Επιμέλεια συνέντευξης: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
Translation: Rozalia Alexandrova
Peter Kraevski is a journalist, scriptwriter and the author of eight books – poetry, satire and prose. He has won numerous prizes in national literary and media contests. He was the organizer of the competition for poetry and satire ‘For a More Humane World’. Nowadays he works as a teacher of English language, English and American Literature and runs the radio show ‘Alter ego’ in Radio Plovdiv which is a branch of the Bulgarian National Radio.
Please, share your thoughts about the future of literature. When did you start writing? I have been writing poetry and satire since I was a student in the English Language School in Plovdiv, which makes more than 35 years. My first book was published in 1990 but I had been contributing to a wide range of literary magazines and newspapers almost half a decade before. In my opinion the future of literature lies in the step-by-step overcoming of the post-modern way of writing. God knows what is ahead. I presume that an interaction between innovative literary ideas and cutting-edge technology visualizations and audio presentations is at hand.
The Good and the Bad. Who is winning nowadays? I claim that humanism ought to be the basis of every valuable literary text so as long as there is a critical mass of authors who share humanistic ideas, the Good will surely prevail. Authors need not only to be sensible but also sensitive. I will tell you an authentic story that happened to me many years ago. A few colleagues of mine and I were invited to recite poems in front of a big audience. We were sitting on rather dilapidated chairs. Eventually the listeners started asking questions. One them was curious to know what the difference between humour and satire was. We had just started giving our answers when suddenly one of the chairs broke and Kalin, one of the authors, fell on the floor. All the people present burst out laughing. Then Kalin stood up and said: ‘That is the difference between humour and satire – while you are laughing it hurts me.’ So, most probably that is the task of the good writer – to take the Good even out of the Bad.
How many books have you written and where can we find your books? I have eight books brought out mainly by ‘Zhanet 45’ publishing house. These are three collections of poems, two collections of satirical poetry, one collection of aphorisms, one book of satirical short stories and a novel. My latest volumes are available in the Bulgarian bookstores including the biggest online ones. They can also be delivered on demand by ‘Zhanet 45’ – the link is here:
The book. E-book or Hardcover book? What will be the future? I prefer hardcover books although it seems that the E-book is going to win the race. Nevertheless, I definitely think that the masterpieces of literature will always be published on paper and kept in libraries as precious objects of printing art being also valuable sources of information and examples of the artistic achievements of the predicessors that the future generations will follow. Still, I must confess that a great number of authors gain huge popularity when they publish their texts online. The shorter and the simpler the text, the more viral it becomes. This way of presenting literature is not my cup of tea.
A wish for 2023. A phrase from a book of yours. I wish you a multitude of poetic moments that you can turn into wonderful pieces of literature.
Here is a short excerpt from one of my poetry books:
She is such a strange,
auspicious entity
and she doesn’t know,
and she’ll never even sus
that her eyes are like the morn
in which
I will never wake.
