Kapka Kassabova

Kapka Kassabova is a poet, essayist and travel writer who was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1973. After leaving Bulgaria as a teenager and spending her twenties in New Zealand, she now lives in the Scottish Highlands.

The Australian journalist Clive James has said of her: “In the suitcase that she has mentally lived out of since she was a little girl, Kapka Kassabova has brought the turbulent memories of 20th century European history with her to New Zealand, where she recollects bad dreams in comparative tranquillity, and always with the phrasing of a born musician.” In 2008, Kassabova published the memoir 'Street Without a Name' which The Guardian newspaper called a "profound meditation on the depth of change triggered by the events of 1989 throughout eastern Europe". In 2011, she published the tango book 'Twelve Minutes of Love' which was described by the Independent as "an exquisitely crafted blend of travelogue, memoir, dance history, and some seriously good writing on the human condition."

Books

 * All Roads Lead to the Sea, Auckland University Press, 1997;
 * Dismemberment, Auckland University Press, 1998;
 * Reconnaissance, Penguin NZ, 1999;
 * Love in the Land of Midas, Penguin NZ 2001/ Ciela, BG 2011;
 * Someone Else's Life, Bloodaxe, 2003;
 * photographic essay by Marti Friedlander of the poem Shadows and Light in Marti Friedlander. Fogarty Hojsgaard Entwistle Galleries, Ausckland, New Zealand 2007;
 * Geography for the Lost, Bloodaxe, 2007;
 * Street Without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria(2008) Portobello UK; Penguin NZ; Ciela BG; Skyhorse USA;
 * Villa Pacifica, Penguin NZ, 2010/ Alma Books UK, 2011/ Ediciones-B Mexico, 2012
 * Twelve Minutes of Love: a tango story, Portobello, 2011;