Lilyana Kovacheva was born on 15th of April 1960 in Kustendil
in the family of Erlies-Roma, black smiths for many generations. She
graduated from South-West University in Blagoevgrad. She works as
Roma Specialist in the Ministry of Education, Bulgaria.. She did her Ph. D
from Amsterdam Univiersity, Netherlands. Mikhail Petrov, "Romani Baht"
Foundation, Bulgaria writes about her work on Roma : "I am very impressed by the
book 'Rom Knows the Way'. It took me a few hours to read it. The
author answered to many of my questions, which were always interesting for me."
Besides a Roma specialists she is a well known poetess writing in Bulgarian as
well as in Romani. She organised an International Conference on Roma Heritage and Culture - Journey
to Roots at Delhi and Chandigarh (India) in April 2001 in collaboration with
Hindu Heritage Pratishthan, Delhi and India Inter-Continental Cultural
Association, Chandigarh.