Hi! I’m Daniela, a Bulgarian-American author and a first-generation immigrant. My debut novel, Her Daughter’s Mother, (Putnam, 2019) was critically acclaimed (“An impressive debut” — Publishers Weekly) and translated into three languages. My essays, short stories, and poems have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, LA Review of Books, and Marie Claire, among others.
In my fiction, I draw on my experiences growing up during Communism in Bulgaria and on my life as an immigrant in America. I aim to tell immersive stories that challenge readers’ understanding of the world and their biases towards other people, nearby or far away.
Passionate about social justice and human rights, I’ve worked at The United Nations, The World Bank, and the Center for Global Education, Brookings. I’ve leveraged that experience as a journalist, covering issues such as global kleptocracy, girls’ education in Afghanistan, sex trafficking in Thailand and Brooklyn, and Syrian refugees in Bulgaria.
MY JOURNEY
Born and raised in Bulgaria, I grew up during Communism in a poor, working-class family where education was worshipped in place of deities. My single mother and I shared a one-bedroom apartment with my grandparents and my uncle. My grandma, who’d barely finished third grade, often told me, “Study hard if you don’t want to end up like us—working on a conveyor line.”
As the first in my family to graduate from high school, I exceeded everyone’s expectations by going on to university. After three years of study, I dropped out and moved to the United States to marry a Bulgarian-American I’d met and fallen in love with two years earlier.
At the age of 22, I landed at JFK barely speaking any English. I’d never held a job. Never touched a computer. I hadn’t even heard of credit cards or checks. But I had big dreams.
I’d complete my degree and become a writer.
Like countless other female immigrants before me, with no experience and limited English, I began working as a nanny and a cleaning lady.
I taught myself English by watching reruns of Friends and reading books I’d already read in Bulgarian (War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Pride and Prejudice), which I borrowed from the local library. I also took English as a Second Language classes at the YMCA.
Eventually, I began volunteering at the library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not long after, I was hired part-time as a Library Assistant. The head of the Cataloguing Department helped me research academic programs at Columbia University, where I was accepted the following year. To pay for tuition, I worked full time at the university’s library while taking classes part time. Three years later, I graduated, fulfilling at least one of my dreams—receiving a college education—and began work as a consultant at the United Nations.
I’ve been composing poems and short stories since childhood. Following my move to America, I continued writing, even during those first months when my English was laughably limited.
Over the years, I took classes and workshops on everything writing—from poetry to personal essays to screenwriting. I was blessed with wonderful teachers, including renowned writers like Curtis Sittenfeld with whom I studied at the Iowa Writers Summer Workshop and Anthony Doerr, who led my Tin House Summer Workshop.
I’ve woven my personal experiences and observations into my fiction.
My debut novel, Her Daughter’s Mother was informed by my struggles with infertility in my 30s.
The novel I’m currently working on draws from my experience working as a cleaning lady while living in one of New York’s premier buildings on Fifth Avenue, where my husband at the time was the resident manager.
My life in Bulgaria during Communism inspired my unpublished novella, Blood Sisters.
I’m also working on a collection of stories about the life of the immigrant. The dreams, the challenges, the hardships, the joys. What it feels like to leave your land and loved ones behind. To be viewed as other. To have every interaction begin with, “So, where are you from?” To never fully belong.
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