Words on sounds gathers writers and poets who may or may not share common styles of writing. They live in different places and are of different age, genre and style. What brings them together at Plovdiv Jazz Fest is freedom.
Freedom found in expression. Freedom to be spontaneous or reflective. Freedom to forget yourself in writing or to ‘arrange’ wise words. Jazz is freedom, so is writing. Words are freedom. That’s why Words on sounds are together:

Nedyalko Slavov – born and living in Plovdiv, he writes poetry, short stories, theatre plays and novels with very expressive and metaphorical style. Slavov won several national prizes for poetry and prose among which the National literature prize ‘Hr.G.Danov’ for the novel ‘Faustino’ and a ‘Ivan Nikolov’ prize for his poetry book ‘Marble years’. His novel ‘A portrait of the poet as a young man’ was nominated for prestigious prizes like the ‘Helicon’ prize, novel of the year of ’13 centuries Bulgaria’ fund and novel of the year prize of ‘Portal Culture’. The novel won the ‘Plovdiv’ prize for literature.

Vassil Balev – born in Karlovo, living in Sofia. Poet, author of the books ‘Zlak’ which won the Ivan Nikolov prize in the young author category, and ‘Poems’ which also won the Ivan Nikolov prize. In his poetry, images and feelings swoop the reader with barbarian directness and primitiveness. At the same time it conveys maturity and knowledge of the tradition. Balev is one of the most impressive names in today’s Bulgarian poetry. Currently he is librarian of the National Theater.

Nevena Tsaneva – still a student in the Mathematic High-school of Varna. Although it is her senior year, she is still not sure what she wants to do next. She started writing at a very young age, gradually turning her hobby into a way of life. Winner of several school contests, her wish is to continue writing actively and one day publish a book. She may not fully understand it (thanks, God) but Nevena is a true talent, an author with a passion for writing, who has self-reflection and self-irony mastered, who loves words and is loved by them in return.

Slavi Tomov – lives in Burgas. He explores experimental writing, hybrid in genres and relying on visual effects and forms. He is interested in “the game” in writing, neglecting the story line. He wrote the novel ‘The in-between states of Gregor K’ (2005), the short stories book ‘Journey to the end of the night’ (2006) and the novel ‘The other live of Bianca K.’ (2007). His writing today may be viewed as a study, mostly of the limits outside and inside us, and in the words.

Ivan Landjev – poet, essayist and scriptwriter. Author of poetry books ‘Blame it on Bobby Fisher’ (2010) and ‘Us according to the mansard’ (2014). A philosopher and culturologist, he has Ph.D. in Russian literature. He won the National poetry contest ‘Vesselin Hanchev’ in 2009 and the prize for debut ‘South spring’ in 2011, the prize ‘Memory’ in 2014. He was nominated twice for the National poetry prize ‘Ivan Nikolov’ in 2010 and 2014. Impressively mature for his age, he combines in his poetry the skepticism of knowledge and the goodwill of not knowing, making mistakes and being curious for tomorrow.

Dimitar Ganev – he is from Sofia and is only 23 years old. Graduate of the German language highschool ‘Prof. Konstantin Galabov’ and currently a student in Vienna University. He won first prizes in several writing contests. In 2009 he became the youngest winner of the ‘Rashko Sugarev’ contest. His texts were published in most of the leading Bulgarian media. His debut book of poetry is ‘Nicole goes down the staircase’ (2013). One of the promising young poets in whose verses we find unexpected intellectual maturity and elegance, and an esthetical minimalism usually foreign to the youth.

Katya Atanassova – author of short stories book ‘Agitated stories’ (2006) and the screenplay ‘Eating the apple’ directed by Ida Daniel. Her story ‘Fear of ankles’ was selected for the yearly anthology Best European Fiction of the American publishing house Dalkey Archive Press, published in the beginning of 2014. She created the only competition in Bulgaria for telling stories ‘League of Storytellers’ which is held since 2005. She prefers to define herself as a reader rather than a writer. Music sometimes is more important for her than anything.

Konstantin Katzarski (Koka Mass Jazz), Bluba Lu – music environment