Artists

János Lackfi (1971, Budapest)

A recipient of the Hungarian Laurel Wreath Award and the Prima Primissima Award, he is a Hungarian writer, poet and literary translator. He held the János Térey Scholarship from 2020 to 2025.

I was born in Budapest in 1971 into a literary family. I am a writer, poet, literary translator and editor, as well as a firefighter, a soldier and a shepherd tending his flock – among other things. I have published seventy-six books: half poetry, half prose, half for adults and half for children. I have translated forty-three volumes from French. Many of my song lyrics are performed by various artists. I write plays, essays, columns, interviews, reviews, and countless other short pieces. I taught at Pázmány Péter Catholic University for seventeen years, during which time I had some twenty thousand students. I also worked for the same length of time as an editor of Nagyvilág, a literary journal dedicated to world literature. From 2003 to 2011, I served on the board of the Hungarian Association of Literary Translators. My humorous collection of essays on Hungarian identity, What Are Hungarians Like? (2012), sold more than 40,000 copies. I give over a hundred readings and literary performances every year. By the age of fifty, according to a conservative estimate, I had travelled the equivalent of circling the globe five times without ever leaving Hungary. I have performed before approximately 80,000 children and 120,000 adults. For thirteen years, together with Dániel Gryllus, I have been the poetic master of ceremonies and organiser of the Kaláka Poetry Courtyard (Kaláka Versudvar). I organise poetry improvisation events with the participation of wonderful fellow artists, and in my open-air Poetry Workshop, we write poems together – all sorts of people with all sorts of people. I have been teaching Creative Writing for twenty years, and around three hundred people are learning the tricks of prose writing through my online course. I am honoured to have received numerous awards, including the Attila József Prize, the Prima Primissima Award and the Hungarian Laurel Wreath Award.
I live in Zsámbék and have six children and five grandchildren.

János Lackfi, 2023