Petrich (Bulgarian: Петрич) is a town in Blagoevgrad Province in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Belasica Mountains in the Strumeshnitsa Valley. As of 31 December 2009 (2009 -12-31)^[update], the town has 29920 inhabitants.

Petrich is located close to the borders with Greece and the Republic of Macedonia. The crossing into Macedonia is known as Novo Selo-Petrich, as the first town across the border is Novo Selo.

Petrich Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named for Petrich.

Petrich was included in the territory of the Bulgarian State during the reign of Knyaz Boris I (852-889). During the Middle Ages it was a Bulgarian fortress of importance during Tsar Samuil's wars (997-1014) with Byzantium. During Ottoman rule, it was initially part of the Serez sanjak of the Rumeli vilayet. After that it became a kaza of the Serez sanjak in the Selanik vilayet. From 19 January 1892 Petrich and its district were included in the Bulgarian Exarchate, before being included in Bulgaria following the Balkan Wars in 1912-13. The Greek army attempted to capture the town in 1925 but was stopped at the outskirts; this event is known as the Incident at Petrich.

Sofiya Marinova Kamenova, better known as Sofi Marinova (Bulgarian: Софи Маринова, IPA: [soˈfi maˈrinova]), (born 5 December 1975) is a Bulgarian pop-folk and ethno-pop singer of Romani heritage. She is one of the most popular singers in Bulgaria, famed for her extreme five-octave vocal range. She has won multiple music awards and contests. Оften called "the Romani pearl" and "the Romani nightingale", she is compared to Bulgaria's most popular pop singer, Lili Ivanova. In February 2012 she won the Bulgarian Eurovision national final with the song "Love Unlimited", thus becoming the representative of Bulgaria in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Sofi Marinova was born on December 5, 1975 in Sofia, Bulgaria, although her family was living near Etropole at the time. She showed musical and dancing talent at the age of two and was tutored in singing and dancing by her mother. In primary school Marinova was an excellent pupil. She spent a year at a professional builders' school. After 8th grade she moved to a professional school for tailors, though years later she admitted she never liked sewing. While at school Marinova fell for acting, appearing in school musicals such as Snow White. When she was in 10th grade, a local band offered her the position of lead singer. Her father didn't allow it at first but relented after the insistence of her mother: "I started crying and my mother supported me, because when she married my father she put an end to her singing career".

Paco Ignacio Taibo II (born Francisco Ignacio Taibo Mahojo on 11 January 1949 in Gijón, Asturias, Spain), is a Mexican writer and novelist.

Taibo has lived in Mexico City since 1958 when his family fled from Spain to escape the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Taibo II (or PIT, as he likes to be called) is a Mexican intellectual, historian, professor, journalist, social activist, union organizer, and world-renowned writer. Widely known for his policial novels, he is considered the founder of the neopolicial genre in Latin America and is the president of the International Association of Policial Writers. One of the most prolific writers in Mexico today, over 500 editions of his 51 books have been published in 29 countries and over a dozen languages, and include novels, narrative, historical essays, chronicles, and poetry.

Some of PIT's novels have been mentioned among the "Books of the Year" by The New York Times, Le Monde, and the Los Angeles Times. He has received numerous awards including the Grijalbo, the Planeta/Joaquin Mortiz in 1992, the Dashiell Hammett three times for his policial novels, and the 813 for the best police novel published in France. His biography of Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Ernesto Guevara, tambien conocido como el Che, 1996) has sold over half a million copies around the world and won the 1998 Bancarella Book of the Year award in Italy.