About the Author (and the Person)
First and foremost: I consider myself something I call a “professional amateur.”
But what’s the point of such a claim — aside from the obvious wordplay?
A professional amateur is someone who, not by accident but by choice, has opted for a life of constant experimentation and reinvention. Someone who doesn’t believe in (or isn’t capable of) slow, linear improvement in a single field. Someone often accused of scattering his energy in a hundred directions — when in fact, his true calling is... Zlatko Enev.
A person whose only real “profession” is the endless pursuit of the New — the Holy Land, the Holy Grail. Occasionally, he impresses others with something he’s done, something deemed extraordinary. But right then, his inner voice whispers: it’s time to move on.
He’s been rich. He’s been poor. A caring father (and at times a tender lover), yet pathologically incapable of chasing anything but his own dream. Life, for him, is a perpetual string of new beginnings — the small ones, constantly; the big ones, every ten years or so. Always busy as a bee. He’s created many things (mostly books, not only his own), but the terror of boredom still haunts him with the same force it held in childhood.
He knows this probably rules out any shot at grand success. But hey — those who know for sure are already dead, so…
“And so it goes,” as another professional amateur — Kurt Vonnegut — once put it.
But enough of that.
Here are the facts, for those who prefer facts to dreams:
Born in Preslav, Bulgaria, in 1961. Studied philosophy at Sofia University in the 1980s. Learned several languages, defended a PhD in 1989. Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, moved to Berlin.
Started a family and a professional life — in an entirely new field: book layout and modern publishing technology. Built, from scratch, the production pipeline of a small academic publishing house. Left the company to launch a solo business in 1995. Earned decent money, got bored, and set off in countless new directions in search of… something. Became a decent chess player. At the peak of personal and professional burnout, finally began fulfilling a half-forgotten dream — to become a writer.
Wrote three (beautiful) books for children and adults. Won awards, but never gained wide popularity, even in his home country. Lost most of his earnings during the dot-com crash of the early 2000s. Shortly after, lost his marriage — but kept his children. Kept writing. Founded the online journal Liberal Review, now widely seen as the leading intellectual platform in the Bulgarian internet.
Published four more books — sharply critical of his homeland and its peculiarities — which made him known, but not exactly beloved, in Bulgaria.
Still going.
