The literary collection “I will tell you about my savior” with the short stories that received awards and nominations at the International Literary Youth Competition “Whoever saves one human life saves the whole universe”, organized by the Center for Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation “Alef” has been published. The collection contains 30 stories by young authors from Bulgaria, Slovakia, Israel, Germany and Poland – a remarkable collection of stories that capture all the anxiety of the mid-20th century, World War II and the Holocaust. To meet the theme and criteria of the competition, the young storytellers write and summarize human characters and dramas, ups and downs, unravel and collect stories in which the real and the imaginary are completely equal – the world has changed dramatically, nothing is as before. For some the future is denied, for others it is a matter of morality and conscience.
In 2021 for the first time, the literary competition of Center “Alef” went beyond the borders of Bulgaria and was declared international. 180 students from five countries wrote stories on the topic “I will tell you about my savior”. Two individual juries – for Bulgarian and foreign authors judged the literary works and selected the best ones which were collected in the literary collection.
The edition contains 256 illustrated pages. It presents the literary competition since its inception in 2013 so far, focusing on the last edition, the evaluation of the jury and all those who helped realize the great idea of preserving memory and young people inspired for future literary events – diplomats, representatives of the state and local authorities, representatives of the educational structures.
Impressions of finalists who attended the award ceremony in Burgas in June this year have also been published. The ceremony invariably, after each edition of the competition, leaves unforgettable memories, creates new friendships and provokes a desire for further creative success.
The literary collection “I will tell you about my savior” is the fourth book published by Center “Alef”. They collect short stories awarded in various editions of the competition. In 2019 and 2020, the collection of short stories from the first seven editions of the competition were published and the edition was names: “Whoever saves one human life saves the whole universe”. The collections: “To love, despite…” and “I am one of them – the Bulgarian righteous among the nations” were identified by the Ministry of Education as a unique textbook for the study of history and literature and included it in the national campaign “Hour of Dignity”.
Center “Alef” hopes that its latest edition – “I will tell you about my savior” will become a valuable assistant and addition to the Bulgarian literary and historical archives.
The collection “I will tell you about my savior” was published with the financial support of the Municipality of Burgas.
