominated, 19 authors participated with their works, the youngest of whom was only 10 years old. First prize went to the 17-year-old Hristiana Germanova from Burgas for the story “The Chameleon Peach “. Second place went to Kiril Dimov, 17 years old, from Kazanlak, who participated in the contest with the poem “The Tree That Tells Tales”. The third prize was awarded to the16-year-old Yuliana Sakzova from Yambol, for the essay “The tree that writes stories”. The jury also decided to award an incentive award. It was awarded to Viktoria Georgieva, 14 years old, from the town of Varshets, for the essay “The Tree That Tells Tales”.
In the over-19 category, 87 authors participated. First prize was awarded to Tatyana Yotova from Aytos, who entered the competition with the essay “Footprints on the Future”. Second prize went to Rositsa Gyumlieva from Stara Zagora for the story “Naum with a Mission”, and third place went to Diana Fertunova from Burgas with the poem “Good Salvation”. In this category too, the jury awarded an incentive award. It went to Dimitrina Hristova from Silistra for the story “Mother’s Instinct”.
The award-winning authors read excerpts from their works, and the young bard Samuel Manuelyan, a veterinarian who devoted himself to his hobby – poetry and music, gave a kind of greeting to all participants with his original songs.
The literary competition is part of the social program of “BMF Port Burgas” AD. The concessionaire organized the contest to support the literary tradition in the sea city, to assist in the discovery and popularization of new literary talents, to encourage the creation of works propagating the moral values characteristic of modern man .
