Young authors from Bulgaria and abroad will take part in the 2nd International Youth Literary Festival "Friendship - Meaning and Salvation", in Burgas from June 18 to 21, the organizers from the Alef Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation Centre said on Thursday. The festival will put the finishing strokes to the 10th installment of a school students' short-story writing competition mottoed "Whosoever Saves a Single Life, Saves an Entire Universe".
Well-known Bulgarian writers and 30 young authors from nine countries (Austria, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Bulgaria), nominated for awards in the writing competition, will take part in the festival.
The festival will be held at the Centre for Contemporary Art in the seaside city. The organizers are planning literary workshops led by writers Georgi Bardarov, Nedyalko Yordanov, Maria Kassimova-Moisset and Christopher Buxton. They will share their writing experience with future authors and will give them guidelines for a successful career.
Cinema will have a special niche at the festival.
The four-day event will mark the 80th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews during World War II and will commemorate the innocent victims of the Holocaust. It is aimed to support talented young writers, encourage their civil engagement and foster friendship and mutual understanding among young people from various countries. Documentary and feature films about the Holocaust will be screened.
An international youth conference during the festival will discuss the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews as a behaviour model for young people nowadays. Young authors will meet Bulgarian and international specialists in history and social sciences during the conference.
The winners in the literary competition will receive awards during a gala at the International Congress Centre Burgas on June 20.
The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), in partnership with the Alef Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation Centre, set itself the task to recall the events of the past and the participants in them, and to present the importance of the rescue and the rescuers. Nearly 50,000 lives were saved in Bulgaria. According to information on the website of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center, Bulgaria had 50,000 Jews before World War II and zero victims. It is the only country with zero victims.
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