© Yana Lozeva
Kamelia Panayotova is a Bulgarian novelist and poet, recognized as one of Bulgaria’s leading emerging literary voices. Her debut novel, Anne (2023), was shortlisted for the 2025 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize and several Bulgarian book prizes, receiving widespread critical acclaim for its compelling narrative. The book is forthcoming in Macedonian (Bata Press), Spanish (Caleidoscopio de Libros), and Italian (Ischìre). Her poetry collection, The Man Who Leaves (2021), was also a finalist for multiple Bulgarian literary awards. She has been recognized with numerous accolades for her work, including awards for children’s literature, essays and translation.
In 2023, Panayotova completed the Creative Writing Master Class with Georgi Gospodinov as part of The Apollonia Arts Festival in Sozopol, Bulgaria. The following year, she became an Elizabeth Kostova Foundation fellow in the 2024 edition of The Koprivshtitza Poetry Conference. That same year, she was selected as a mentor for the LOOK AT ME: Strong and Free campaign, supporting women who have survived violence. As one of seven poets involved, she guided #WomenSurvivors through the creative process of crafting poetry born from feminine strength.
In December 2023, she won The Aleksandar Vutimski Spanish Competition for Bulgarian Poetry Manuscripts, which led to the publication of her poetry collection Ausencias in Spanish by La Tortuga Búlgara (2024). Following the release of the book, she was invited to take part in the prestigious 2025 lecture on Contemporary Bulgarian Literature at the Centro de Culturas Eslavas, University of Granada.
In 2025, she was selected to take part in The Lithuania Poetry Spring Festival, where her poems were translated into Lithuanian and published in the traditional almanac of the festival. That same year, Panayotova was selected for The International Artists Residency in Rural Romania 2025, where she spent a month writing in Marin village, Sălaj County, in the northwestern region of Romania.
Her writing have been featured in The Literary Journal, Tounges.one, Ninth Letter, Círculo de Poesía, and various newspapers and online media outlets in Bulgaria, USA, Lithuania, Spain and Mexico. She contributed to the Poetry Against the War anthology (2022), an initiative dedicated to supporting the Ukraine Support and Renovation Foundation. The collection features 101 poets from Bulgaria and Ukraine. She is also part of the Horizonte sin fronteras. Poesía búlgara actual anthology (2025) published in Mexico by Círculo de Poesía , featuring 62 Bulgarian poets.
With a degree in English Philology from St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, she balances her career in IT Engineering with her passion for literature.
Panayotova is currently working on her second novel and lives in Sofia, Bulgaria, with her cat, Davina, who insists on supervising the writing process.
She is represented by Gergana Pancheva at Sofia Literary Agency.
📩 You can contact Kamelia here.
Kamelia Panayotova Instagram / Facebook
kamelia panayotova