Nikola Petrov – one of the journalists of Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) and Novinite.bg – has won first prize at the major Bulgarian Youth Poetry Contest "Veselin Hanchev"!

Our colleague Nikola has impressed the jury in the southern Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora with his poem "Vazheigrach", i.e. "Tightrope Walker" (available in Bulgarian HERE).

Nikola Petrov, who is 24 and a native of Sofia, and holds a degree in Scandinavian Studies from Sofia University, received the unique "Golden Egg" award of the "Veselin Hanchev" Youth Poetry Contest at a ceremony in the city of Stara Zagora; as part of his award, the organizers of the contest will publish his first book of poetry.

However, this year's first prize at the poetry competition is not the first for Nikola Petrov, who already won a third prize from the prestigious contest in 2010.

22-year-old Dimitar Manolov from Plovdiv and 20-year-old Nadezhda Moskovska from Sofia have both been granted the second prize at the 2011 edition of the Bulgarian youth poetry contest, and 19-year-old Dimitar Ganev from Sofia received third prize. 11 more young Bulgarian poets were also awarded.

The record 1 400 poems by a total of 153 authors took part in the 28th edition of the competition named after renowned Bulgarian poet Veselin Hanchev. The prizes were handed out at a ceremony at the Ancient Street at Stara Zagora's Regional History Museum.

Poets Mariya Kalinova, Yordanka Beleva, and Ivan Landzhev took part in the jury that evaluated the works of the young Bulgarian poets. The 2011 edition of the contest will be completed at the Bacho Kiro Cultural Club in Sofia on November 11, 2011.

Congratulations, Nikola! We wish you many more awards and published books of your poetry!