András Petöcz

András Petőcz is a Hungarian writer and poet (Budapest, 27 August, 1959- )

Life

Petőcz began his career in literary life in 1981. He was the chief editor for over two years of the art periodical "Jelenlét" (Presence).Citation | last= | first= | author-link= | publication-date= | date= | year=1994 | title=Uj magyar irodalmi lexikon (New Hungarian Literary Encyclopedia) | periodical= | series= | publication-place=Budapest | place= | publisher=Akademiai Kiado | volume= | issue= | pages=904 | url= | isbn=963 05 6804 7 | doi= | oclc= | accessdate=2001-11-11 "The journal "Presence" started again in 1981 with András Petőcz as chief editor."] , which was published by the Faculty of Humanities at the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences in Budapest, and soon became a significant forum on contemporary literature.Citation | last=Petőcz | first=András | author-link= | publication-date= | date= | year=1997 | title=A Change of Guard in Writing: Notes on the Poetry of the 1980s | periodical= [http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/ The Hungarian Quarterly] | series= | publication-place=Budapest | place= | publisher= | volume=Autumn 1997 | issue=147 | pages=39 | url=http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no147/p39.htm | issn=0028-5390 | doi= | oclc= | accessdate=2001-11-11 "The 80s are therefore eminently important in the literature of the recent past, for the changes that took place at that time laid the foundations for the literary life of our day. Very typically, one of the first such initiatives was taken at the University of Budapest, where some of us started a literary and art review, Jelenlét (Presence). The political powers classified it as a student paper and as such they did not ban it; indeed, they could not have done so easily at a time when strikes were common in Poland. One of the first privately initiated periodicals, Jelenlét presented the latest distinctive literary, artistic and, if only covertly, political endeavours. The period was far from being uneventful--we participated in the student movements demanding an autonomous student forum and independent teaching, and created the "independent peace movement" which, unlike the official peace movement, urged disarmament not only for the US but also for the Soviet Union."] He graduated from Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences in 1986 where he studied Hungarian Literature and Language-History.

After obtaining his degree he was an assistant at Gorkii State Library for a short time, and then worked as an editor for longer and shorter periods on literary magazines. Since then he has been working as a professional writer.cite web |url=http://www.petoczandras.eu/angol/cv_angol.html |title=Biography |accessdate=2007-11-12 |publisher=Petőcz András |pages= |language=English |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ]

Petőcz has taken part in several international literary and art festivals, e.g. in Paris (1986), in Tarascon (France, 1988), in Marseille (1995). He has been working as a university and college lecturer for seven years.

Work

Poetry

Petőcz has published around 25 books, including poems for adults and children, essays, fiction and reviews. Petőcz poetry volumes include the book "A tenger dícsérete" (1994, ISBN 963 7971 51 3),cref|b and the poetry collections "Meduza" (2000, ISBN 963 9048 83 6) and "A napsütötte sávban" (2001, ISBN 963 9243 32 9).cref|d He also published a "collected poems book" under the title "Majdnem minden" ("Almost everything", 2002, ISBN 963 9243 56 6).

He also edited several volumes of avant-garde literature and worked as organizer for a variety of events showcasing experimental literature. He also was the editor of "Medium Art", a Selection of Hungarian Experimental Poetry.Citation | last= | first= | author-link= | publication-date= | date= | year= | title= | periodical= | series= | publication-place=Budapest | place= | publisher=Belletrist Association | volume= | issue= | pages= | url= [http://www.szepiroktarsasaga.hu/index.php?pageid=214 Belletrist Association] | = | doi= | oclc= | accessdate=2001-11-11 "Petocz has maden an anthology for the Hungarian Experimental Poetry in 1990, the 'Medium Art'."] cref|a In the eighties he was one of the "leaders" of Hungarian avant-garde poetry,Citation | last= | first= | author-link= | publication-date= | date= | year= | title=Új magyar irodalmi lexikon (New Hungarian Literary Encyclopedia) | periodical= | series= | publication-place=Budapest | place= | publisher=Akademia Kiado | volume= | issue=1994 | pages=1619 | url= | isbn=963 05 6804 7 | doi= | oclc= | accessdate=2001-11-11 "Petocz was the leader of the New Wave of the Hungarian Avant-garde"] having begun to work on sound poetry during the period.Citation | last=Szkarosi | first=Endre | author-link= | publication-date= | date= | year=2001 | title=A soundscape of contemporary Hungarian poetry | periodical=Visible Language | series= | publication-place= | place= | publisher= | volume= | issue= | pages=5 | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3982/is_200101/ai_n8942624/pg_5 | issn= | doi= | oclc= | accessdate=2001-11-05 "Andras Petocz began to work with sound poetry in the 1980s, as one of the (then) young poets inspired by the more and more assiduous presence of Magyar Muhely in Hungary. Petocz's poetry essentially is based on the tradition of French phonetic poetry: the strong role of repetition is combined with a poetic language constructed of phonemes, syllables and relatively few words. He has been collaborating with the outstanding Hungarian composer, Laszlo Sary."] His visual and concrete poetry is well known. Béla Vilcsek writes about his poetry: "Legends and extremes accompany András Petőcz on his home ground. He always has a dichotomy, either wanting to pay respects to classicism or to modernity, conservatism or avant-garde, sonnet or free verse, tradition or the new. In his mid-thirties, he already commands an authoritative reputation with his life-work, in both its quantity and quality. There are few writers like this among those in his field."Béla Vilcsek: Afterword (In: Andras Petocz: In Praise of the Sea, cover, 1999, ISBN 963 9101 51 6)"]

Prose

The more than six prose books András Petőcz has published contain essays and reviews such as "Idegenként, Európában" ("As a Stranger in Europe", 1997, ISBN 963 9101 02 8), a series of short stories called "Egykor volt házibarátaink" ("Once We Had House Friends, Chapters from a Family Saga", 2002, ISBN 963 547 632 9), and two novels "A születésnap" ("The Birthday", 2006, ISBN 963 9651 20 6) and "Idegenek" ("Strangers", 2007, ISBN 978 963 9651 54 8).

The Birthday

The novel is a family story over a period of 30 years. Tony the little boy narrator is special in that he does not get older. He remains a child as he looks at events around him. Everyone is preparing for the birthday of the head of the family while they look at the Big Photo Album. The 30 years of the novel brings to life what happened from the early sixties to the nineties, how people lived in Central Europe and refers to the change of system in Hungary in 1989. The little boy narrator, still waiting in vain for his father at the beginning of the celebrations, becomes a man due to his missing father and his memories. He tells the family stories "in one breath" using spoken expressions and personal remarks.Citation | last= | first= | author-link= | publication-date= | date= | year=2006 | title=see: editor Bela Bacso's note from "A szuletesnap" | periodical= | series= | publication-place=Budapest | place= | publisher=Palatinus | volume= | issue= | pages=cover | url= | isbn=963 9651 20 6 | doi= | oclc= | accessdate=2001-11-15]

Károly D. Balla writes about "A születésnap": “The author, who is himself on the threshold of dreams, redeems historical and family tragedies with angelic good humour, and what might make an adult grumpy and ill is rendered tolerable by the imagination of childhood memories and the genuineness of the hope in them.”cite web |url=http://www.hunlit.hu/petoczandras |title=Karacsonyi flodni (Christmas Jewish Cake) |accessdate=2007-11-05 |last=Balla |first=Károly D. |coauthors= |date= |work=Magyar Hírlap, [http://bdk.blogter.hu/?post_id=51370 Karoly D. Balla] |publisher= |pages= |language= |doi= |archiveurl=http://www.hunlit.hu/petoczandras,en |archivedate=2007-11-05 |quote= ]

trangers

In the novel an eight year old girl learns to lie in order to survive. It is not clear exactly where and when Strangers takes place. Somewhere in Europe, or the edges of Europe, but it could be somewhere in America or Asia. Perhaps in the twentieth century, but it could be the first decade of the twenty-first century. As the subtitle says, the story takes place "thirty minutes before the war". The little girl maintains human values even in a world of terror and oppression. Terrible things happen to small children on a daily basis. Across the border is the free world where there are no soldiers in charge, where you can travel freely. The free world might be reached through a rat infested tunnel. The novel deals with events that have already taken place in the 21st century and turns concrete events into fiction. It elaborates the terrorist atrocity of Beslan in Russia.Citation | last= | first= | author-link= | publication-date= | date= | year=2007 | title=see: editor Bela Bacso's note from "Idegenek" | periodical= | series= | publication-place=Budapest | place= | publisher=Palatinus | volume= | issue= | pages=cover | url= | isbn=978 963 9651 54 8 | doi= | oclc= | accessdate=2001-11-15]

György C. Kálmán writes about "Idegenek": “In the world of the novel – it is difficult to interpret Petőcz’s work any other way – everyone is an outsider. As they are in the outside world (suggests the novel). For in this world (in the novel and outside) the fact of being an outsider means to be vulnerable to a deadly threat (or is itself a threat), it means oppression, helplessness and determined opposition. Being an outsider is not just about a different use of language (or using a different language), clothes, skin colour or customs, but is embodied primarily in oppression and power – wherever the outsider may be. To be more precise, the defenceless and those in power are both outsiders for each other, and no matter who is in either position, for everyone else too.”György C. Kálmán about the "Idegenek" (Strangers), in: New Books from Hungary, [http://www.hungarianbookfoundation.hu published by Translation Fund of the Hungarian Book Foundation,] editor Ms.Dóra Károlyi, 2007, [http://www.es.hu/pd/display.asp?channel=KRITIKA0718&article=2007-0506-2025-06WYET original in Hungarian: Gyorgy C. Kalman: Hepiend nincs? in: Elet es Irodalom, 2007, HU-ISSN 0424-8848] ]

Prizes

Petőcz has received numerous literary prizes and awards for his work in literature, including the Lajos Kassák Literary Prize in 1987, which he received for his experimental poetry from the distinguished avantgarde literary journal Magyar Műhely (Hungarian Workshop).

Petőcz's poem "Európa metaforája" (Europe, metaphorically) won the Robert Graves Prizecref|c for best Hungarian poem of the year 1990.

In 1996 Petőcz was awarded the Attila József Prize by the cultural part of the Hungarian governmentcite web |url=http://www.camac.org/ver2/proto/residences_petocz_andras.htm |title=Andrâs Petőcz |accessdate=2007-11-11 |publisher=Centre d’Art. Marnay Art Centre |pages= |language=fr icon |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] as an official recognition of his work to date.

He is also a UNESCO-Aschberg Laureate, having been granted a bursary in 2006 for the residency program at CAMAC (Centre d’Art. Marnay Art Centre) in Marnay-sur-Seine.cite web |url=http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30866&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=205&URL_PAGINATION=40.html |title=UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme: Laureates 2006 |accessdate=2007-11-11 |year=2006 |publisher=UNESCO |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] to write a new novel.

In 2008 he received the Sándor Márai Prizecite web |url=http://www.kultura.hu/main.php?folderID=911&articleID=265887&ctag=articlelist&iid=1 |title=Laureates 2008 |accessdate=2008-01-24 |publisher=Ministry of Education and Culture |language=hu icon |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] awarded by the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture, for his novel Idegenek (Strangers).

Participations

András Petőcz has been to numerous writers’ residences and has been a guest at numerous international writers' meetings. He spent three months in the United States in 1998, where he took part in an international writers’ seminar within the framework of [http://www.uiowa.edu/~iwp/PROG/PROG_98AnRpt.html the International Writing Program] (IWP) in Iowa City. While there, he took part in events with about 25 writers from all over the world, including Israeli prose writer Igal Sarna.

From the IWP invitation, Petőcz contributed to several readings, including in New York, San Francisco and Portland, Maine. Similarly, he spent a month in 2001 at the Yaddo Art Center in Saratoga Springs, New York,cite web |url=http://www.petoczandras.eu/angol/curiculum.html |title=Curriculum |accessdate=2007-11-11 |publisher=Petocz Andras |pages= |language=English |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] where, among others, he met Rick Moody, the American prose writer.

In 2002 he moved to Lille, France for four years with his family and contributed to the work of the French journal and literary circle [http://www.hauteurs.fr/accueil.htm Hauteurs] .

Starting in January 2007, he spent three monthscite web |url=http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=6971&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |title=UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme: France - CAMAC |accessdate=2007-11-11 |date=2006-03-28 |publisher=UNESCO |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] at CAMAC and introduced his new novel "Idegenek" (Strangers) in French. In August 2007, he was invited to Switzerland by the Ledig-Rowohlt Foundation and spent three weeks at the Château de Lavigny International Writers' Residence. [cite web |url=http://www.chateaudelavigny.ch/residents.html |title=CHATEAU DE LAVIGNY - 2007 Season |accessdate=2007-11-11 |work= |publisher=Le Château de Lavigny: Writers' Residence |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ]

Notes

*
* [http://www.szombat.org/2007/0701idegenek.html Petőcz and a part of his novel "Idegenek" in the Jewish newspaper "Szombat" (Saturday)]
* The International Authors and Writers Who's Who, Editor: M.J. Shields, FIInfSc, MITI, Cambridge, England, 1993 ISBN 0 948875 51 8
* [http://www.uiowa.edu/~iwp/PROG/PROG_98AnRpt.html 1998: The International Writing Program (András Petőcz)]
* [http://www.kalligram.com/start.php?id=3&id_row=177&detail=1 Béla Vilcsek: Andras Petőcz, monograph] , published by Kalligram, 2001, ISBN 80-7149-427-5
* [http://www.szepiroktarsasaga.hu/index.php?pageid=214 Petőcz's Biography on the homepage of Belletrist Association (in Hungarian)]
* [http://www.kultura.hu/main.php?folderID=1181&articleID=263226&ctag=articlelist&iid=1 Petőcz's interview about the novel "Idegenek" (Strangers) on the homepage of the Hungarian Cultural Ministry (in Hungarian)]
* [http://www.168ora.hu/cikk.php?id=7480 Petőcz's interview in the Hungarian political weekly "168 óra" about what it means to be a "stranger" (in Hungarian)]
* [http://www.pimmedia.hu/object.184a3061-f0f3-40b4-b8a5-a1e7b4eb3816.ivy Petőcz's biography and works (audio) on the homepage of the Museum of Literature in Budapest.]
* citation |last=Petõcz |first=András |publication-date= |date=Autumn 1997 |year=1997 |title=A Change of Guard in Writing: Notes on the Poetry of the 1980s |periodical= [http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/ The Hungarian Quarterly] |series= |publication-place=Hungary |place=Budapest |publisher=the Society of the Hungarian Quarterly
volume=38 |issue=147 |pages=39 |url=http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no147/p39.htm | issn=0028-5390 |doi= |oclc= |accessdate=2007-11-11
* Új magyar irodalmi lexikon (New Hungarian Literary Encyclopedia), editor: Laszlo Peter, published by Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994. ISBN 963 05 6804 7 .
* Medium-Art, Selection of Hungarian Experimental Poetry, editors Zoltan Frater and Andras Petőcz, published by Magveto, 1990, Budapest, ISBN 963 14 1680 1
* András Petőcz - László Sary: Közeledések és távolodások - Approaching and Departing, Sound poetry record/disc, published by HUNGAROTON, 1990, SLPX 31392.
* András Petőcz's poems and biography in English: "The Maecenas Anthology of Living Hungarian Poetry", editor: István Tótfalusi, published by Maecenas Könyvek, Budapest, 1997, ISBN 963 9025 28 3
* András Petőcz's poems and biography in English: "In Quest of the Miracle Stag: The Poetry of Hungary", editor: Adam Makkai, published by The International Association of Hungarian Language and Culture, Budapest, 2003, ISBN 963 210 814 0

References

External links

* [http://www.petoczandras.eu/ András Petőcz's homepage]
* [http://www.hunlit.hu/petoczandras,en András Petőcz's page on the HUNLIT literature database]
* [http://www.c3.hu/~mediumar/PETVERS1.HTM Andras Petőcz's poems in English - In praise of the sea]
* [http://www.petoczandras.eu/angol/szoveg/3tord.pdf Andras Petőcz's poems in English - in a row of sunlight]
* [http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no147/p45.htm Hungarian poetry selected by Andras Petőcz]
* [http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no147/p39.htm András Petőcz: A Change of Guard in Writing (about the Hungarian Poetry)]
* [http://iwp.info-science.uiowa.edu/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0internat-internat%2ciowawrit%2clivefrom%2cpeternaz-01-0-0--0prompt-10---4----dtx--0-1l--1-en-50---20-about-petocz--00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=internat&cl=CL1.1&d=HASH01d0de702ce76fc36873060c 1998 IWP Author Interviews, András Petőcz (audio and video)]
* [http://www.camac.org/ver2/proto/residences_petocz_andras.htm András Petőcz in the CAMAC ART CENTER]
* [http://at-lamp.its.uiowa.edu/virtualwu/index.php/archive/record/the_long_and_short_of_it_writing_short_fiction_and_shorter_fiction/ Iowa Audio interview with Andras Petőcz about writing prose versus poetry]
* [http://www.palatinuskiado.hu/?pid=30&idbooks=1541 The homepage of "Palatinus" (Petőcz's publisher)]
* [http://www.hlo.hu:80/object.e281ce8b-6e41-4028-b072-402298abed91.ivy The Hungarian Literature Online about the book of András Petöcz: In a row of sunlight]
* [http://www.hungarianpresence.ca/Culture/Literature/varnai-interview-e.cfm "It is good to be a stranger" – interview with award winning Hungarian writer Andras Petöcz.]
* [http://xpatloop.com:80/news/poet_continues_to_enrich_hungary_and_america_10_years_after_us_cultural_exchange András Petöcz's reading in English in Budapest]
* [http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no191/2.shtml András Petöcz: Strangers (Excerpt from the novel in The Hungarian Quarterly)]