Rene Karabash is the pen name of Irena Ivanova (1989) – a writer, a scriptwriter, a theatre director and an actress. Her poems have been published in various literary anthologies around the world. She is the founder of The Rabbit Hole — an academy for creative writing, which enrolls as instructors some of the most prominent writers, screenwriters and playwrights in the country.
The boy of stone who stopped peeing in the fountain
you're not 50
and you're not 26
I know you
you are the boy of stone
who stopped peeing in the fountain
jumping from the rocks to get into a fight
that's who you were
even before you chose your bud
before you lay down in the womb
long before you had a daughter
chose to make your excuses
when they trod on you
to raise your blood pressure while
the damsels fainted
breathlessly in cinema halls
you are not 50 and you are not 26
I know you
precisely at this moment
you have no age
now put down the pencil and leave
take a pee in the fountain
jump from the rocks
tread on someone kick them
leave in the middle of the screening
curse the director of this soppy film
go home
now jump through the window
like a victor
like someone
who doesn't live on the first floor
The blue bench
born in the wrong era
registered in maternity without a name
she graduates from the state university
in Mass Departures with honours
after which she writes
'The Book of Abandonment'
her fears are translated into many languages
after the book launch the author disappears without a trace
some say they've seen her removing the typos from her book
others completely deny such a book exists
others again explain her disappearance by her academic qualification
from which she learned the most important thing:
departure happens only once
on a completely ordinary day
birds sings cars fly by
and nobody notices
the empty half of a blue bench in the park
My mother went round the world
she's been to Paris
strolled around
the sculpture garden
she's been to Copenhagen
sat
on the rock of the lonely mermaid
she's been to Puerto Rico
disappeared
into the Bermuda Triangle
I gave my mother so many magnets
she often rearranges them
in the shape of a house
Translated from the Bulgarian by Tom Phillips
Rene Karabash is the pen name of Irena Ivanova (1989) – a writer, a scriptwriter, a theatre director and an actress. For her leading role in Godless, a film by Ralitza Petrova, she won a number of Best Actress awards at prestigious European festivals: a Silver Leopard at Locarno, The Heart of Sarajevo, an Aluminium Horse in Stockholm and a Golden Rose in Varna. Her first poetic book, Hips and Moths, had launches in London, the University of Cambridge and in Prague. Her poems have been published in various literary anthologies around the world. She is the founder of The Rabbit Hole — an academy for creative writing, which enrolls as instructors some of the most prominent writers, screenwriters and playwrights in the country. Her debut novel She Who Remains won the prestigious Elias Canetti Literary Award, a nomination for Novel of the Year from 13 Centuries Bulgaria and a nomination for the Peroto national literary award. It was published in 2021 in Egypt by Sefsafa Culture & Publishing. Her most recent book with short prose, Letters of Omar to his Future Wife, has become a major bestseller. Rene Karabash also works as a theatre director and a playwright. She is currently working as a scriptwriter of a new movie series for the Bulgarian National Television.
The book “Black Sea Upanishad” recounts the past three years of the globe-trotting writer and poet’s life. Here we find him a happy hermit in Sozopol.
Where the writer sees clear signs that the peripheral languages are becoming more central
The writer of childhood among library shelves, reading in grandma's yard and the pinnacle of fiction
