Bulgarian Children's Writer Petia Kokudeva Presents Book in Romanian at Bucharest Book Fair

Dimitrina Solakova, BTA correspondent Martina Gancheva

Bulgarian children’s writer Petia Kokudeva (second left) presents her book at Bookfest International Book Fair in Bucharest, Romania, June 5, 2026 (BTA Photo/Ilko Valkov)

Bucharest,

05.06.2026 15:48

(BTA)

Bulgarian children’s writer Petia Kokudeva was a guest at the Bookfest International Book Fair in Bucharest on Friday. Together with Romanian author Florin Voican, moderator Domnica Drumea - an editor at Artur Publishing House - and translator and journalist Mirela Petrescu, she presented her book "Lupo and Tumba" in its Romanian translation.

Bulgaria is this year's guest of honour at the International Book Fair in Bucharest. The event opened on June 3 and will run until June 7 at the Romexpo exhibition centre in the Romanian capital. Admission is free.

The Bulgarian writer surprised the audience by addressing them with a few sentences in Romanian. “My Romanian is practically at a baby level,” she joked, drawing applause, and then recounted how the idea for the book came about and what inspired her to create the characters.

“In a small art shop in Sofia, there was a painting of a very sad raccoon wearing a bow tie. I really liked that painting, but it cost BGN 200, which I did not have at the time. And secretly, for my birthday, my colleagues gave me that painting as a gift. I hung it up at home, and my inner desire was to make that raccoon laugh, to cheer it up, so I created a cheerful, mischievous raccoon. The most mischievous and cheerful character around me is my mother; she very often uses the word tumbak - belly in Bulgarian. My mother loves to eat and says, 'My tumbak is very happy,'" explained the Bulgarian artist.

“Obviously, the book was born in the tumba, in Petya’s mother’s belly,” Voican joked.

When asked by the moderator why she chose to write children’s books, Kokudeva replied that when she was 20, she tried writing for adults. “But everything related to presenting books for adults seemed stifling and serious to me. My debut book had the subtitle 'Children’s Poems for Adults.' And the bookstores did not know where to place my book. Then I started receiving natural and spontaneous invitations from children, and that is how my journey began. That is how I started writing for children,” the author shared.

Voican, for his part, shared that for him, fairy tales are a natural path, a way to connect with reality. “They are like an alternative world and, ultimately, a way of being,” he added.

Petya Kokudeva is a Sofia-based writer of nine books. She is the recipient of major national literary awards. “Lupo and Tumba” has been translated into six languages, including German, Persian, Croatian, and Turkish.

/RY/