Péter Zilahy
Péter Zilahy (born 1970 in Budapest) is a writer and performer whose prose and poetry has been widely translated and who has often used photography, interactive media and performance art in his work.
Literary work
His book of poems ''Statue Under White Sheet, Ready to Jump (original Lepel alatt ugrásra kész szobor)[1] was published in 1993. His dictionary novel The Last Window-Giraffe (original: Az utolsó ablakzsiráf) was published in 1998 and has since been translated into 27 languages. He has had exhibitions at the Ludwig Museum Budapest and the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany.
The Last Window-Giraffe
The Last Window-Giraffe is a memoir about the absurdity of everyday life under a dictatorship. It is written in the style of a children's dictionary reflected in the title Window-Giraffe (in Hungarian, Ablak=Window being the first item and Zsiráf=Giraffe being the last item in this A to Z). The dictionary explained the whole world in simple words, where everything was in order and problems were always solved.
The book also describes the events of the Belgrade protest in 1996-97 as being symbolic of all protests in its courage and absurdity. The book is filled with Zilahy's own photographs, and is an insight into the world behind the Iron Curtain.
Other work
Zilahy was editor-in-chief of Link Budapest, an Internet magazine for contemporary literature in English and Hungarian until 1999. He is the editor-in-chief of The World Literature Series.
References
- ↑ Péter Zilahy. "Lepel alatt ugrásra kész szobor". Goodreads.
External links
- Official website
- Biography from the international literature festival berlin
- Interview with Péter Zilahy on The Ledge
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