The Hungarian Writers' Residency Program of the Petőfi Cultural Agency opened its first cross-border residency in Sepsiszentgyörgy in 2022. From January 2023, Marosvásárhely will also welcome domestic and foreign writers, poets, translators, and scientists who wish to retreat for a period of two weeks or up to three months.
The Program started in 2019 and currently boasts 8 locations in Hungary rich in cultural values. The writers' residencies in Pécs, Debrecen, Vajszló, Vácrátót, Nyíregyház, Kapolcs, Pannonhalm and the Translation House in Balatonfüred, operated in cooperation with the Magyar FordítóHáz Foundation, are becoming increasingly popular both domestically and internationally, both Hungarian and foreign authors have already been guests and worked in one of the residencies, informs the PKÜ press department. ,As they write, the Petőfi Cultural Agency has always considered it important to enrich the program with locations from the Carpathian Basin, so the addition of Marosvásárhely after György Sepsiszent is a huge achievement, since it is one of the outstanding cities of Hungarian cultural life, which has always been a literary and scientific center volt. "We have so far accepted applications from more than half a hundred resident artists, and in addition to numerous Hungarian writers and poets, we also had guests from Austria, India, Albania, Romania, Kosovo, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Bulgaria, America, Egypt, and Kyrgyzstan. The experience so far has confirmed our preliminary expectations: the residencies operated jointly with municipalities or local organizations not only help the creators to implement their work plans, but also to get to know the given city or region better and more deeply.
Our first residencies in Transylvania also serve this purpose: they continue to weave a densely woven cultural network of experiences and experiences, primarily through literary means, but also with all personal encounters," said Levente Pál Dániel, the professional deputy general manager of the Petőfi Cultural Agency. The creative venue is provided by the Studium Prospero Foundation. The Studium HUB functions as a community space in the city center, where there are also service apartments and apartments for resident doctors and artists that meet all needs and are equipped to a 21st century standard. The head of the foundation is Levente Vass, who has been a committed supporter of the Marosvásárhely residency since joining the Hungarian Writers' Residency Program. The first resident guest, art writer, critic and editor Norbert Vass, who was born in Kaposvár in 1985, will occupy his creative space in January 2023. His short prose, poems, studies, book and exhibition reviews have been published on various platforms since 2009.
He is working on a series of short stories depicting an imagined, timeless Somogyszág governed by superstitions, the latest stories of which he can "put down on paper" in January 2023 in the picturesque Marosvásárhely. The Hungarian Writers' Residency Program is constantly waiting for applications from Hungarian authors who would like to spend a few weeks of creative freedom in Marosvásárhely.
Source: Szekelyhon.ro
Picture: Vince Haáz
