Winners in two age categories of the National Round of the Creative Writing competition in English
On February 9th and 10th, the Award Ceremony for the winners of the fourteenth edition of the Creative Writing competition took place in Sofia. The event was organized by CORPluS - CORPS for Education and Development, with the support of the United States Embassy, Express Publishing, Klett, American University in Bulgaria, and Interlogistica.
Out of over 4000 submissions in the first stage (from students nationwide and from Pakistan), 126 works were selected for the national round in different age categories. More than 100 were the participants in the jury, faced with the challenging task of sifting out the best among all the wonderful submissions from students. A few of the members of the jury included Angela Rodel, Stanislava Milanova, Sunny Stymler, and many other teachers, writers, journalists, translators, and more.
Among all, our two girls, Ivana Stoyanova (11th grade) and Simona Karaivanova (10th grade), managed to impress everyone. Not only were their works among the selected 126, but they also secured the first places in their respective age categories! Another recognition of their talent and skills came in the form of a special award from the Academy for Creativity "Zaeshka dupka," which will give them both the opportunity to meet the writer Rene Karabash and participate in a creative writing workshop.
The emotions during the award ceremony were exceptional, as the ranking was kept secret, and until the last moment, no one knew who had won. Besides the main reason for the event, the coordinators ensured that all guests had additional delights. A planned visit to the American Embassy took place, where a meeting between the participants and embassy representatives - Deputy Ambassador Andria Brulette-Rodriguez and American Cultural Attaché Eric Brazil - occurred. They organized a quiz on "American literature", in which the students excelled and received many prizes.
On the last day of the program, a literary walk across the streets of Sofia was planned, led by the poet Albena Todorova, who enchanted everyone with her eloquence and provided much food for thought on various questions related to the magic and challenges of wordcraft in all its forms.
A little aside from the award ceremony, but equally successful, another one of our students, Radoslav Buzev from the 10th grade, presented his work. Although his piece did not make it to the final, it impressed one of the jury members, Galya Todorova, so much that he received a personal award from her, along with our sincere wishes for him not to give up writing and to continue working diligently!
We are infinitely proud of Ivana, Simona, and Radoslav and wish them to keep writing because their words have the power to reach people's hearts!
