You can recognise her for her wide-open eyes absorbing everything happening around her. She is both an explorer and an artist. Her palette consists of words, and her canvas is the computer keyboard. Ivanka Mogilska is thirty years old, with a degree in directing from the National Academy for Film and Theatre Arts in Sofia and, despite being tempted by Melpomene, her professional career is in a different field. She works as a freelance copywriter for radio and television advertisements and promotional websites, and she also wrties books. Two of her poetry collections and a novel have already been published.
Here is what Ivanka Mogilska told Radio Bulgaria:
"My first book of poetry is called DNA of Words. I wrote the poems over 5 or 6 years and I never thought that one day they might appear as a volume. Writing was first only a personal experience for me, a way out. Later, when I was still at university, a publishing house announced a competition for young authors. The award was pubslishing a debut collection of poems. I put all my poems in a folder and submitted them for the competition. Several months later, it turned out that I was the winner. This is how my first book came to life. It was the same with my second book. So far, I have experienced no difficulty in publishing my books."
Places of Losing - this is the title of the novel that Ivanka Mogilska presented at the International Book Festival in Budapest.
"This is the story of two women, a city and a bar, Mrs. Mogilska goes on to say. These women are two strangers who meet in a bar and are intrigued by each other ... They become obsessed with each other and with the desire to understand what the life of the other is, because they live in very different ways. They start to reinvent themselves and thus many stories are intertwined in the novel. One can easily be lost in these stories. The places where one can get lost are in my opinion entirely spiritual, emotional places where we go to relax and to reflect on things and then we can go back to our normal life relived of a burden”.
Do young Bulgarians read books?
"I cannot speak for all young people in general. Those young people I know read, some more than others. Not everyone reads poetry but reading books is much different than reading anything else on the Internet. This is a different way of experiencing and understanding the world and ourselves. Those who need a different way of communicating with themselves and with other worlds, they will never stop reading books. As for poetry, I'm not convinced that it was ever widely loved and widely read. I think people underestimate poetry and thus they miss the chance to experience something new, exciting and enjoyable. "
Along with people who love words as much as she does, Ivanka participates in various projects and performances. The most recent of them, a collection including works of 28 authors, is entitled Project Death. Yet the provocation is aimed at the realization of life, Ivanka Mogilska says.
"We somehow have contact with death at one time or another. Whether we personally or have a close encounter with it or it happens to a close relative, at some point everyone faces death and this leads to a reconsideration of one’s attitudes and stereotypes in life Reading the book, people see that they often get angry over minor things, that they lose precious time on trifles when they can start living in a different way. So, these are stories about life because they show how some people have experienced things and have moved forward. "
Just like any writer who needs new impressions to trigger the creative impulse, Ivanka Mogilska is a lover of travelling.
"Travelling is a great experience as it gives me a real sense of freedom. I love to walk and to visit not only museums and galleries, but also marketplaces. Wherever I go, I always go on the marketplace. I love to watch the people there, the way they communicate. I want to go anywhere, and therefore I want to return anywhere. Time is very little but travelling fills me with energy as a person and as a writer. I like Sofia and the old town of Plovdiv. I like my way of life. Sometimes it is hard but I do not believe that it would be easier elsewhere. I am very strongly connected with my family, I do not have many friends, but the few I have are really valuable. Communicating with them, our travels together, the theater – this is the magic in my life and words are my way of creating magic. "
English version by Rossitsa Petcova
