CHristos CHartomatsidis

Christos Hartomatsidis was born in 1954 in Sofia to parents who were political refugees. He studied medicine and works as the Director of Microbiology at the General Hospital of Komotini. He is fluent in Bulgarian, Russian, and English. In recent years, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine "Mandragoras" and has also published short stories and translations in literary magazines such as "To Dentro," "I Lexi," "Nea Poreia," and "Istos." In 1980, he was awarded the 2nd Prize in the Pan-Bulgarian Short Story Competition, and in 1990, he received the 2nd prize in the Novel Competition organized by the publishing house "H.G. Danov" and the Municipality of Plovdiv for his novel "Guitarist in a Tavern." In 2003, the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Komotini presented his two one-act plays "The Elevator" and "Exit after 6 pm is Prohibited" under the unified title "Dark Black Almost White," directed by Ilias Fragkakis. In 2008, the State Theatre of Silistra in Bulgaria presented his play "The Nightmares of Executioner Sanson," directed by Stefan Staichev. He has published poetry collections such as "The Stranger" (1986) and "The Night of the Embryos," published by Nikolaidis (1989); short story collections including "The Old Building," published by "Nefeli" (1991), and "Photo-Veritas," published by "Metaichmio" (2003); novels like "Guitarist in a Tavern," published by "Patakis" (1996), "The Adventures of Brega," published by "Patakis" (2001), "A Courtesan Remembers," published by Ellinika Grammata (2009), "The Celebration is Elsewhere," published by Topos (2011); and plays such as "The Nightmares of Executioner Sanson," published by Mandragoras (2009) and "Lilia," published by Mandragoras (2016). Recently, his short story with the Greek title "Super G from Kalkantza" was published in Bulgarian under the title "Sacred Child."