Noémi Kiss (1974) is a Hungarian writer and traveller. Her fiction features independent and vulnerable female figures, who sometimes flirt with the eccentric, but more often struggle in all-too-familiar environments. Her novel Sovány angyalok (Thin Angels, 2015) tells the story of a homicide by an abused woman, Ikeranya (Mother of Twins, 2013) seeks a new language to speak about pregnancy and motherhood, while Trans (2006, in German: Was geschah während wir schliefen, 2009) adventures into the realm of sexuality, borderline experiences, role changes. Kiss is also the author of Rongyos ékszerdoboz (The Tattered Jewel Box, 2018; first edition: 2009, in German: Schäbiges Schmuckkästchen, 2014), a collection of Eastern European travelogues balancing on the edge of fiction and essay. Her latest book Balaton (2020) portrays the hidden tensions under the surface of a both multicultural and hopelessly parochial environment of the most popular holiday resort of the 1980s in Hungary during the final years of dictatorship from the viewpoint of the stories’ young girl narrators. Kiss also teaches literature at the University of Miskolc. Her academic books include an exploration of photography and literature and a monograph on Paul Celan.
Photo © Lenke Szilágyi
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