Colourful Star began in March 2013. A chance encounter at Portsmouth University started a friendship between two families - one in the UK, one in Bulgaria - which has led to many things, including conversations about everything from Shakespeare to Bulgarian folklore traditions to the ominous politics of the Cold War and the 'new Europe' that we inhabit post-1989. In January 2014 we started Colourful Star as an experiment, a conversation between our two countries, our two cultures, and between two art forms - painting and poetry. Over the course of the project, we've explored subjects ranging from pumpkin soup, kettles and bagpipes to Einstein's Theory of Relativity and the presence of a recording of a Bulgarian folk singer's music on the Voyager probe. In the archive, you'll find poems too about growing chrysanthemums in Buckinghamshire, Bulgarian traditions around the first of March and a whole series of posts about trees.
This 100th post isn't just about commemoration. We're also marking our new collaboration with the international poetry website Iris News today and from now on there will be tandem publications every month. Other collaborations and prospects are on the horizon. We are celebrating 100 posts because we are sure that there will be many other things to celebrate in the near future.
Marina, Vasilena and Tom
