Bio

Angela Rodel is a literary translator who holds degrees from Yale and UCLA in linguistics and ethnomusicology. Eight Bulgarian novels in her translation have been published in the U.S. and U.K., and shorter works have appeared in McSweeney’s, Two Lines, Ploughshares, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. She has received NEA and PEN translation grants. Her translation of Georgi Gospodinov’s Physics of Sorrow won the 2016 AATSEEL Prize for Literary Translation, and her translation of his novel Time Shelter made the New Yorker’s list of “Best Books of 2022.” A two-time Fulbright scholar, she now lives in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she serves as executive director of the Bulgarian-American Fulbright Commission.

Project Description

To support the translation from the Bulgarian of the novel The Case of Cem by Vera Mutafchieva. Mutafchieva (1929-2009) was one of the most influential Bulgarian writers of the 20th century and the most prominent female novelist in the Bulgarian canon. She is known for her intricate historical novels that offer nuanced insight into the complex layers of Balkan history, with Slavic, Ottoman, and Byzantine Greek threads. Published in 1967 and one of her most popular of the 35 books that she wrote, The Case of Cem tells the story of a medieval young prince in exile and is presented as a collection of historical figures offering depositions before a court.