Alumnus Wins BBC International Short Story Award

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Miroslav Penkov

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Miroslav Penkov, a 2009 graduate of the University of Arkansas creative writing program, was recently awarded the 2012 British Broadcasting Corporation International Short Story Award for East of the West.

East of the West is set in Bulgaria during and after the Cold War. It explores the difficulties of love, relationships and identity in a region ridden with conflict and sectarian violence. Penkov takes readers from his childhood through to present day, ruminating on the loves and losses, which both constrain and define his life.

“I wanted to write a story about those Bulgarians who, at the will of the Great Powers, were severed from our country, and who inevitably will lose, if they haven’t already, their sense of being Bulgarian,” said Penkov. “At the same time, I wanted to write a story about myself, abroad in America and in many ways alone, with a huge body of water between me and the people I love.”

Stated expectations of the contest’s judges included the use of shape; discretion and sense of delight in language; excellence of writing at a sentence-by-sentence level; subtlety, originality and delight; beautifully crafted stories that not only engage us immediately and linger afterward, but which reveal layer on layer on re-reading; and the combination of the structure of a good joke with the impact of a miniature masterpiece. Penkov’s story was chosen from 10 finalists for the £15,000 prize.

"I didn't think I'd win because I listened to the other stories and I thought they were just wonderful," said Penkov. "When I heard I'd won I completely blacked out, I almost forgot my English.”

The announcement was made live on the BBC Radio 4’s Front Row from a ceremony at the Free Word Centre in London. This was the first time since the award launched in 2006, that the judges invited authors from across the globe to enter alongside participants from the United Kingdom.

Penkov’s stories have appeared in many publications, including The Southern Review, The Sunday Times, The Best American Short Stories 2008 (edited by Salman Rushdie) and the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. He is the author of East of the West: A Country in Stories (2011), which will be published in twelve countries.

Born in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, at age four Penkov’s family moved to the capital city of Sofia where he graduated from First English Language High School. He arrived in America in 2001.

He completed a bachelor of arts in psychology in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, followed by a master of fine arts in creative writing. He currently serves as an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of North Texas and is a fiction editor for American Literary Review.

To learn more about Penkov, visit his website at www.miroslavpenkov.com/.