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Congratulations to all participants in the 9th Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition! On January 12th, 4 judging panels selected the following national qualifiers: 9th BCWC National Qualifiers Here are some interesting statistics from this year’s competition: Schools participating – 173 Number of participants – 4234 Schools with highest number of participants – ЕГ „Пловдив“, гр. Пловдив – 84, АЕГ “Гео Милев”, гр. Русе – 74, ПМГ “Яне Сандански”, гр. Гоце Делчев – 65, СУ за ХНИ “Константин Преславски”, гр. Варна – 64, ЕГ “Христо Ботев”, гр. Кърджали – 61 School with the highest number of national qualifiers – ЕГ „Пловдив“, гр. Пловдив – 5 Special thanks to our preliminary judging panels who did a great job reading and rating more than four thousand creative pieces of writing!!!

Dear students and teachers, we are getting ready for the new season of the Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition in English and would like to announce some important changes in the calendar of this year competition events: Registration period                                                         October 5 – 20, 2018 Writing days                                                                    November 27 – 28, 2018 Preliminary judging                                                       January 12, 2019 Final judging                                                                   January 26, 2019 Award ceremony                                                             February 16, 2019 We are looking forward to meeting with you in the nearest future!    

“It was a great experience to be the Chairman of the jury of the Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition. I was curious and eager to learn more about the emotions and imagination of the young people. In a way you are all winners because you have conquered your fears.” Zachary Karabashliev, Bulgarian writer On April 14th, 2018 at the American University in Blagoevgrad we celebrated the achievements of this year’s winners and their teachers. All participants had the opportunity to visit the university campus and participated in a creative writing workshop facilitated by Steven London – a student at the AUBG and a published writer. The award ceremony itself is a very special occasion and a true celebration of creativity. During the course of the evening we presented all winning works and had the opportunity to meet the young writers and their teachers. We had a guest performance of Shrek by Dimitar Borumov and Anton Velev from Akad. Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov Math and Science High School, Blagoevgrad. Two of this year’s winners – Elina and Yana, also performed during the ceremony. Elina Stancheva from Vasil Karagyozov Language School, Yambol sang a beautiful song and Yana Petrova from St. st. Cyril and Metodius High School, Kozloduy showed us a K-Pop dance. The students and their teachers received prizes provided by CORPluS Foundation, Klett and Express Publishing. Zachary Karabashliev – the chairman of the national jury, gave two special awards for the students whose stories impressed him the most – Yana Petrova (St. st. Cyril and Metodius High School, Kozloduy) and Yasen Shopov (First English Language School, Sofia). The American University in Blagoevgrad awarded Gabriela Krumova (First English Language School, Sofia) with a three-week summer camp and Yasen Shopov (First English Language School, Sofia) with an intensive TOEFL course. The special prize provided by British Council – a free IELTS exam, was awarded to Nicholas Brintnol (Tsanko Tserkovski High School, Polski Trambesh). Viktoria Koleva (Prof. d-r Asen Zlatarov Language School, Veliko Tarnovo) received the special prize in the name of the American writer Cynthia Phoel who was a former Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria. The award ceremony marked the closing of this year’s campaign and we are now looking forward to the 9th Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition. The students had fun during the creative writing workshop facilitated by Steven London – a student at the AUBG and a published writer. Boriana Shalyavska – Director of Admissions, presents the special awards from AUBG Gergana Paraskova speaks on behalf of the national jury Alexander Koukov, (Sofia Math and Science High School) – 1st place among the 6th graders. Irena Petkova (Vasil Aprilov Primary school, Burgas) and Preslava Gyuzeleva (P. R. Slavejkov Primary school, Burgas) – 1st and 2nd place in 7th grade category. And Preslava’s teacher – Temenuga Peeva. The 8th grade winners – Eleonora Murdzheva (St. st. Cyril and Metodius High School , Plovdiv), Dimitar Lazarov (Akad. Korolyov Math and Science School, Blagoevgrad) and Gabriela Krumova (First Language School, Sofia) The 8th graders and their teachers We had a guest performance of Shrek by Dimitar Borumov and Anton Velev from Akad. Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov Math and Science High School, Blagoevgrad. The 9th grade winners – Ouafa Hammoun, (St. st. Cyril and Metodius High School, Velingrad), Ivan Alexander Nikolov (St. st. Cyril and Metodius High School, Burgas) and Elina Stancheva (Vasil Karagyozov Language School, Yambol). The 9th graders and their teachers. Todor Kantutis (Sofia Math and Science High School), Nicholas Brintnall (Tsanko Tserkovski High School, Polski Trambesh) and Kaloyan Georgiev (32nd Language High School, Sofia) – are the winners in the 10th grade category. The 10th graders and their teachers. Elina Stancheva from Vasil Karagyozov Language School, Yambol sang a beautiful song. Yana Petrova from St. st. Cyril and Metodius High School, Kozloduy showed us a K-Pop dance. The 11th grade winners – Yassen Shopov (First Language School, Sofia), Yana Petrova (St. st. Cyril and Metodius High School, Kozloduy) and Anna Filipova (Language High School, Pleven) The 11th graders and their teachers Radost Tudzharska (Otets Paisij Secondary school, Samokov) -1st palce and Adelina Dimitrova (Plovdiv Language School) – 3rd place among the 12th graders. Radost and his teacher + Adelina Zachary Karabashliev – the chairman of the national jury, gave two special awards for the students whose stories impressed him the most – Yana Petrova (St. st. Cyril and Metodius High School, Kozloduy) and Yasen Shopov (First English Language School, Sofia). The special prize provided by British Council – a free IELTS exam, was awarded to Nicholas Brintnol (Tsanko Tserkovski High School, Polski Trambesh). We want to thank all our partners for their generous contributions towards our project: US Embassy in Sofia, American University in Bulgaria and AVO Language and Examinations Centre. You can read the collection of this year winning pieces at: www.creativewriting-bg.com/assets/2018_BCWC_booklet.pdf

And here are the national winners of the 2018 Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition! All regional finalist essays were read and assessed on Saturday, March 10,2018 by our panel of 14 native speakers and Bulgarian professionals – Darina Konova, Dimitar Tsekov, Galina Nikolova, Gergana Paraskova, Gergana Yaneva, Iliana Dimitrova, Joseph Herr, Maria Stefanova, Nadya Zaharieva, Oliver Steel,  Sunny Stimmler, Valya Zavyalova, Vladimir Mihailovski and Zachari Karabashliev. Check the results at 2018 BCWC National Results There are 21 winners – 3 per grade level – and these students, as well as their English teachers (1 per school), will be invited to attend the official BCWC awards ceremony in Blagoevgrad on April 14, 2018. Schools and winners will be contacted individually at a later time in order to coordinate the logistics for the event. Once again, congratulations to all! The winning essays will be unveiled for all to read on the BCWC website. Stay tuned!