April 26, 2026 | Sunday | 1:00 p.m.

 

Discussion Workshop for Students

Dystopia and Resistance

Host: Vladimir Poleganov

 

Participants aged 14 to 19

⇢ Registration required: HERE 

Submit by:

24 April 2026

The form may close earlier if there are too many applications for the workshop.

 

For the first time, the Reading Sofia Foundation is organizing a student workshop during the Literary Talks Sofia festival. It will be dedicated to the event’s theme – “Dystopia and Resistance” – which participants will discuss through literature and books suggested by them, together with writer, translator, screenwriter, and lecturer Vladimir Poleganov.

It is said that at some point dystopia has turned from a warning into a promise of the future. How true is this? Is the “darkening” of reality and its transformation into a dystopian world inevitable, or do we think so because it is harder for us to imagine what the path toward a brighter tomorrow might look like? What are the possible worlds of the future? What does resistance against the emerging dystopia consist of? Is this struggle personal, or something we can only address as a community?

Thinking about art does not have to be limited or confined to “single correct answers,” which are often required in Bulgarian education. On the contrary, discussing literature requires courage, arguments, and freedom of expression. Therefore, in this discussion format, the floor will be given to the participants. Everyone can choose a book they like and would like to bring into the conversation. The genre framework is very broad – it may include dystopian short stories and novels, science fiction, fantasy, comics, graphic novels, etc.

Like a literary club, this workshop is primarily dedicated to the attempt to speak, to question, to doubt, and to express positions. It does not aim for specific results, but rather for meaningful time spent in conversation about the books that move us.

The event is aimed at high school students.

The workshop is free of charge, with prior registration HERE.

 

More about Vladimir Poleganov

 

Vladimir Poleganov is a Bulgarian writer, screenwriter, and translator from English. He graduated in clinical psychology and creative writing from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski.” He teaches creative writing in the “Digital Media and Video Games” MA program at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, and – together with Alexander Popov and Emanuil Tomov – teaches the “Science Fiction” course in the “English Philology” program at the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology at Sofia University. Since 2020, he has been part of the teaching team of the summer creative writing school Between the Lines at the University of Iowa, USA. He is the author of one short story collection – “The Deconstruction of Thomas S.” – and the novel “The Other Dream.” He is part of the editorial team of the critical anthology “Voices of Bulgarian Diabolism” and editor of the online magazines “Free Poetic Society” and “Gathering of Troubadours.” His short stories have been published in numerous Bulgarian and English-language magazines and anthologies. The story “The Well” won second prize in the National Short Story Competition “Rashko Sugarev,” and “The Other Dream” received the “Helikon” award. “The Birds” was included in the anthology Best European Fiction by Dalkey Archive Press. In 2020, he received the Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Union of Bulgarian Translators for his translation of George Saunders’ novel “Lincoln in the Bardo.” His screenwriting work includes the series “Undercover,” the shows “Denis and Friends,” and “The Nikolaos Tsitiridis Show,” among others.