Portrait
Edward Vick wants to bring Bulgarian literature to a wider public
BY REGINE SEIPEL

Offenbach – It was originally a marketing idea: Edward Vick wanted to publicise a translation office he opened in Sofia in 2001. Since then, it has become something of a crusade. "I would like to promote Bulgarian literature ", says the businessman based in Offenbach. To do so, he established a foundation which in 2006 awarded the third Vick Prize to a Bulgarian author. According to Vick, the EUR 5,000 prize is now well-established in Bulgaria. The selection procedure and the award ceremony, attracting artists and representatives from politics, have added to the popularity of the country’s burgeoning literature movement. Now Vick would like to draw the attention of the English-speaking world to the works of Bulgarian writers. For this reason, the prize also includes a translation of the novel into English.

But none of the three prize winners has as yet found a foreign publisher. "And yet there is movement on the literary scene", enthuses Vick. November’s award ceremony in Sofia was attended by over 1,000 guests and reported live in the evening news. Now that the six short-listed authors have received media attention, their publication figures are on the increase. However, they are still far too low. "Print runs between 500 and 1,000 are already nearly bestsellers”, says Vick. This is due partly to the limited range of books on offer and partly to low demand. "Bulgarians read far less", is how Vick sees it. With one book, an author earns the equivalent of EUR 100. "The situation is catastrophic", he states. The result is that ambitious writers become demoralised. "Since it is not possible to live from writing, talent lies dormant."

Vick wants to help develop a vibrant literary scene. Thus, this year’s winner, Boyan Biolchev, who is also the Chancellor of Sofia University, donated his prize money to young authors, stating "I want to add momentum" 48-year old Vick, resident in Offenbach since 1991, is certainly not lacking in entrepreneurial spirit. As his career testifies:

Born in Canada and brought up in England, he studied Literature, Theatre and Teaching in Cambridge, and organised tours as a tour manager before becoming an executive in the tourism industry. With the tourism business declining at the beginning of the 1990s, Vick used his language skills to establish his own company. From a one-man office at home, the business has now grown into a company with 43 employees, just under EUR 3 million annual sales and eight branches in five countries. The company is headquartered in Luisenstrasse, Offenbach. Vick, who speaks English, German, French and Italian, enjoys living in Offenbach. He likes the short distance between home and office, but also travels a lot. He travels eight times a year to Sofia, but is not involved in selecting the candidates for the Vick Prize. The Prize’s committee includes representatives from academia, business, culture and media who select a new jury each year, ruling out the possibility of an old boy network being formed. In April, this jury then goes though the Bulgarian novels published during the previous year – approximately 70 each year - and draws up a shortlist.

According to the Chairman of the Foundation, the Vick Prize has become the most important of approximately ten literature prizes in Bulgaria. In a country which has to cope with widespread corruption, the fact that a foreigner is involved creates a high cachet for the award. But Vick himself does not exaggerate his own importance. "I have a manager who has a love of literature and a good PR agency,” he says. "I am only a catalyst."

Frankfurter Rundschau (www.fr-online.de)