Minister of Culture awarded translator Angela Rodel for her contribution to popularising Bulgarian culture

Minister of Culture, Krustyu Krastev, awarded USA-born translator, Angela Rodel ,with the "Contribution to the Development of Culture" award. The prestigious prize of the institution is awarded to Ms Rodel for her contribution to the promotion of Bulgarian culture and in connection with the translation of the novel "Time Shelter” by Georgi Gospodinov, for which she won the prestigious international Booker Prize 2023 for Literature together with the distinguished Bulgarian author.

‘Time Shelter’ by Georgi Gospodinov wins International Booker Prize

On receiving the award, Ms Rodel thanked Minister Krastev warmly, saying, "Bulgarian culture has done so much for me."

The short ceremony took place at the Ministry of Culture and was a surprise for Ms. Rodel in the framework of a working meeting she attended in her capacity as Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission - Bulgaria, together with Ivan Vassilev, Chairman of the Bilateral Bulgarian-American Commission for the Preservation of Bulgaria's Cultural Heritage at the Fulbright Commission.

During the meeting, Ms. Rodel and Mr. Vassilev briefed the Ministry's management team on the activities of the organisation, which has been contributing to the educational and cultural exchange between Bulgaria and the United States for 30 years. The opportunities for cooperation and joint work on the issues of movable cultural heritage were confirmed.

Ms. Rodel expressed the readiness of the Fulbright Commission to assist in enhancing the capacity of Bulgarian officials in this field. For this purpose, special trainings will be organized, during which foreign experts will share the world experience in this field, and the main focus of the trainings will be the activities on the preservation of sites in Bulgaria that are world cultural heritage - their conservation and restoration. The meeting was attended by Deputy Ministers of Culture Viktor Stoyanov and Arch. Chavdar Georgiev.

Angela Rodel is a translator, actress and musician. She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She studied linguistics at Yale University. There she joined a women's choir and heard Bulgarian folk music for the first time. She began collecting recordings of folk songs, thus learning the Bulgarian language herself. After graduating in the USA, she studied Bulgarian Philology in Sofia. Rodel also translated books by a number of Bulgarian authors - Angel Igov, Virginiya Zaharieva, Milen Ruskov, Zahari Karabashliev, Ivaylo Petrov.

Her first translated Bulgarian book was "Party House" by Georgi Tenev. She then translated books by Georgi Markov, Georgi Gospodinov, Vera Mutafchieva. Her translations have won awards, including the 2016 National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association.

In 2014, she was awarded the prize for the best translation of her work. Angela Rodel received Bulgarian citizenship for her translation work and contribution to Bulgarian culture. Thanks to her, Georgi Gospodinov's work is also known in the United States - his novel “The Physics of Sorrow” is on the short list of nominations for the oldest translation prize in the United States - the Translators Association.

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