News

Ottó Tolnai Has Passed Away

On 27 March, Kossuth Prize-winning writer, poet, and translator Ottó Tolnai passed away at the age of 84.

Two important literary festivals will soon take place in Budapest: Spring Margó between April 4 and 6 and PesText between May 7 and 10. Find out more about the programmes on offer.

"It is a great pleasure to follow a remarkable writer as his successive novels detail the critical junctures of 20th century Hungarian history, giving his readers a Hungarian lesson." Sándor Radnóti reviews Pál Závada's 2024 novel Ash and Field for Revizor.

"We have to be born with a name and then climb into our grave with it, and this Aurél is rather Romanian-sounding, I should at least choose some respectable Hungarian name, or keep the original name, which he gave me for life, not to borrow until I find a better one." – An excerpt from Zsombor Aurél Biró's debut 2024 novel I Often Dream of Waking Up on My Father's Shoulder, translated by Timea Sipos and Ádám Dániel Németh.

"for they still want to live / through our skin / suck our past out from our bones / trapped / in our memories" – Three original poems from Hungarian-American poet, translator, and author Gabor G. Gyukics.

We continue our emerging translators series with a selection of three short poems from Dániel Nagy's 2024 volume It Seems That Feelings Are Back in Fashion, translated by Tyler Langendorfer.

Ádám Nádasdy and Peter Sherwood will discuss forms of address in Hungarian and English on March 24 in a lecture titled ‘What sayest thou, Bully Bottom?’.

"Singability is an important concept for singers and lyricists. It sometimes comes down to not having too many consonants clogging things up – making sure you have long, open vowels on the soaring notes." – A fascinating essay by David-Houston Hill that offers a peek behind the curtains into the world of translating Hungarian musical lyrics into English.

"People feel abandoned and ignored by the elite. This fosters anger and drives support for far-right parties." – Eszter Kállay interviews French writer Didier Eribon, whose 2009 book Returning to Reims was recently published in Hungarian by Napvilág Publishing.

"Timar puzzled his head as to the position of this woman, who chose her words so well and expressed herself so sensibly. He could not reconcile it with this hut, which was more like a cave, and with the residence on this lonely island in the midst of a wilderness." – An excerpt from the 1872 novel The Man with the Golden Touch, written by Mór Jókai who was born 200 years ago this month, and translated by Agnes Hegan Kennard.

Literary and cultural historian, writer, and university professor Marianna D. Birnbaum has passed away at 90 years old.

Exciting times for fans of György Gömöri! From a new autobiography to a significant literary prize, the Hungarian-English literery historian, poet, translator, and university professor has had a busy few months.

For the next in HLO's Starter Pack Series, in honour of the 19th-century Hungarian novelist Mór Jókai, born 200 years ago, Hanna Zelma Horányi reads his classic The Man with the Golden Touch in an 1894 translation by Agnes Hegan Kennard, and basks in a tale of hope and ambition, humorously and sensitively told.

"You’re a hopeless case. You know, don’t you, that we’ll never go home now? We’ll be vacationing here forever, always staying in the cheapest hostels, always choosing the cheapest dishes on the menu, because we’re Hungarian"—patriotic self-pity and gloom on the sunny streets of Italy, in Panni Puskás's short story, translated by Elizabeth Lukács Chesla.

The curators of the Hungarian pavilion at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition determined that nothing would better represent Hungary in the art and cultural capital of the world than to release Jókai’s works in a deluxe hundred-volume jubilee edition (...) – Noémi Szécsi's portrait on one of Hungary's best known and most prolific writers Mór Jókai who was born 200 years ago today.

In this fascinating essay, Diana Senechal dives into the life and work of writer and translator Grácia Kerényi, who was not only a "groundbreaker in her own right, but an exceptional supporter, critic, and promoter of [...] Tamás Cseh and Géza Bereményi.

We continue our latest emerging translators series with an irreverent excerpt from Ágota Benedek's diary Rumbarumbam written during the surreal days of quarantine, in a translation by Sára Török.

"In his new poetry volume, Ádám Nádasdy systematically dismantles the massive edifices of a fulfilled adulthood, the tower blocks of a stiffened personality..." – Eve Horváth reviews Ádám Nádasdy's 2024 poetry collection Rocking Boat (Billeg a csónak) for Litera.

My Secret Life is a collection of Krisztina Tóth’s poems, translated to English by George Szirtes, and published by Bloodaxe Books. Its online launch and reading will take place on February 12.

We continue our latest emerging translators series with a quirky allegorical tale from journalist and writer István Veres, translated by Gergely Gombos.

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