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The Bulgarian Poets and Writers Series continues, and will feature a young Bulgarian in the Red Room this coming Monday, October 20. These series are not quite as popular as some other events in AUBG, but yet they have a certain charm. Not all that happens on campus is indispensable to our university environment, but there are those tiny parts of it that add color and flavor to an otherwise monotonous rushing in and out of class. Two years ago when I attended the presentation of Vladimir Levchev, who was not yet part of the AUBG faculty, I had no idea of his plans to bring some fresh literature to our university. Still, I put down some positive impressions, and then sent them to the committee that was reviewing his application.The following year Prof. Levchev would take up teaching, and meanwhile care to help the AUBG community follow the recent developments in Bulgarian literature. Through these series, last year AUBGers met with the fascinating Kristin Dimitrova, accompanied by her husband Vladimir Trendafilov. There were other visitors as well, for there was a guest every other week, but these two overshadow the rest. This year, to AUBG came Aleksandar Sekulov, whose name often stands among the big (so I don't have to say great) the poets of Plovdiv. And somehow the Poets and Writers have not been given enough attention by the student media. If there was any coverage of the events, it has been scarce; and thus, the meetings have stayed on the periphery of student interest. Supposedly, that is the place of literature today, but this is the naysayers talking. AUBG's future leaders need some encounter with real literature. Real, I call it, because it is recent, fresh, unmasked by the veil of time. Because it can be controversial. W. H. Auden is not controversial, and neither is Nikola Vaptsarov. But the men and women of literature that visit AUBG are creating works in real time, and that makes all the difference. If we do not want to only follow, we can go meet these Poets and Writers, and see for ourselves, and attempt to make up our own mind. Rather than stay behind in our education of arts.
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