With the publication of the English-language anthology Under the Pannonian Sky by Seagull Books, ten Hungarian women poets are being introduced to an international readership. Edited and translated by the renowned literary translator Ottilie Mulzet, the volume brings together poetic voices from the 20th century to the present day, making them accessible beyond Hungary for the first time with such breadth and reach.

Mulzet, regarded as one of the most important mediators of Hungarian literature in the Anglo-American world and internationally known for her translations of László Krasznahorkai, has assembled a panorama spanning several generations. Alongside canonical authors such as Ágnes Nemes Nagy, Zsófia Balla, Zsuzsa Rakovszky and Krisztina Tóth, the anthology also features poets including Anna Szabó T., Gizella Hervay and Magda Székely, whose work interweaves historical experience with personal perspective.

The poems move between collective memory and individual experience, addressing themes such as the traumas of the 20th century, the Holocaust, political change after 1989, as well as questions of identity, motherhood and survival. It is precisely this combination of historical consciousness and intimacy that gives the volume its distinctive power.

In an interview, Mulzet emphasised that in east-central Europe male authors have traditionally been perceived as the “voice of the national conscience”. The women poets represented in the anthology never claimed to speak on behalf of the nation, yet they were often the ones to engage with the most difficult and deeply repressed subjects. Their moral clarity and literary consistency, Mulzet argued, make these voices particularly relevant today.

With Under the Pannonian Sky, Hungarian women’s poetry gains an international platform that reaches well beyond a narrow circle of specialists. The anthology demonstrates that Hungarian literature — beyond its most familiar names — possesses a rich and multifaceted poetic heritage that is now entering global literary exchange more visibly.

Artificial intelligence was used for the translation of parts of the original German text.

Additional info: https://hlo.hu/news/new-release-under-a-pannonian-sky-ten-women-poets-from-hungary.html

Read poems from the book:

https://hlo.hu/new-work/agnes-nemes-nagy-night-oak.html

https://hlo.hu/new-work/cloven_skies_poems.html

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