Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition

Thanks to the continuous efforts of teacher coordinators and judges, this years' Creative Writing Competition was a great success! We partnered with 147 participating schools throughout Bulgaria and received a total of 3304 student works! For the first time, our team decided to assign a common topic, shared between all participating grade levels: My brilliant friend-English. We were eager to see how non-native young speakers reacted to the quirks and charms of the language and were not disappointed - Kristina, an 11th grader from Varna, won over the jury with a piece that compellingly captured precisely these idiosyncrasies!

The regional and national judging rounds took place on January 11th and 25th, respectively. The former involved 42 judges: some came all the way from Smolyan or Sliven, while others vowed to return next year. 

This Saturday, a panel of 13 judges, including English native speakers and Bulgarian professionals, had an even heftier task: selecting the national winners. Our office resounded with sighs of surprise, bursts of laughter, and heated discussions, as our judges were fully immersed into the lively fictional worlds the young writers had created. 

Below are a few excerpts from winning works. 

What do the coats think in the wardrobe all summer? 

Wow, it's finally summer!

Honestly, that's such a bummer.

Hi, my name is Coat the coat!

All winter I've been on a boat,

seeing all the ducks and fish.

But now all I can do is wish

that these three months pass by

because I am going to cry! 

• Rada from Sofia, 6th grade, 1st place

East of The Sun and West of The Moon

East and West- two opposite directions, 

sun and moon-two different creations. 

Sun was a man who liked being seen 

Moon was a maiden on him keen. 

Sometimes she felt lonely, alone in the night,

and often had nightmares, been trying to fight

but then around dawn when light broke the dark

Moon hid in the clouds and felt quite a spark. 

• Iva from Varna, 11th grade, 1st place

The award ceremony will take place on February 25th at the American University of Blagoevgrad. National winners will have the opportunity to partake in creative writing workshops, mingle and exchange ideas. 

We cannot wait to host this celebration of creativity and the power of the English Language together with our partners from the American University in Bulgaria!