Irina Papancheva was born in the Bulgarian city of Burgas but lives in Brussels. She graduated from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” where she earned a master’s degree in Slavic studies, focused on Czech language and literature, and completed her education at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, where she got a master’s degree in European integration and development, majoring European politics and social integration.

Irina Papancheva was among the five nominees in the Fans of Flanders & VIW writing contest (2014).

She is the author of the illustrated children’s book ‘I Stutter’ (Ciela, 2005), the short novel ‘Almost Intimately’ (Kronos, 2007) and the novels ‘Annabel’ (Janet 45, 2010), ‘Pelican Feather’ (Janet 45, 2013), ‘She, the island’ (Trud, 2017) and ‘Welcome, Nathan!’ (2019), short stories and the play ‘About a hippo’ (2016).

Her latest manuscript Brussels Naked, originally written in English, will soon come out in Persian. Chapters of it have been published in magazines and anthologies in English, Bulgarian and Persian.

Her works have been published also in French.

Almost Intimately got the audience nomination in the 2008 Bulgarian national literary competition South Spring (Yuzhna prolet), and Annabel was shortlisted in the 2014 January Contemporary Bulgarian Novel Contest of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and Open Letter Books at the University of Rochester.