This year, for the first time, a Hungarian writing contest was organised in the framework of the Panodyssey project, which received 151 entries. The winners were selected by the platform’s Hungarian ambasadors, Anita Moskát and Péter Závada.

In the prose category, the winner is Gabriella Kiss and in the lyric category, Rebeka Kupihár.

This was the first time the contest was organized, open to authors whose work had not yet been published commercially. The call for entries in the lyric category was for public/political poetry reflecting on events in 2022, both domestic and international, and in the prose category for speculative fiction. A total of 151 entries were received by the deadline at the end of January, and the winners were selected by Panodyssey ambassadors Anita Moskát and Péter Závada.

The winner in the prose category was Gabriella Kiss' entry entitled Pótlás. In her laudation, Anita Moskát pointed out that the main question of the winning entry is quite simple on the surface: can the kindergarten teacher shortage be addressed by artificial intelligence? 'The power of the text lies in the way it rolls on and deepens this question: how this technology changes or shows a different perspective on human relationships,' she underlined.

In Gabriella Kiss' work, the real tension comes from the omissions, the life stories behind the half-words, the untold fates beyond the penguin handkerchief holder: 'This is how technology becomes a catalyst in the short story "Pótlás", to finally tell a story about everyday life and us as human beings.'

The first place of the poetry category was awarded to Rebeka Kupihár for her poems entitled ezek mind a pokolra jutnak, turisták és nem ismertek meg. 'Rebeka Kupihár's poems are about very relevant topical issues, yet without the slightest sign of didacticism or platitudes' - Péter Závada emphasized in his laudation. He also added that in Rebeka Kupihár's poignant poems we are witnessing an extremely sensitive linguistic-poetic staging of same-sex love, where questions of personal involvement are intertwined with questions of national destiny, and which operate with great precision and sense of proportion in their simplicity.

The awards were presented on the 27th of February at Tompa17. In addition to the 150 000 forints prize, the two winners will have the opportunity to present their texts not only on Könyves Magazin, but also on the international stage. The winning texts will soon be published on Panodyssey in English as well!

Photos: Gábor Valuska

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