In the next posts, we will meet you with our semi-finalists. We will show you their semi-final’s poem and interview about them and their impressions about Mili Dueli. Also, you will see what they answer on some interesting situations.

Note: Semi-final duels starts in September, 5. We have two semi-finals where we will show 25 authors in each one. So, this is TOP 50 poets in competition where have been presented 545 authors.

FIRST SEMI-FINAL

Mentor:Anđela Turukalo

12. DENIS OLEGOV

	SEMI-FINAL POEM:	PALESTINA Sjećam se oca koji se nikad nije vratio do ognjišta okupirane kuće i, ispod vrtloga kilometara udaljenosti, stisnem zube: dok se ne pojave mrlje od krvi. Pola života je prošlo, a drugu polovinu – Dekart. Prijatelji mojih godina ostali su tamo: ispod magacina, u Petoj simfoniji raketa. Neću osjećati više hladnu utjehu Jordana, ni vatrene samoće pješčanih dina. U ovom eksperimentalnom, pustinjskom polju; fatamorgane se rastvaraju pred mitraljezima, a Rajski Papagaji ćute: gdje nije bilo djetinjstva, gdje ljubavi nikad nije bilo. ПАЛЕСТИНА Аз помня незавърнал се баща в пожара на окупирания дом и под тежкия водовъртеж на километрите стискам зъби до образуване на кървави петна. Половината живот е минало, а втората половина – по Декарт. Връстниците останаха под складовете в петата симфония на ракетите. Не ще усетят повече студената утеха на Йордан и жарката самотност на пясъчните кули. В това експериментално пустинно поле миражът се разтваря в автомата, и глъхнат Папагалите на Рая, където никога не беше детството, и никога не беше любовта.
	GENERAL INFORMATION
	Name and Surname	DENIS OLEGOV
	Date and the year of birth	9.02.1998
	Nationality (Write the name of the country whose passport you have in UPPERCASES)	BULGARIA
	Name of the city where you live (Write in uppercases. If you live in the village, write the name of the city that place belongs to, then the name of the village in brackets)	Sofia, Bulgaria/Moscow, Russia
	BIOGRAPHY
	When did you start writing poetry?	I started to write where I was 13 y.o. I was in love with one girl from my school, but she broke my heart and I suffered for a very long time. That’s why I started to write. When I became older, I understood that with poetry you can speak for everything and now I’m writing social lyrics most of the time.
	Which elementary school were you attending? Were you a good student?	I was at school №95 in Sofia. I was a good student, but too lazy for some subjects like Maths. I like to learn new things by myself, for me it’s more difficult to learn with strict program, like at school.
	Which high school have you finished (or which high school are you attending)?	I finished school №133 in Sofia.
	Do you have a college degree? Enter your academic title, if any. If you go to college, write down what year you are on. If you are not going while planning to enroll, enter which colleges you are interested in! *	Now I’m 3-rd course student at Higher School of Economics in Moscow and I’m studying International relations there.
	Are you employed? If you are: what is your job and where are you working?	I’ve been working as a journalist for 5 years in different media. Now I’m a sports journalist in Bulgarian website otzasada.com. Writing articles about football is my dream job.
	BIOBIBLIOGRAPHY
	Books you’ve published:	I released four books in Bulgarian language: “Rimodraskanici” (2014) “The split of the soul” (2014) “Iced ember” (2016) “The wheel of the history” (2017)
	Your poetry awards:	I have awards from 10 contests: „Срещу вятъра” /Against the wind/ (2015), „Непознати улици”//Unfamiliar streets/ (2015), „Златен явор”/Golden Yavor/ (2016), „Млад поет – Костинброд” /Young poet – Kostinbrod/ (2017, 2018), „Копнеж за растящо творчество” (2017) /A wish for growing creativity/, конкурс за поезия “Никола Вапцаров” (2018) /Contest “Nikola Vaptzarov”/, “Небесни меридиани” /”Meridians of the sky”/ (2018) , “Усещане за любов” /”Feeling for love”/ (2019), “Граждански будилник” /”Civil alarm clock”/ (2019)
	What does poetry mean to you?	Poetry is a view of life itself. It’s a unique way to express yourself, your feelings, ideas, to ask questions about important problems and create something meaningful for the readers.
	Make a list of your five favourite writers:	Poets: Sergey Yesenin Marina Tsvetaeva Zlatomir Zlatanov Ezra Pound Bertolt BrechtBelletrists: Stephen King George Orwell Fyodor Dostoevskiy Mihail Bulgakov Douglas Adams
	ABOUT MILI DUELI
	How did you hear about our contest, and decided to apply?	I hear about the contest from Valentin Popov, who participated last year. I decided to apply, because I like to have different experience. I’m a big fan of contests, because here I can find new audience for my poems and it is a big tribune for sharing ideas.
	What are your experiences with the contest so far? What do you like the most, and what would you change?	I have friends from ex-Yugoslavia countries and it’s great that now they can read my poems in their language and understand what I want to say with these texts. I really like the working process and translations of the poems. But most important one for me is that I can read poems of authors from many countries and here I found really talented poets.
	Who’s your mentor? What’s your opinion about her/him?	My mentor is Andjela Turukalo. I really like working with her, because she is talented translator, she understands my ideas and her translations have the same power and energy as the original texts. I’m really happy that she is always ready to help. We are very good team.
	Were you expecting to enter the semi-final stage as one of the TOP 50 among 545 people who applied?	YES
	Are you expecting to enter the final stage?	YES
	Do you expect winning this competition?	YES
	ABOUT YOU
	Tick the three groups that describe you the most:	good friends not afraid to express his/hers opinion workaholics
	Tick the three groups that describe you the least:	talking in front of the audience without problem good sense of humor risk talking
	Are you a hunter or a gatherer?	Maybe it’s 50/50.
	What is your definition of love?	It’s really difficult for me to define love, because I think that I love the others much more than the others love me. And sometimes this hurts. But I hope that love is that feeling, which can unite people and help them survive and develop their potential.
	If you were a plant- which plant would you be and why?	I’ll be a tree, obviously. Probably some pine in the mountains. I think that my form of tree will be an expression of freedom.
	Somebody gave you an anteater. What are you doing with the gift?	I will accept it with smile, but I think I’ll set it free in the forest. I’m not good at cares for pets and I don’t think I can manage to take care for it.
	Describe the colour yellow to a blind person.	I’ll give to that person some sand and let him to feel the sand in his hands.
	Tell us something we don’t know about you.	When I travel from Bulgaria to Russia i bring with me only 3 things – clothes, rakija and my laptop.
	Make a list of ten things you can do with a pen (except for writing)	drawing, playing drums, training your fingers, opening bottles, use it as a knife, build some interesting figure, wood carving, hold it to maintain self-confidence during a performance,