ANGUELOV, Zlatko 1946-

PERSONAL: Born June 18, 1946, in Varna, Bulgaria; immigrated to Canada, 1992; naturalized Canadian citizen; son of Radoslav and Velika Anguelov; married; wife's name, Lyudmila (deceased); married May 15, 1965; wife's name, Tatyana (marriage ended); married Roumyana Slabarova (a professor of linguistics), August 7, 1984; children: (second marriage) Radoslava, Vela, Aglika, Zlatko, Kamen; (third marriage) Bistra. Ethnicity: "Bulgarian." Education: Medical Academy of Bulgaria, M.D., 1972; McGill University, M.A., 1995, and doctoral study. Politics: Liberal. Religion: Greek Orthodox. Hobbies and other interests: Movies, car racing, travel, photography, gardening.

ADDRESSES: Home—207 Golfview Ave., Iowa City, IA 52246-1909. Office—Joint Office for Planning, Marketing, and Communications, University of Iowa Health Care, 200 Hawkins Dr., Suite 8762 JPP, Iowa City, IA 52242-1009; fax: 319-384-7099. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Medical Academy, Varna, Bulgaria, began as assistant professor, became associate professor of anatomy, 1974-83; District Hospital, Sofia, Bulgaria, general practitioner of family medicine, 1983-86; freelance medical and political journalist, 1986-90; Medical Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria, public relations officer and spokesperson, 1990-92; McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, research and teaching assistant, 1993-96; Benefit Canada, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, international health consultant, 1995-96; LBJ*FRB Communications, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, medical writer, 1996-99; University of Iowa Health Care, Iowa City, editor and senior communications specialist in Joint Office for Planning, Marketing, and Communications, 1999—. Barry and Associates, legal secretary, 1993.

AWARDS, HONORS: AAMC/GIA awards of distinction, 2001, and award for excellence, 2002, all for Currents.

WRITINGS:

Communism and the Remorse of an Innocent Victimizer (memoir), Texas A & M University Press (College Station, TX), 2000.

Contributor to periodicals in Bulgaria and elsewhere, including Financial Times newsletters in England. Founder and editor of Bulgarian newspaper Rights and Liberties; Currents, editor; East European Reporter, coeditor. Anguelov's memoir has been published in Bulgarian translation.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Conversations with My Daughter, a "non-fictional novel," completion expected in 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Zlatko Anguelov told CA: "I began my career as a professor of anatomy in a medical school, but interrupted it after nine years because of irreconcilable disagreements with the communist-oriented educational and biomedical research environment in my native Bulgaria. I freelanced as a medical journalist for six years, then became a political commentator involved in the first years of democratization after changes in the East European communist regimes were unleashed in 1989. In August, 1992, my family and I immigrated to Canada.

"It was only too natural that, from the Canadian vantage point, I embarked on reflections about my life under communism—a life blemished by failures, frustrations, and inevitable compromises with the communist authorities. As a result, I drafted my memoir in 1995 while studying for a doctorate in political sociology at McGill University. English not being my native language, the manuscript needed to brew for several years, a time that also helped me better shape my own memories, ideas, and the entire message of my book. It also was a time when I contacted literary agents and acquainted myself with the publishing world in the United States and Canada. In 1999, I moved to an editorial position with the University of Iowa Health Care and reworked my manuscript before sending it out to five university presses and two small commercial publishers. In February, 2001, I got word from Texas A & M University Press that my manuscript was accepted for publication.

"The effect of this memoir upon myself was the realization that my large extended family has a rich history rooted in the Balkans and now, after most of my children moved to live in a freer world, that can be a great resource for my writing. My first book was, for obvious reasons, nonfiction. However, I entertain the conviction that I have life-material interesting enough to create stories or novels that would be called 'non-fictional' short stories or novels. Thus, I'm now focused on this genre merger and am working on my next book. It draws mainly from a rich correspondence and phone conversations that I have had with one of my daughters for more than a decade and keep having almost every day. We started our relationship back in Bulgaria, she suffered from my divorce from her mother, and then we both moved to the United States (although via different routes). The building of our relationship contains tons of messages, implications, stories, and so forth related to the father-daughter relationship, the formation of a child into an adult, and the integration of an immigrant family into the United States.

"It is not so often that a writer has his or her first book published at the age of fifty-six, but the circumstances of my life—and chiefly, the lack of fundamental freedom—delayed this event. I have always considered myself a writer, however, and behaved as such. My style is mostly shaped by journalism. Journalism has been my real school of writing, and I still earn my bread and butter through it, but writing is my vocation. I'm happy that now I have the freedom to embark, no matter how late, on the life project of writing books that will, no matter what, have some historic value. Communism was a political deviation that changed the fortunes of so many people. The story of communism, unlike that of the Holocaust, has not yet been publicized in its wholeness, and awareness of its universal meaning is still lacking. In my opinion, the best way to raise awareness about communism is to tell the stories of those of us ordinary citizens who were both victims and victimizers of our peers."