Burgas council will put forward a children's book competition named after the poet Toma Binchev for next year's culture budget. Deputy mayor for culture Diana Savateva announced this at a literary evening in the regional library marking 80 years since his birth.

The idea comes from the Burgas Writers' Community. In early October the association gave the council two proposals: a national poetry and prose competition for children, and a street named after the poet in the city's new districts. The competition proposal has been through the culture committee of the municipal council, and the Union of Bulgarian Writers backs it.

How it all started: Burgas group proposes national "Toma Binchev" contest and street named after poet

Savateva said the competition is a fine and meaningful way to keep Binchev's memory alive, and that his mark on sea poetry and children's poetry will be carried on. She has no doubt the budget will include the proposal.

The evening was part of the Autumn Literary Festival programme. The poet's son and wife were in the hall. Writers who were close to him over the years shared memories, as did people from Burgas who attended the literary school Binchev led. A student from the Luben Groys Theatre College recited his poems.

The poet Elka Vasileva hosted the evening. "It is very hard for me to speak in the past tense about a person I love. I have no brother. Tomi, as I called him, was my brother," she told Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

Vasileva said Binchev was modest and did not want people to talk about him or to stand in the spotlight. She believes he deserves to be remembered for his literary legacy and the memories he left, and that he will live as long as they do.

The writer and literary critic Katya Zografova was Binchev's colleague at the National Literary Museum. She called him "the Petrarch of the sea". "In those years Toma was as handsome as an ancient Greek. He was charming, witty, with a sense of humour," she told BNR.

Zografova said Binchev was curator for 10 years at the Yavorov house at 138 Rakovska Street, and the museum had stood abandoned in private hands for more than 20 years. He and Ivo Miltenov, now the doyen of the Yavorov house, worked there in years of hard living conditions and political upheaval, "because both are poets". Binchev did not live to see the Yavorov home restored.

Beneath the poet's humour lay a sadness that only close friends such as Ivo Miltenov, the artist Iva Velinova and Zografova herself sensed. She sees a possible explanation in the fate of his sister Anastasia, known as Siya, of the Burgas group Tonika. She emigrated to the US with her husband, one of Bulgaria's first rock musicians. In the totalitarian years, neither those who did not return nor their relatives were forgiven for this. For Zografova, the story shows the love of freedom of the whole Binchev family of Burgas.

Toma Binchev was born on 22 August 1946 in Burgas. Hristo Fotev discovered his literary talent. He graduated in Bulgarian philology and philosophy from Sofia University "St Kliment Ohridski". He worked for eight years as a journalist in the culture department of the newspaper Chernomorski Front. He founded a literary club whose members included Petya Dubarova, Rosen Drumev, Dimitrina Baeva and others. For a long time he was curator of the P. K. Yavorov House Museum in Sofia, part of the National Literary Museum.

His better-known poetry collections include "Words", "Open Sea", "Free Sonnets", "The Hour" and "The Sea in Blue". His last book is "The Sea". Binchev wrote more than 20 books and teaching aids for primary school children. He studied and promoted Bulgarian literature, classic and modern, and compiled several anthologies, including the first anthology of the sonnet in Bulgaria.

As a publisher he put out works by Ivan Vazov, Elisaveta Bagryana, Dora Gabe, Emilian Stanev and Angel Karaliychev. He also published many Burgas authors.

Greetings to the family and organisers came from the presidency, culture minister Evtim Miloshev, Sofia's mayor, the Union of Bulgarian Writers and the Union of Free Writers.

The poet Ivan Tsanev sent a message backing a national literary competition for children's poetry and prose named after Binchev. He congratulated Burgas council on its decision to honour the poet's memory and said he was sure Binchev's legacy would inspire new generations of young authors.