- In Archive
- 2015-01-31 20:04:35
- 695 Views
The Panitza Library and the AUBG Literary Society hosted a book presentation of the poetic journal “Prophetikon” by Professor Filitsa Mullen on Jan. 28. At 7.30 p.m. many faculty members, students and friends gathered in order to honor the work of Prof. Mullen. “Prophetikon” is a poetic journal of 33 poems, published originally in English and also translated in Bulgarian by Lyubomir Terziev, an adjunct assistant professor at AUBG.
[caption id="attachment_24817" align="alignleft" width="285"]
Prof. Terziev and Prof. Mullen.[/caption]
Prof. Filitsa Mullen, Assistant Professor of Writing and Literature at AUBG, is also an expert in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval literature, British Romantic poetry, Balkan literature, and academic writing. Others of her poems and short stories have been published in print and online, but this is her first book of poems.
The event was opened by Vladimir Levchev, Assistant Professor at the Arts, Languages, and Literature Department at AUBG. A poet himself, Prof.Levchev introduced the main structure and the topics of the poetic journal “Prophetikon”. After that, the word was given to the author of the book – Prof. Filitsa Mullen.
She thanked all of her colleagues, students and the library staff, who were present at the event and were her inspiration to write the book. Prof.Mullen herself read to the public several of her poems and told the stories behind each one of them. As she explained, each of her works is dedicated to some past memory, experience or connection that she had with particular places or time periods. As a translator of the book into Bulgarian, Prof. Terziev also read several of his personal favorite poems in the journal, but in Bulgarian. In this way, the audience was able to enjoy the poems in both languages. Prof. Mullen is also working to expand the translation of her works in Greek language.
After the end of the readings, the audience was invited to ask questions and to buy a copy of the author's book, together with private autograph by Prof. Mullen.
AUBG Daily managed to asked the author several questions about the book:
Could you tell us the story behind the name of the book?
As far as I can remember, it came with the first poem that I wrote. I was on leave that year, and I was spending most of it in Greece, but then I came back to Blagoevgrad to visit my husband. I was playing with my son and the evening light was coming in and there were certain shadows on the wall, and the poem just came to me, and I wrote it down. I said to myself, “Well, it sounds almost like a prophecy.“ And then I decided to write a whole book of it. Of course, it is not prophetic in the traditional sense, because for me this idea of time is a more fluid concept, because past, present, and future in my mind kind of co-exist.
Why exactly 33 pieces? In religion, in music culture this number has its symbol – what does it mean to you?
For me is the same. That’s what I said – it is a very cliché thing, so I am going to sit down and write 33 poems. All numbers have their numerological significance, and as I was in this prophetic mood, I decided to use that numerological signification, as well.
Where do you take your inspiration from? Is it entirely on your own experience?
Yes. I do not know how it is with other people, but I think it is the same. I believe that in our minds we constantly have images, pictures that are either connected to a memory or to things that we see now. So, sometimes my poems are based on memories that are very intensive for some reason and they crop up. I think I always have them in my mind, and then all of a sudden they become poems, and then they start to have different dimension and different essence. So, I believe that poems in my case come from very concrete images or events and then the imagination takes over or my desires, my preconceptions, my preoccupations, they take over and then these images are transformed in something more abstract, something more significant in some way that I believe can have significance for other people as well.
You mentioned that you are much related to the history of the places that you have been to, why is that so?
Yes, places are very significant to me. I love places. Sometimes I think I love places more than I love people, but I don’t think it is true, depends on my mood. I love the Earth, and I am a very earthy person. I love what we do to space as a people, even though it may not be good, but still it is what it is, so we should accept it as a reality. I love the smells, the sights, the sounds, the associations that a place brings. For example, a lot of my poems have to do with where I have grown up, because I feel like I kind of belong to that place. It means a lot to me to be there, when I go back I feel calmer, I feel more creative, I feel more connected to myself.
Is that the message which you would like to convey with your poems – the significance of places and memories?
Not necessarily. The importance of places- yes - but not necessarily that we have to be connected to places. I think that this happens anyway to certain degree to all people. It is something very indescribable I think, but it is somehow that places give us our own identity.
Do you plan to continue writing and publishing?
Yes, I am very excited about it. I am working on all types of things. When I was on a Sabbatical last spring, I researched and wrote the first rough draft of a play, and I want to continue, but now when I have all of my responsibilities here I cannot really work on it very much. I also started another collection of poems and I want this time to be a 100 poems. This time it would be based on a 4th century A.D. poet, who wrote riddles. He wrote 100 riddles, his name is Symphosius, and each riddle is three lines long and they are in Latin. And I have already started writing my version of these riddles, but not in riddle format, but as poems. Also, I already have another collection of other 40, short-line poems and I would like to perhaps see them published as well.
Where could your work be found?
Here in Blagoevgrad, at the bookstore “Priateli” (Friends), here at the center. I also have some of them here in my office, so if people are interested they are very welcome.
Photos by: Yana Aladzhova
Prof. Terziev and Prof. Mullen.[/caption]
Prof. Filitsa Mullen, Assistant Professor of Writing and Literature at AUBG, is also an expert in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval literature, British Romantic poetry, Balkan literature, and academic writing. Others of her poems and short stories have been published in print and online, but this is her first book of poems.
The event was opened by Vladimir Levchev, Assistant Professor at the Arts, Languages, and Literature Department at AUBG. A poet himself, Prof.Levchev introduced the main structure and the topics of the poetic journal “Prophetikon”. After that, the word was given to the author of the book – Prof. Filitsa Mullen.
She thanked all of her colleagues, students and the library staff, who were present at the event and were her inspiration to write the book. Prof.Mullen herself read to the public several of her poems and told the stories behind each one of them. As she explained, each of her works is dedicated to some past memory, experience or connection that she had with particular places or time periods. As a translator of the book into Bulgarian, Prof. Terziev also read several of his personal favorite poems in the journal, but in Bulgarian. In this way, the audience was able to enjoy the poems in both languages. Prof. Mullen is also working to expand the translation of her works in Greek language.
After the end of the readings, the audience was invited to ask questions and to buy a copy of the author's book, together with private autograph by Prof. Mullen.
AUBG Daily managed to asked the author several questions about the book:
Could you tell us the story behind the name of the book?
As far as I can remember, it came with the first poem that I wrote. I was on leave that year, and I was spending most of it in Greece, but then I came back to Blagoevgrad to visit my husband. I was playing with my son and the evening light was coming in and there were certain shadows on the wall, and the poem just came to me, and I wrote it down. I said to myself, “Well, it sounds almost like a prophecy.“ And then I decided to write a whole book of it. Of course, it is not prophetic in the traditional sense, because for me this idea of time is a more fluid concept, because past, present, and future in my mind kind of co-exist.
Why exactly 33 pieces? In religion, in music culture this number has its symbol – what does it mean to you?
For me is the same. That’s what I said – it is a very cliché thing, so I am going to sit down and write 33 poems. All numbers have their numerological significance, and as I was in this prophetic mood, I decided to use that numerological signification, as well.
Where do you take your inspiration from? Is it entirely on your own experience?
Yes. I do not know how it is with other people, but I think it is the same. I believe that in our minds we constantly have images, pictures that are either connected to a memory or to things that we see now. So, sometimes my poems are based on memories that are very intensive for some reason and they crop up. I think I always have them in my mind, and then all of a sudden they become poems, and then they start to have different dimension and different essence. So, I believe that poems in my case come from very concrete images or events and then the imagination takes over or my desires, my preconceptions, my preoccupations, they take over and then these images are transformed in something more abstract, something more significant in some way that I believe can have significance for other people as well.
You mentioned that you are much related to the history of the places that you have been to, why is that so?
Yes, places are very significant to me. I love places. Sometimes I think I love places more than I love people, but I don’t think it is true, depends on my mood. I love the Earth, and I am a very earthy person. I love what we do to space as a people, even though it may not be good, but still it is what it is, so we should accept it as a reality. I love the smells, the sights, the sounds, the associations that a place brings. For example, a lot of my poems have to do with where I have grown up, because I feel like I kind of belong to that place. It means a lot to me to be there, when I go back I feel calmer, I feel more creative, I feel more connected to myself.
Is that the message which you would like to convey with your poems – the significance of places and memories?
Not necessarily. The importance of places- yes - but not necessarily that we have to be connected to places. I think that this happens anyway to certain degree to all people. It is something very indescribable I think, but it is somehow that places give us our own identity.
Do you plan to continue writing and publishing?
Yes, I am very excited about it. I am working on all types of things. When I was on a Sabbatical last spring, I researched and wrote the first rough draft of a play, and I want to continue, but now when I have all of my responsibilities here I cannot really work on it very much. I also started another collection of poems and I want this time to be a 100 poems. This time it would be based on a 4th century A.D. poet, who wrote riddles. He wrote 100 riddles, his name is Symphosius, and each riddle is three lines long and they are in Latin. And I have already started writing my version of these riddles, but not in riddle format, but as poems. Also, I already have another collection of other 40, short-line poems and I would like to perhaps see them published as well.
Where could your work be found?
Here in Blagoevgrad, at the bookstore “Priateli” (Friends), here at the center. I also have some of them here in my office, so if people are interested they are very welcome.
Photos by: Yana Aladzhova