Bio note

Boris Kenov was born in Basel in 1993 to a Bulgarian father and a Swiss mother. After completing his bilingual matura (English/German), he spent a year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, where he attended a preliminary art course and studied Bulgarian. Back in Switzerland, he went on to study Multilingual Communication and Translation at the University of Geneva and the University of Canterbury, England, for his Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

Now Boris works as an in-house translator for a large insurance company based in Lausanne and as a freelance translator for literary projects, mainly from French and English into German. He is particularly interested in the interplay between words and images, combining his interests for visual arts and languages. His first translation - 'Seek You. Eine Reise in die Einsamkeit', was nominated for the Max-und-Moritz-Preis 2024. Other translations include graphic novels, children's books, travel guides, sur- and subtitles. In 2023 and 2024 he was a fellow of the Goldschmidt Programme for Literary Translators. Boris lives in Geneva.

Residency goals

During his stay in Sofia, Boris plans to work on his Bulgarian, read contemporary Bulgarian literature and translate a sample of a book from Bulgarian into German to pitch to publishers in Switzerland and Germany. Another goal is to connect with actors in the creative and literary field to enable future collaborations.