Bio note

Nejra Sehagic (2000) was born in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina and has immigrated to Belgium as a child. She studied Bulgarian as part of her undergraduate studies alongside Russian, Slovenian and Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian languages. She is currently pursuing a degree in Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University. Her first venture into literary translation was the participation in the competition 'Transformations' at the University of Veliko Tarnovo, where she joined efforts with Kieran Van Overwaele to win a first place for the translation of Blaga Dimitrova's poetry from Bulgarian to Dutch.

Kieran Van Overwaele (2001) is currently a student of East European Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, majoring in Russian and Bulgarian language and literature. In 2022, Bulgarian literature became the focus of his academic interests, after attending the International Summer Seminar for Bulgarian Language and Culture in Veliko Tarnovo and shortly after the 'Transformations' contest.

Residency goals

During their residency at the Sofia Literature and Translation House, Nejra and Kieran will finalise the translation of a short story by Bulgarian writer Alek Popov. They worked on the translation with a group of Ghent University students organised by the lecturer of Bulgarian language Miglena Dikova-Milanova and in close collaboration with the professional literary translator and resident of the House Hellen Kooijman. In Sofia, the students will meet up with the writer to further discuss the final details of the text and translation.