Joanna Elmy is a Bulgarian-born journalist, media researcher, and writer whose work spans communication research, U.S. and international politics, and literature. A columnist for Deutsche Welle – Bulgaria and an author at Toest Bulgaria, she specializes in long-form, human-centered journalism, while her literary criticism and essays appear regularly in The Literary Journal, VIJ Magazine and others. Her debut novel, which won Bulgaria’s top emerging literature prize in 2022, is being translated into over ten languages.
Elmy has received the Per Aspera ad Astra scholarship, was an Elizabeth Kostova Foundation fellow in 2019, and served as the inaugural Writer in Residence for the European Literary Map of London at the University College London (UCL).
She holds degrees in English and International Relations from the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, France and an MSc in Political Communications from the University of Amsterdam.
She speaks English, French, Bulgarian, and Russian, and presently divides her time between the U.S. and Bulgaria.