Born 1943 in Budapest; 1962-67: student at Moscow University; 1968: convicted on a charge of “activities hostile to the state” and consequently debarred from all state-controlled employent; earned living as translator from German and Russian; 1970s: involvement in Hungary’s democratic opposition movement; 1984-85: award-holder under the Berlin Artists’ Programme, and member of Bremen University’s Research Centre for Eastern European Studies; 1987-95: freelance journalist and political commentator in Vienna; 1992-96: member of the board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation; 1995-99: Director of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Berlin, and literary curator of ‘Focus on Hungary’ at the 1999 Frankfurt Book Fair.

Photo: © Brigitte Friedrich

Awards:

• Adelbert von Chamisso Prize 1995
• Gryphius Special Prize 1999
• Gold Plaque of the President of the Republic of Hungary 2000
• Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary