Rene Karabash on how to write a novel for Booker Prize nomination

"A writer should write without thinking about awards!" says Rene Karabash, whose novel "She Who Remains" (“Ostaynitsa”) was one step away from winning the Booker Prize. After Georgi Gospodinov's "Time Shelter", a contemporary Bulgarian writer showed that Bulgarian literature is worthy of taking its place on the world stage. This year's edition of the competition featured 128 books translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland in the past 12 months. According to the regulations, the jury selects 13, which are on the so-called long list, from which 6 titles are later selected, competing for the prize, among which was Rene Karabash's novel.

"Ostaynitsa" (which means a woman who voluntarily swears to live as a man - a tradition known from the patriarchal society in Northern Albania) already has other prestigious awards - the national literary award "Elias Canetti", nomination for Novel of the Year by the National Endowment Fund "13 Centuries of Bulgaria" and the literary award "Peroto". And the story, which reveals the life of the so-called "sworn virgins" in Albania, has won the hearts of readers all over the world. Its author Irena Ivanova, who is a poet, writer, screenwriter and playwright, presenting herself under the literary pseudonym Rene Karabash, recalls:

"Of course, there was a study on this topic, as it is quite complex and refers to the so-called Albanian Kanun laws. They exist in certain places in the Balkans, but not in Bulgaria. It took me about 2 years of reading books and watching documentaries about these ‘sworn virgins’, I also watched many of their interviews and read about the meaning of Albanian names, as it is extremely important for me that the names of my characters reflect their fate. I believe that everyone comes into this world with their own name and this affects our lives in a certain way."

The novel failed to win the Booker Prize, but it has already been translated into 23 languages and its Brazilian edition became the first Bulgarian novel published in the country. At the end of 2023, Marie Vrinat-Nikolov won the French PEN Club prize with her translation and the Gulf Coast Translation Prize in the USA went to Izidora Angel for its English translation, which in 2025 also received the prestigious HEIM award of the American PEN Club. The book was also nominated for the Swedish Prisma literary prize and was included in the "21 best upcoming books of 2026" ranking of the book club of singer Dua Lipa.

"It's certainly a challenge for each of my translators, but I think they've done a great job and it's no coincidence that their translations have won so many awards around the world. I try not to interfere because I trust them, but they still have a lot of questions for me about some parts of the text or outdated Bulgarian or Turkish words. It surprises me, but with every translation I rediscover my novel. There are even things that I realize I wrote, thanks to my new translators and new readers," Rene Karabash says.

According to Rene Karabash, awards are not a bad thing because a book becomes much more visible, recognizable and of course more widely read, but she adds:  

"According to me, there's another side to it. Sometimes I say that awards are a great curse for an author, because they take you out of the world you're creating in and force you into the world of your ego, and if you haven't worked on yourself, there's a serious danger of flying too high. On the other hand, there are already very high expectations for you, and if you have a strong inner critic or are a perfectionist, this can be very detrimental to your writing, because you're constantly thinking only about how to write such a successful book again."

The author also shares her recipe for writing, regardless of whether your book has already won an award or not:

"I think that every writer should be able to go into their room and not think about awards, but when they write – to dedicate themselves to themselves and others, without caring about whether the book will be read, whether it will be nominated... Orhan Pamuk talks about two types of storytellers – those who create through reason and logic, and the others who are like a child having fun and playing through writing. In my opinion, it is important to have a balance between the two, because what we have experienced while writing is printed on the page and can be felt by readers."