site.btaWriter Deyan Enev Wins Aleko International Short Story Competition

Bulgarian writer Deyan Enev is this year’s winner of the Aleko International Short Story Competition, organized annually by the Municipality of Svishtov to mark the birthday of writer Aleko Konstantinov, Tanya Likova, Executive Director of the Aleko Konstantinov International Foundation, told BTA. The competition is part of the Aleko Days 2026 initiative, which will take place on 12–13 January in Svishtov.

Enev won for his story “The Black Panther”, selected by a jury chaired by Associate Professor Yordan Eftimov, with members including Mihail Veshim, editor-in-chief of Sturshel newspaper; Rumen Belchev, publisher; Tanya Likova; and Veselina Spasova, representatives of the Municipality of Svishtov and the Aleko Konstantinov International Foundation. The competition received dozens of entries from countries including Romania, Poland, Serbia, North Macedonia, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova, Italy, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Brazil, Armenia, the Czech Republic, and Albania.

The results of the competition will be officially announced on January 13, 2026.

At the end of January, the organizers of the competition will announce a call for submissions for next year.

Deyan Enev was born on August 11, 1960 in Sofia. He has worked as a painter at the Film Center, a night orderly, a press operator at a military factory, and a teacher. He has also worked as a journalist for newspapers including Maritsa, Novinar, Express, Otechestven Front, Sega, and Monitor, publishing over 2,000 pieces, including interviews, reports, articles and essays. He has published fifteen books, including multiple short story collections. His works include Something to Read on the Night Train (1987), which won the Southern Spring Debut Book Award; Horse Gospel (1992); Manhunter (1994), awarded the Annual Fiction Prize by Hristo Botev Publishing House and later translated into Norwegian; The Rooster’s Slaughter (1997); Heads or Tails (2000), winner of the Hristo G. Ganov National Prize for Bulgarian Fiction and the Annual Literary Award of the Union of Bulgarian Writers; Lord, Have Mercy (2004), which won the Helikon Grand Prize for New Bulgarian Prose; Everyone on the Bow of the Boat (2005); A Town Called Mendocino (2009), which won the Milos Ziapkov National Literary Award and was nominated for the Helikon Prize; 7 Christmas Stories (2009); The Little Bulgarian from Alaska. Sofia Stories (2011); Hemingway’s Grandson (2013); and The Little Home Church. Contemporary Parables (2014).

Last year’s Aleko International Short Humorous Story Competition winner was Serbian writer Bojan Ljubenovic.