Literary Jukebox

Presenting the Literary Jukebox with a special edition of “Actors vs. Poets” by the Sfumato Theatre-Laboratory.

🗓️ April 2nd, 2026 📍 Georgi Rakovski Military Academy, Park Area

➥ 𝟔:𝟎𝟎 𝐩.𝐦. Anyone can freely explore the Literary Jukebox
➥ 𝟔:𝟑𝟎-𝟕:𝟑𝟎 𝐩.𝐦. An event featuring authors from the project and a special edition of “Actors vs. Poets” by the Sfumato Theatre-Laboratory

Actors: Lora Tencheva, Preslav Terpanov, Stefani Andonova
Poets: Anna Lazarova, Galina Nikolova, Mirela Ivanova, Nadezhda Radulova, Nikola Petrov, Petar Tchuhov, Stefan Ivanov, Silvia Choleva, and Tsocho Boyadzhiev

The machine will be in the park by the end of March, and its unique debut will be a poetic-theatrical event – featuring a special edition of “Actors vs. Poets” by the Sfumato Theatre-Laboratory.

More about the Literary Jukebox

Anna Lazarova, Galina Nikolova, Georgi Gospodinov, Ivan Landzhev, Krasimira Dzhisova, Marin Bodakov, Maria Kalinova, Mirela Ivanova, Nadezhda Radulova, Nikola Petrov, Petar Tchuhov, Silvia Choleva, Stefan Ivanov, and Tsocho Boyadzhiev are the poets whose works we will be able to listen to freely during any stroll through the Military Academy Park. Their poems are part of the Hidden Letters/ Bulgarian Letters project, which also includes the popular letter-shaped benches. They will be located near the Literary Jukebox.
The Jukebox also features works by six authors of children’s literature: Evgeniya Voynova, Zornitsa Hristova, Maria Doneva, Petya Kokudeva, Radoslava Nikolova, and Tsveta Brestnichka.

In an effort to create an even more exciting sound experience amidst nature, the Literary Jukebox will be nothing like a classic jukebox machine. In Bulgaria and around the world, there have been – and still are – wonderful examples of this type of installation in all sorts of forms. The common element among all of them is that, even unintentionally, they create an environment of interaction between literature and cityscapes. And it is precisely this aspect that is deliberately emphasized in the Reading Sofia installation, designed and crafted by Woood
Workshop. The literary journey is not isolated or detached from the surroundings and the natural beauty of the city park – quite the opposite. Part of what enhances this immersive experience is the authentic voices of the authors, who recorded their works exclusively for the Literary Jukebox.

It will remain in the Military Academy Park and, together with the letter-shaped benches, will become a place for reading and listening to poetry, a unique scene for literary events, and a space for people to meet and be inspired.

Origin of the idea for the Literary Jukebox

For the past 11 years, the Reading Sofia Foundation has been actively working not only to connect the city with literature, but also to create new opportunities to experience this collaborative art form – opportunities that are sometimes quite unexpected. Through our Literary Walks project, we explore and reveal the “literariness” of the capital city of Bulgaria. The first Literary walk took place in 2018 as part of one of the foundation’s most memorable initiatives – The Hidden Letters/ Bulgarian Letters. At that time, benches shaped like 14 letters of the Cyrillic alphabet were placed at various locations throughout Sofia. They were shaped like the letters that cannot be found written in this way in any of the world’s alphabets. Each bench featured a poem by a contemporary Bulgarian poet, created exclusively for the project. The idea behind The Hidden Letters was to create various reading spots in the city. Over the years, they have traveled extensively around the world, carrying with them the history of the Cyrillic alphabet as well as translated poems by twice as many Bulgarian poets. For some time now, the letter-benches have been located in the park of the Georgi Rakovski Military Academy.

As can easily be seen, the projects of the Reading Sofia Foundation are often interconnected, addressing various expressions of literary memory and aiming to reach a wide range of readers and audiences.
It is in this context that the Foundation’s latest project – Literary Jukebox – has emerged.

The Literary Jukebox is funded under the “Capital of Culture – The Pulse of Sofia” project, financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, National Recovery and Resilience Plan, procedure BG-RRP-11.021 “New Generation of Local Cultural Policies for Large Municipalities” under contract No. BG-RRP-11.021-0004-C01/05.11.2025.
In partnership with the Sofia Municipality and the Georgi Rakovski Military Academy.