Introducing the Bulgarian writers in the second cycle of CELA

Momchil Milanov, Nataliya Deleva and Paulina Georgieva will take part in the international talent development project CELA - Connecting Emerging Literary Artists. 

In the next 18 months the three emerging writers will be part of building a major European literary network, international literary festival tour and intensive seminar programme, together with 165 literary artists from 11 European countries. 

The writers will also be working with literary translators on the translations of excerpts of their literary works into the languages of the project — Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch, Serbian, Slovenian, Czech, Romanian. Read more about the writers and their books:

Momchil Milanov is a writer and an international lawyer. In the last 15 years he has published stories, poems and reviews in several Bulgarian literary journals and magazines. His first novel 'The Ministry of Dreams' was published in 2021. The book won the National Literary Prize ‘Peroto’ (2022) and was nominated for the National literary prize of ‘Portal Kultura’. A second edition was published in 2025 by ICU Publishing. A French translation by Marie Vrinat was published by Les Argonautes in August 2025 under the title 'Le ministère des rêves'.

'The Ministry of Dreams'
ICU, 2025 

Some strange things are happening in Graystadt. Shoes vanish without a trace. The menacing silhouette of a dirigible balloon, owned by an ambitious entrepreneur is hovering in the sky. Baron Nulde has serious intentions towards the inhabitants of Greystadt and their dreams. The parents of Stern are separating, and the expressionless grey faces of the “two-headers” are marching in the streets. How does a child experience and anticipates the threat of a coup? Can you save your adult parents when you are just eight years old? Is imagination the most efficient means to resist dictatorship? Tonight, the windows of the Ministry of Dreams are lit. You are cordially invited.





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Nataliya Deleva is the author of the novels 'Four Minutes' and 'Arrival'. Her debut novel, 'Four Minutes' was originally published in Bulgaria (Janet 45), where it received the most prestigious Bulgarian prize for emerging literature in 2018 and was shortlisted for several other national awards. It has since been translated and published into German (eta Verlag), English (Open Letter Books, US) and Polish (Wydawnictwo EZOP). Her second novel 'Arrival', written originally in English, is published by The Indigo Press, UK, and in Bulgarian by Janet 45. Delevа's short fiction, interviews and critique have appeared in literary journals and anthologies, such as 'Stories from the 90's' (ICU Publishing, 2019), 'Words Without Borders', Fence, Psyche, Asymptote, Lunate, Review31 and Granta.

'Four Minutes'
Janet 45, 2018 

Giving voice to people living on the periphery in post-communist Bulgaria, 'Four Minutes' centers around Leah, an orphan who suffered daily horrors growing up, and now struggles to integrate into society as a gay woman. She confronts her trauma by trying to volunteer at the orphanage, and to adopt a young girl—a choice that is frustrated over and over by bureaucracy and the pervasive stigma against gay women. In addition to Leah’s narrative, the novel contains nine other standalone character studies of other frequently ignored voices. These sections are each meant to be read in approximately four minutes, a nod to a social experiment that put forth the hypothesis that it only takes four minutes of looking someone in the eye and listening to them in order to accept and empathize with them. A meticulously crafted social novel, 'Four Minutes' takes a difficult, uncompromising look at modern life in Eastern Europe.
 

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Paulina Georgieva is a Bulgarian writer, author of the novels 'The Simulation' (Knigomania, 2022) and 'Small Sins' (Knigomania, 2024). She has also written awareded short stories. Her work has been recognized both by critics and at major film and literary events. In 2024, 'Small Sins' was selected by the Based on Book forum at the Cinelibri International Film Festival as a novel with strong potential for film adaptation, and in the same year was presented at the Sofia International Literary Festival. In 2025, the novel was nominated for the Portal Kultura Award. Paulina is a fellow of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and participated in the Sozopol International Creative Writing Seminars (2023). With a background in ancient languages and history, she brings cultural depth and intellectual sensitivity to her writing. Her prose combines linguistic precision with a keen attention to human psychology. Professionally, Paulina Georgieva works as a corporate headhunter.




'Small Sins'
Knigomania, 2024 

The novel 'Small Sins' unfolds the story of six friends who find themselves trapped in the labyrinth of the intricate routines that shape contemporary existence, and are constantly haunted by guilt, career ambitions, a fading sense of vocation, and the unease of love slowly withering away.  While struggling to cope with their anxieties, each one seeks comfort in the arms of a "small" sin – like alcohol abuse, telling lies, using psychostimulants, committing infidelity, and becoming manipulative. The six gather for a weekend getaway at a retreat center on the island of Crete. During a group therapy session all of them confess their small sin. The revelations trigger a collision that will become the turning point in their lives.



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CELA is an international talented development project, that offers literary artists across Europe the opportunity to work on their (international) network and develop their professional literary skills. They share their stories, create new work, and bridge the gap between each other, the literary industry and the European public.

CELA is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and by the National Culture Fund Bulgaria.