The Hagiographer is a historical fiction novel about the 9th century philosopher who invented the Glagolitic alphabet and his rogue biographer.



I was riding the New York City subway when I ran into my friend Vlada Tomova, who runs a Bulgarian woman's choir. She was with the Bulgarian writer Stefan Kisyov and his family, on the way back from an event at the Bulgarian embassy that celebrated the publication of his book The Hagiographer.

To give family a little taste of New York, Vlada was taking them to Caffe Reggio in the West Village. I ended up tagging along so that I could hear more about Stefan's novel, a historical fiction story, set partly in Rome, about the person who created the Glagolitic alphabet, the first Slavonic alphabet.

Even though The Hagiographer is not yet available in English, I encouraged Stefan to sit down for an interview so that I could learn more about what drew him to write a book about the birth of an alphabet. He graciously agreed to give his first ever interview in English.

I also went shopping for at a mall in Brooklyn with Stefan and his daughter Maria so she could buy some Converse sneakers. Maria taught me a Bulgarian saying that will be available on Modo di Bere's social media pages. 

Stefan Kisyov was born in 1963 in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, where he completed his secondary education at the local French high school. He worked as an electrician, administrator in a hotel on the Black Sea coast, stage worker at the Stara Zagora Opera. He studied at the Plovdiv and Sofia Universities and the Sorbonne in Paris, and was a freelance journalist in several capital newspapers. He is the author of 50-60 stories, the novels "Jukebox", "Nothing Anywhere", "Don't Be a Somnambulist". For "The Executioner", in 2004, he received the grand prize of the "VIK" Foundation for Bulgarian Novel of the Year.

Order the English translation of Stefan’s book The Executioner directly from the author: kissiov@abv.bg

Stefan Kisyov's facebook page: facebook.com/stefan.kisyov

Stefan's publisher: erabooks.net (use your browser's translate function as needed)

Hear some Bulgarian folk music from Vlada Tomova's Yasna Voices Women's Choir: instagram.com/yasnavoices

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Music composed by Ersilia Prosperi for the band Ou: www.oumusic.bandcamp.com

Buy their latest album at https://folderol.it/ou/

This episode was produced and recorded by Rose Thomas Bannister

Video and audio edited by Giulia Àlvarez-Katz

Audio assistance by Steve Silverstein