Ludmila Balabanova (Bulgarian Cyrillic: Людмила Балабанова; born Ludmila Verter Balabanova; married name Karakehayova; born 1949, Novi Pazar, Bulgaria), lecturer in computer engineering, poet, and theorist. She has published nine collections of poetry (four of them haiku and haibun) and received two Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards. She edited the trilingual haiku anthology Огледала / Mirrors / Miroirs (2005). Her book of criticism, Хайку: Водно конче под шапката: Силата на неизговореното (Haiku: Vodno konche pod shapkata: Silata na neizgovorenoto; Haiku: Dragonfly under the Hat: The Power of the Unsaid; 2014) was based on her PhD dissertation at the Institute of Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She won recognition in the haiku contests at the Basho 360th Anniversary festivities in Japan (2004), the 2nd European Haiku Conference, Vadstena, Sweden (2007), and the International Haiku Festival, Constanța, Romania (2013), among others. She has served as president of Haiku Club Sofia. Balabanova is coauthor of the Haikupedia article “Haiku in Bulgaria.” She resides in Sofia.
Note: This is an abstract of a longer biographical article to come.