Marin Bodakov was a Bulgarian poet, essayist, critic, journalist and editor who made significant contributions to the Bulgarian literary community, both with his recognizable poetic style and with his long-term service to the literary life of the country.
Born in the town of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria on the 28th of April, 1971, Marin studied Bulgarian Philology at St. Kliment Okhridski University in Sofia, where he earned a Ph.D. and taught creative writing to several generations of young writers. Between 2000 and 2018, Marin was a book review columnist in the national journal Kultura. His column, "Walking on Letters," could be called a chronicle of the publications and releases of notable books in Bulgaria during this time period.
Marin Bodakov is the author of nine volumes of poetry, most recently The Gallery of the Heart: Collected Poems, published jointly by DA and Tochitsa in 2022. His book, Naïve Art won the Ivan Nikolov national book award for 2012. In 2014 he received the Knight of the Book Prize from The Association of the Bulgarian Book. In 2021 and 2022 he was given two posthumous awards for his cumulative contributions to the Bulgarian literary environment.
He is survived by his wife, translator, writer and publisher Zornitsa Hristova, and their two daughters.
