Yordan Yovkov – Master of the short story

Yordan Yovkov was born on November 9, 1880 in the village of Zheravna in the East Balkan range. After years of service in the Reserve Officer Military School and then studies in law at the Sofia University, Yovkov turned back to Dobrudja (northeastern Bulgaria) where he became a village teacher. He was mobilized in three wars – the First and the Second Balkan War, and the World War I. In 1902 he began publishing rhymes, and in 1910 his first short story appeared. Yordan Yovkov is a world-recognized master of the short story. Some of his most popular works are Staroplaninksi legendi (Balkan Legends); Vecheri v Antimovskia han (Evenings at the Antimov's Inn); Zhensko sartse (Woman’s Heart), and the novels Chiflikut krai granitsata (The Farm by the Frontier) and Ako mozheha da govoryat (If They Could Speak), in which the author describes the day of the common man of the village in Dobrudja. Yovkov became popular with his plays as well, some of the most touching ones being Albena and Boryana. Yovkov's experiences as a military officer inspired some of his best short stories as those included in the Zemlyatsi (Fellow Countrymen) collection. He died on October 15, 1937 in Plovdiv. Yovkov’s works have been translated into over 37 languages throughout the world.