We are very pleased to inform that the honorable participant of our project and well known Hungarian poet, translator and journalist, Mrs Balla Zsófia (Budapest) has received the prize for the Wreath of Laurels of the Hungarian Republic (co-laureate Anna Kiss).
The prize, which was established in 1996 and is second in importance to the ultimate Kossuth and Széchenyi prizes, is awarded by the government to two outstanding achievements in literature per year. This year, related to the Hungarian National Memorial Day of the 1848 Revolution and War of Independence, the award ceremony took place in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest on 15 March 2008 and was held by Mr. Istvan Hiller, Minister of Culture of Hungary.
Mrs Balla, who among others received the Attila József Prize in 1996, had a recent appearance in “Overcoming Dictatorships” during a reading in Budapest on 12 October 2007. Selected essays and poems appear in the anthology Present tensions. European writers on overcoming dictatorships (Budapest: CEU Press 2008), which will be presented during a workshop in Trent on 9 May 2008.
