By Dimitar Tsekov | Executive director
When the future speaks through young voices
(Introduction to the booklet with the works of the BCWC2026 winners)
This booklet brings together the winning works of the 16th Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition, created by students who participated in the competition. They are young writers with something important to say—and, perhaps most impressively, they are not afraid to say it in their own way. Their stories and poems reveal remarkable imagination, emotional sensitivity and a willingness to explore questions that concern all of us. Behind the playful ideas and fantastical worlds lies a thoughtful generation that is already trying to understand the world it is about to inherit.
What makes this collection so captivating is its extraordinary variety. The young authors take seemingly simple prompts and transform them into unexpected worlds: clouds can dream, umbrellas can have a purpose, shadows can leave us, the future can knock on the door, and artificial intelligence can discover the meaning of forgetting. ‘’Nothing is quite what it seems.” Ordinary objects become characters; fantasy becomes a way of talking about very real human experiences.
Again and again, the works return to themes of friendship, loneliness, belonging, courage, freedom and choice. The writers explore what it means to be different, to be misunderstood, to face fear or to find the strength to step outside the familiar. Some approach these questions with humour and playfulness; others with tenderness or striking psychological depth. There is also a clear awareness of the challenges of contemporary life—from bullying and social pressure to our complicated relationship with technology and artificial intelligence.
Perhaps the most impressive quality of the collection is the emotional maturity of many of the works. These young people write not only about what happens, but about what it feels like. They are interested in the invisible things: the words that remain with us, the fears we hide, the choices we postpone, the memories we wish we could forget. Even when the stories enter worlds of fantasy, they remain deeply human.
There is also a wonderful sense of creative courage. The writers do not always choose the obvious ending or the safest idea. They experiment with perspective, give voices to unexpected characters, play with reality and imagination, and sometimes leave us with more questions than answers. And that is precisely what good literature does.
As the students grow older throughout the collection, their worlds seem to grow with them. The playful imagination of the younger writers gradually gives way to deeper reflections on identity, responsibility, technology, truth and the future. Yet the fundamental impulse remains the same: to ask “What if?” and then dare to follow the answer wherever it leads.
Reading these works, one cannot help wondering what these young writers will create in five, ten or twenty years. Some may become authors; others may follow entirely different paths. But these pages capture something unique—a moment when their voices are still becoming, when imagination has no boundaries and when the future is not yet written.
And perhaps that is the greatest gift of this booklet.
It allows us to hear the future before it arrives.
We invite you to open it and start reading: https://www.creativewriting-bg.com/assets/Booklet-2026.pdf
By Dimitar Tsekov | Executive director
By Dimitar Tsekov | Executive Director
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
