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Welcome to my little corner of the internet! 

​I am a storyteller made in Bulgaria, raised in Morocco, and matured in the UK. For the past five years, I have lived in Brooklyn.

smiling woman wearing a navy blue, short-sleeved top, and round glasses, leaning against a turquoise wall with graffiti on it

I’m a chronically curious storyteller with a passion for niche stories that reveal something broader about how we live, think, and communicate with one another. 

 

Over the past decade, I’ve built a career translating complex ideas—about cities, buildings, materials, and science—into compelling narratives. I am a longtime contributor to Fast Company, where I’ve published over 500 stories.

 

I also write for Wired, Smithsonian, Condé Nast Traveller, MIT Technology Review, Bloomberg CityLab, Dezeen, and many others across design and culture. 

 

In my 10 years of experience, I’ve conducted 1,000+ interviews with top-tier designers, thinkers, filmmakers, CEOs, academics, scientists--and even my own grandmother! I gravitate towards people who like to push the boundaries of their craft. I myself have been known to anthropomorphize buildings
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Elissaveta in the attic

(That's me in the attic)

​My storytelling spans many formats, including: 

 

•  Feature journalism & profiles: my reporting often zooms in on the experimental and the unexpected, like magicians designing tricks for people who are blind, or the guy who has pigeon-proofed all of NYC.

 

•  Moderation & live storytelling: I’ve led public conversations on topics ranging from AI and urban resilience to the cultural symbolism of Christmas trees.

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•  Editorial direction & strategy: As an editor at OnOffice, I shaped the magazine’s editorial voice and content strategy across print, and digital. Together with a team of three, I published 12 issues on a tight budget with strict deadlines, working closely with the art editor to conceptualize and commission original, compelling covers. 

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•  Copywriting & editorial consulting: I craft bios, project descriptions, thought leadership pieces, assist with PR strategy or client discovery, and more. 

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•  Memoir & investigative non-fiction: I’m currently writing a memoir that pieces together my family’s life in communist-era Bulgaria through the objects found in my grandparents' attic.

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•  Microfiction & visual storytelling: I run a photo-literary project on Instagram (@vanyo_was_here), pairing 35mm slides taken by my grandfather in the 1960s with original micro non-fiction stories that explores memory, identity, and time. 

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•  Interviews as narrative art: I treat interviews not just as a fact-finding mission but as a collaborative storytelling —whether I’m speaking with a Nobel laureate or my 93-year-old grandmother.

 

Whether it is fact or fiction, I’m interested in visceral stories that widen your eyes, speed up your heartbeat, tickle your brain cells. 

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Not sure where to start? Here are some personal favorites!​

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