A factory worker in Debrecen, Tar became well-known in literary circles when he wrote a sociographic study about Hungarian workers in the GDR at the age of 35. He garnered prestigious prizes for his novels and short stories, including the Attila József and the Sándor Márai Prize. In the late 1990s, it was revealed that he had been an informant for the communist secret police from 1976, writing reports on his closest friends, including well-known writers and academics. A perpetrator and a victim, he became an outcast, and died at the age of 64.
Photo © Lenke Szilágyi
was born in 1974 in Budapest. She teaches music theory and solfeggio. She has been publishing short stories since 2005.
Born in 1964 in Békéscsaba, László Szilasi is a literary historian, working as associate professor at the University of Szeged. His books include Szentek hárfája (Saints’ Harp, 2010), an ‘intellectual crime story’ that takes place in the 19th century, and Amíg másokkal voltunk (While We Were with Others, 2016), three novellas about three Hungarian writers. His prizes include the Rotary Literary Prize (2010) and the Déry Tibor Prize (2013).
is a versatile author who has published two blog books (a journal of an expectant mother and the ‘memoir of a baby’), a collection of essays, and three nonfiction books about the private life of ladies in fin-de-siècle Budapest, in addition to her novels: Finno-Ugrian Vampire (2002, about a young vampire who does not want to suck blood and has literary ambitions; published also in English, Polish and Italian), Communist Monte Cristo (2006, European Union Prize for Literature, 2009), The Last Centaur (2009, “snapshots of Budapest’s permanent hangover after the change of regime”), The Restless (2011, about 19th century Hungarian exiles and table-turning), 7 Mandrake Street (2012, a children’s book), and Mindreader (2013, a novel about the life of deaf people in the 19th century). Szécsi is a recipient of the European Union Prize for Literature (2009) and the Attila József Prize (2011).
was born in Miskolc in 1977 and lives in Budapest, making a living as editor at a publisher of trade books. She started blogging in 2002, and has been publishing short prose pieces in prestigious literary journals since 2008. In 2008, Örkény Theatre performed a one-act drama written from her blog entries.
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