Poet Profile

Iliyana Stoyanova

Iliyana Stoyanova lives in England. She is a poet, editor and translator, and holds a PhD in Theology. She is the Living Legacies Editor at the Living Haiku Anthology, Communications Officer and BHS Awards Administrator at the British Haiku Society, Photo Editor at Haikupedia, and Former Secretary of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (2017-2020). Iliyana is also a member of Haiku Club-Plovdiv, The London Haiku Group and Tanka Society of America.
Her first book Ostrovityansko Haiku / Островитянско хайку (Shimajin Haiku) with experimental photo haiga was published in Bulgaria in 2010. In 2019 Iliyana edited and published Peonies / Божури, a bilingual anthology by 57 women poets from 24 countries around the world. In 2020 together with Frank Williams she published the bilingual haiku collection Gemini Moon / Луната на Близнаците. Her haiku and other poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, and won several international awards. Iliyana enjoys photography, watercolour painting, travelling, and reading.

Awards and Other Honors:

Runner-up, Museum of Haiku Literature Award - Blithe Spirit 28.4 (November 2018); European Top 100 most creative haiku authors in 2018; European Top 100 most creative haiku authors (2017); Distinction, 5th National Haiku and Tanka Contest by the Bulgarian Haiku Union [tanka section] (December 2017); Runner-up, Museum of Haiku Literature Award – Blithe Spirit (November 2017); Third Prize, 22nd “Kusamakura” International Haiku Competition (November 18, 2017); Honourable Mention, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (2017); European Top 100 most creative haiku authors, (2016); Second Place, 16th edition of the European Quarterly Kukai (December 2016); Overall Performance Award, 4th National Haiku Contest by the Bulgarian Haiku Union – ‘Snow Angels’ (December 2016); International Sakura Award, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (2016); Honourable Mention at the Contest “My haiku about Sofia” (June 2016); European Top 100 most creative haiku authors (2015); Runner-up, The Skylark's Nest, Skylark 3:2 (Winter 2015); First Place, Second Bulgarian Kukai (December 2015); Distinction, 3rd National Haiku Contest by the Bulgarian Haiku Union (December 2015); Honourable Mention, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (2015); First Place, 10th edition of the European Quarterly Kukai (June 2015); Third Place, First Bulgarian Kukai (June 2015); Distinction, 8th National Contest for Haiku by the Haiku Club Sofia (2015); Distinction, Second National Haiku Contest by the Bulgarian Haiku Union (December 2014).

Books Published:

Ostrovityansko Haiku / Островитянско хайку (Maria Arabadjieva, Sofia, 2010); Ekphrasis, BHS Members' Anthology 2017, ed. Iliyana Stoyanova (Direct Services Ltd., Sofia, 2017); Peonies / Божури, ed. Iliyana Stoyanova (Direct Services Ltd., Sofia, 2019); where silence becomes song, International Haiku Conference Anthology - St Albans, UK, British Haiku Society, 2019, ed. Iliyana Stoyanova and David Bingham; Harmony within Diversity: A collection of papers delivered at the International Haiku Conference in St Albans, UK, British Haiku Society, 2019, ed. Iliyana Stoyanova, David Bingham and Colin Blundell; Gemini Moon / Луната на Близнаците, Iliyana Stoyanova and Frank Williams (London, 2020); Temple, BHS Members' Anthology 2021, ed. Iliyana Stoyanova (Direct Services Ltd., Sofia, 2021).

cloudless sunset
across the horizon
a necklace of birds

mountain village
the endless solitude
of a lark's song

distant thunder
a line of footprints still
escaping the waves

night sky
the orange tree
full of sunsets

swans and clouds
swimming in the lake
dusk

broken wings
snuggled in the doorway
a fallen angel

Credits:

"cloudless sunset" - Third Prize, 22nd “Kusamakura” International Haiku Competition (November 18, 2017); "distant thunder" - First Place, 10th edition of the European Quarterly Kukai (June 2015); "swans and clouds" - Островитянско хайку / Shimajin Haiku (Maria Arabadjieva, Sofia, 2010); Priyateli v poeziyata / Friends in Poetry, part 1 (Pleven, 2012); The Living Haiku Anthology, 2014); "mountain village" - Blithe Spirit 27.3 (November 2017); Runner-up, Museum of Haiku Literature Award [Selected by Kohjin Sakamoto]; "night sky" - Distinction, 8th National Contest for Haiku by the Haiku Club Sofia (2015); "broken wings" - Blithe Spirit 28.1 (2018).