IAS CEU Mourns the Loss of its Former Fellow Alek Popov

It is with an extremely heavy heart that the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University must share the sad news of the loss of our esteemed and loved former fellow Alek Popov. Alek was a Writer in Residence at IAS CEU in 2019-2020, while he was working on his last novel, Mission Turan.

As a renowned writer, he was the author of many internationally acclaimed novels: Mission London, The Black Box, The Palaveev Sisters in the Storm of History, The Palaveev Sisters on the Road to the New World; and a collection of essays The Radical Thinker’s Companion, as well as a series of short story collections, including Advanced Level, Transition Myths, Body Weeds, etc. He was among the most translated and read Bulgarian writers with more than 40 books published abroad, his novel Mission London has been translated into 16 languages. In addition, Alek was the co-author of the screenplay of the film Mission London, as well as of several plays staged nationally and internationally. He has won a number of literary prizes, including: the Helikon Award for New Bulgarian Prose (2002, 2013); the National Drama Award Ivan Radoev; the Elias Canetti Prize, the Helicon Flower for the best-selling book of 2007 and 2013, the British Pen Center Award for Literature in Translation, the ProzaBalkan Award for Contribution to Balkan Literature (2019). Alek Popov was a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Department of Arts.

Alek`s extraordinary talent and wonderful personality will be deeply missed, the Institute for Advanced Study at CEU will keep his memory alive.