- Nikolai Grozni
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Nikolai Grozni 
Nikolai GrozniBorn March 28, 1973
Sophia, BulgariaOccupation Novelist Nationality Bulgarian-American Education MFA, Creative Writing Alma mater Brown University Spouse(s) Danielle Trussoni
nikolaigrozni.comNikolai Grozni Nikolai Grozni, (born Nikolay Grozdinski) (Bulgarian: Николай Гроздински) (March 28, 1973) is a multilingual Bulgarian-American novelist, short-story writer and musician.
Contents
Background
Grozni was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, at a time when the country was still under an oppressive communist rule. After being accepted to the National Music School “Lubomir Pipkov”, he trained to become a concert pianist, winning his first international piano award in Salerno, Italy, in 1983. Following the political changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1992 Grozni left Bulgaria to study Jazz and composition at Berklee College of Music, Boston. In 1995, shortly before graduating from Berklee, Grozni suddenly decided to give up music altogether and left for India to become a Buddhist monk and study Tibetan language. He spent four years in Dharamsala, studying at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, before joining Drepung Monastery in South India in 1999, where he stayed for six months. The five years he spent in India would become the inspiration for his three works in Bulgarian, as well as for his memoir in English: ‘Turtle Feet: The making and unmaking of a Buddhist monk." Grozni holds an MFA in creative writing from Brown University.
Writing
‘New York Times: The Ghost of Revolutions Past.’ (OP-ED Contributor, February 14, 2011)
‘Lives of Idle Men and Degenerate Mystics.’ (short stories, published in Bulgarian in 2000)
‘Asleep In the Great Emptiness.’ (a novel, published in Bulgarian in 2001)
‘Someone put a Spell on Existence.’ (a novel, published in Bulgarian in 2002)
‘Turtle Feet, New York Times Editor’s Choice'’ (memoir, Riverhead, 2008)
‘Wunderkind’: a tragicomic roman à clef drawing from Grozni’s experience as a classical piano prodigy in communist Bulgaria.
Grozni’s short fiction has appeared in The Guardian and The Seattle Review.
Reviews
- New York Times: Turtle Feet
- Asleep in the Great Emptiness
- People Magazine:Turtle Feet
- Brown Alumni Magazine: Turtle Feet
- Lives of Idle Men and Degenerate Mystics
- Christian Science Monitor: Turtle Feet
Interviews
External links
- Author's website
- Asleep In the Great Emptiness,Someone put a Spell on Existence
- Three Bulgarian books
- published short story in The Guardian
- Bulgarian writings
- Berklee studies
- International Writing Program in Iowa, 2001 (bio)
- international piano award National Music School, Sofia (bio)
- Wunderkind publication
- Brown University Alumni Magazine
- Turtle Feet NYT editors’ choice
Categories:- 1973 births
- American novelists
- Bulgarian novelists
- Living people
- People from Sofia
- Berklee College of Music alumni
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