Boyka Asiova Receives the Maxim Minchev National Award for 2026
Boyka Asiova is the third recipient of the National Award named after Maxim Minchev (1953–2020), the long-serving President of ABUJET and Director General of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) for 17 years. The distinction was awarded by the Bulgarian Association of Travel Journalists and Writers (ABUJET). The ceremony took place in BTA’s MaxiM Hall.
ABUJET Secretary General Plamen Starev presented the nominations and announced Boyka Asiova as the winner of the 2026 award. He noted that this year saw the highest number of nominations since the award was established – five in total – and emphasized that all nominees deserved recognition. In his address, he underlined that the award is presented not only for outstanding achievements in journalism, public writing, and literature, but also for active contributions to the development of tourism, which is one of ABUJET’s principal objectives.
“We established this award in 2024,” said Plamen Starev, “out of respect for our colleague and friend, the long-time President of ABUJET, traveler, and storyteller Maxim Minchev. The first two recipients were Magi Gigova and Milena Dimitrova, both well-known and highly active in the field of travel writing and storytelling. Boyka Asiova is among the most distinguished names in contemporary Bulgarian literature. In her books, her characters travel throughout Bulgaria and to distant lands. In this way, she helps us discover the world, with Bulgaria naturally being part of that world. She brings world closer to us through the eyes of her characters. Her books have been translated into several languages, enabling readers from different countries to travel through Bulgaria alongside her protagonists.”
Milena Dimitrova, last year’s recipient of the award and currently Secretary for Culture, Education, and Relations with Bulgarians Abroad to President Iliana Iotova, presented the award to Boyka Asiova. In her speech, she described Asiova as an example of nobility, refinement, and depth, both in life and in her literary work. Dimitrova praised the writer’s ability “to weave a great deal of history into a human story” and highlighted her rare talent for combining historical knowledge with individual human destinies.
“I like the very purpose of travel”, said Boyka Asiova upon receiving the award. “Not travel to a particular address, but travel through songs, fairy tales, people, and dreams. Everything finds life in my books. At the moment, I am traveling toward my latest book—about the Miladinov brothers. No one could stop me from traveling with them. Since the day I was born, I have been traveling with them, traveling toward them. I hope this book will find its admirers and readers… ABUJET is not the only organization of which I have been a member, but it is the only one in which I feel fully in harmony with myself.”
Among the guests attending the ceremony was Irina Asiova-Diamond, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Media and of the Committee on Direct Citizen Participation and Interaction with Civil Society in the Bulgarian National Assembly.
Profile: Boyka Asiova
Born in Razlog, Boyka Asiova is a chemical engineer by education, a journalist by profession, and a writer by vocation. She is the author of sixteen books of prose, essays, journalism, and documentary writing. Her works include Borrowed Time, the short-story collections A Man’s Strength, Ludovitsa, Recipe for a Bell (winner of the Bulgarian Writers’ Union Annual Essay Award), and The Songs: Spirit and Matter (Special Prize at the Second National Embroidery Festival, Beloslav, 2018), as well as the novels The Barren Widow (nominated for the Helikon Award, winner of the Nikolay Haytov National Literary Award, translated into German and Turkish), The She-Wolf Comes Out at Dusk, Born on Easter (winner of the Hristo G. Danov National Fiction Award), and To Kill Stalin: A Memory of Kostadin Lagadinov (Janet 45 Publishing House).
Asiova has also written scripts for documentary and current-affairs films produced by Bulgarian National Television (BNT), focusing on the struggles of Macedonian Bulgarians for national liberation, traditions, cultural heritage, and their contemporary relevance. Among these productions are A Complaint for Gotse, Between the Cradle and the Grave, The Two Miladinovs, The Living Book, The Price of Tobacco, The Road to Drama, and The Secret of the Yudas.
Boyka Asiova has been a long-standing member of the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FIJET) and of its Bulgarian chapter, ABUJET.
Photos: BTA
