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Valentina Istatkova
book editor · translator
I edit books. I translate from English and Spanish. I write about what goes missing on the way between two languages.
- BG
- EN
- ES
- IT
- FR
- NAP
- MK
- ★ reading since she was small and still has not stopped
- ★ born in Sofia, still in Sofia
- ★ seven languages, two of them working
- ★ favourite flower: lantana
- ★ favourite film: Into the Wild
- ★ virgo, which explains the editing
- ★ one day, Mexico
Selected
all writing →- Списание VIP17 Aug 2022
The books nobody will read until 2113
Every year one writer hands over a manuscript that nobody alive today will read. In 2114 they will fell the spruces in a Norwegian forest, and a hundred stories will be published all at once.
- books
- culture
- nature
- Списание VIP9 Aug 2022
Little-known Oaxaca and its beautiful turtles
Thirty years ago the sand at Mazunte was stained with blood and the water ran red. Today that same beach is one of the five largest turtle nesting sites on earth — and that did not happen by itself.
- nature
- travel
- Литературен вестник30 Apr 2025
Labatut's metaphysical delirium among the terrifying colours
Labatut does not want fame chasing him, and I will respect that — so I will speak only of his words. Of Prussian blue, of the poisoned wells in North Africa, and of the terrifying greenery that will one day smother us all.
- books
- culture
- science
- Списание VIP6 Sept 2022
Dialects in adapted cinema
Dialect is the first thing lost in translation, and the first thing lost in editing. I followed its trail through Ferrante and through Ruskov’s “Elevation” — and in both cases the film swallowed it.
- language
- books
- culture
- Литературен вестник5 Mar 2025
Between dream and reality: the literary cosmos of Vladimir Poleganov
The stories feel like pieces of a larger mosaic the reader has to assemble alone — and soon senses they never will.
- books
- culture
- Литературен вестник29 Oct 2025
Attempts at river-forming
The lives of these characters are marked by limits, by a routine cruelty the Argentine setting makes unavoidable.
- books
- culture
- 10te.bg21 Oct 2024
10 interesting facts about Latin America
Mexico City sinks twenty-five centimetres a year, and in Paraguay duelling is legal so long as both of you are registered blood donors. Ten things I did not know and can no longer forget.
- travel
- culture
- language