Episode 16 features Irina, who hails from Burgas, Bulgaria. She is a published author and journalist, and has also worked in the disability sector.

I met Irina on Face book through another friend in Belgium. It still amazes me how technology allows us to reach out and talk with others all around the world, as easily as if we are sitting in the same room together.

Something special happens when people who stutter reach out to one another. You can hear it as we chat!  Especially women! We realize immediately that we are not alone and that our feelings are very similar.

The three books she has published are I Stutter (2005) and the novels Almost Intimately (2007) and Annabel (2010). Irina stutters confidently in six languages. Her hobby and passion is Argentinian tango and she dances it regularly, also when traveling (always a pair of tango shoes in her bag).

We chat about many things in this wonderful conversation. We discuss how acceptance came into Irina’s life, her discovery of the Bulgarian Stuttering Association, and what led her to writing. This is a short essay that Irina wrote for a contest about stuttering.

Irina was also former Deputy Mayor for “Health Care, Social Activities and Integration of People with Disabilities”, Sofia Municipality (Bulgaria).

She is a woman who has touched many lives with her own story of stuttering and her advocacy.

I am proud to know her and have her share part of her story with us! She will have to visit again to share what we didn’t get to!

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