Vanya Petkova

Vanya Petkova (Bulgarian: Ваня Петкова; July 10, 1944 – April 26, 2009) was a Bulgarian poet, novelist, short story writer, and translator of Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Greek descent.

Petkova is widely regarded as one of the most consequential Eastern European poets, with a total of 36 books to her name. Her poetry has been translated to 13 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Russian, Greek, Armenian, Polish, Czech, Hindi, Arabic and Japanese among other.

Petkova worked as a cultural envoy for Bulgaria's diplomatic mission to Havana, Cuba from 1974 to 1978 where she learned Spanish and received her PhD in Latin American Culture and Literature at the José Marti University, shortly after majoring in German at the University of Sofia. She also studied Arabic in Damascus, Syria, and has also worked as a diplomatic interpreter at the Bulgarian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan. Vanya Petkova has translated the works of a number of Western and Middle Eastern writers to Bulgarian and was a member of the European Writers' Council.

Nicknamed "The Amazon of Bulgarian Literature" by critics, Vanya Petkova is widely considered to be the most cosmopolitan poet in the Balkans. She was fluent in seven languages and her work has notably spread throughout five continents and was translated to thirteen languages.