On the evening of 27th February, the winners of the highly successful first Hungarian Panodyssey writing contest will be revealed during the award ceremony. The contest was organised in the framework of the Panodyssey international project, with the mediation of Pro Progressione and the organisation of Könyves Magazin. Anita Moskát and Péter Závada, the Hungarian ambassadors of Panodyssey, have selected the shortlisted candidates and will decide on the winners as well.

As part of the collaboration, Panodyssey launched a creative writing contest, which was a huge success. We invited applications from authors whose work has not yet been published commercially.

By the deadline of 31st of January, Könyves Magazin received a total of 151 entries, of which 47 entries were submitted in the lyric, and 104 in the prose category. All of the submitted texts are available on Panodyssey in the creative room of the writing contest.

Applications were invited for the two topics below:

Lyric: "How can political poetry not be a forgettable propaganda?", with three public/political poems reflecting on the events of 2022, either domestic or international.

Prose: The competition called for speculative fiction in which the authors say something about the present, something they are concerned with now, something they feel is topical, and where the speculative element brings us closer to our own reality.

The ten finalists were selected by Panodyssey ambassadors Anita Moskát and Péter Závada. The two winners will receive a prize of 150,000 Forints and will have the opportunity to present their texts not only on Könyves Magazin but also on the international stage.

You can read the shortlisted texts, from which we will award one winner in each category, by clicking on the contestants' names:

Finalists of the prose category are:

Gabriella Kiss

Kornél Szepesi

Tamás Szerényi

Panni Szirmai

Bence Vincze

Finalists of the Lyrics category are:

Kinga Fancsali

Rebeka Kupihár

Zsolt András Máthé

Anna Emilia Szűcs

Péter Vajsenbek

The above article is the English translation of the original Hungarian article published on Könyves Magazin