Georgi Parushev (Георги Парушев, 1950-2018) was born in Komluka, the old Romani neighbourhood of the Bulgarian town of Sliven. He was a member of the local Romani community known as Baychari, who speak the Drindari dialect: (https://perma.cc/KGC2-MMQX).

The Sliven Romani mahalla has been well integrated into the local community since the industrialisation of the 19th century and the educational level of the local Roma was always comparable to that of the majority population. Thus, the university education that Georgi and his wife received was the rule rather than the exception among the local Roma.

Parushev started publishing journalistic articles and poetry in various periodicals in Socialist Bulgaria (1945–89), but his book manuscripts were rejected by the state-owned publishers because of the ‘Gypsy’ topics with which they dealt. After the democratic transition, Parushev established and edited the Romani journal Житан [Gitanes], published two poetry collections and one novel in 2007. He thereby became the only published Balkan Romani novelist.

Georgi Parushev wrote in Bulgarian while his poetry has been translated into and published in Russian, English, French and Romani. He was the editor of the only anthology to date of Bulgarian Romani writers. Parushev died 2018 in Sofia (Bulgaria).

Selected bibliography

Parushev, Georgi (ed.) 2002. Антология на ромската поезия. Antologija e romane poezijake. Anthology of Roma Poetry. София: Библиотека Житан [Sofia.Biblioteka Žitan].

Парушев, Георги. 2003. Лудница за цигани. София: Световит. [Parushev, Georgi.2003.Ludnica za cigani. Sofia: Svetovit.]

Парушев, Георги. 2007. Хамали на илюзии. София: Български писател. [Parushev, Georgi. 2007. Hamali na iljuzii. Sofia: Bălgarski pisatel]