POT-VOT (Poets of Today – Voices of Tomorrow) is a collaborative project of 5 of our partners that brings poetry and contemporary poets closer to young people, teachers and local communities in each partner country. Now we would like to introduce to you our artistic team.
Márton Simon is a Hungarian poet, translator and slammer living in Budapest. He has been publishing poems since 2004, he has three volumes of poetry: Dalok a magasföldszintről (L’Harmattan, Libri, 2010 and 2014), Polaroidok (Libri, 2013) and Rókák esküvője (Jelenkor, 2018). His debut volume, Songs for 3:45AM, was published by the Offending Adam Press in 2021 in Timea Sipos’s translation. He studied aesthetics and communication at Pázmány Péter University, than graduated at Károli Gáspár University at the Japanese department. He received different literary prizes and fellowships: Móricz Zsigmond Ösztöndíj, Horváth Péter Irodalmi Ösztöndíj, fellowship of Visegrad Literary Residency Program.
Nikoletta Szekeres is a literary critic, member of the board of the Hungarian Children’s Book Forum (HUBBY), author and editor of the children’s and youth literature handbook Mesebeszéd (Minerva, 2017). Born in Budapest in 1978, she graduated from the Pázmány Péter Catholic University Hungarian Literature and Linguistics, and is a lecturer at the Károli Gáspár Reformed University of Budapest, specializing in children’s and youth literature. When the HUBBY association was founded, she wanted Hungary to be reintegrated into the international circulation, to become an IBBY member again, to be awarded the Children’s Book of the Year Award, and she was also interested in a number of projects, all of which had the same goal: how to bring contemporary Hungarian children’s and youth literature to children and professionals, how to inspire new research on the subject, and how to link it with canonical and classical literature.
Kristóf Horváth was born in Budapest, where he currently lives and works. He is also known as Színész Bob (Actor Bob) and comes from a theatrical background, that’s why he would prefer to avoid drama, but that is also why he can’t. His family didn’t want him to play any musical instruments, so he had to use speech to arrive at the delusion of being a musician. Kristóf Horváth has been working as a theatre and film actor for over 15 years and played in 1 hét awarded Best Hungarian Short Film by student jury (2004), Gyengébb napok awarded Best Short Film in Hungary (2008) and Sturmland shown at the Berlin International Film Festival (2014). Moreover, he is two times National Poetry Slam Championship winner, founder of the Knowledge is Power Group, a countrywide talent education system, and leads drama courses for kids. Fearing being useless, he despises the “l’art pour l’art” ideal and is constantly fighting himself to live up to the image of the “useful artist”.
Imola Julianna Szabó (born 1984, Budapest) is a “Typeandpixelstevedore”, writer, graphic designer, illustrator and multimedia artist. She studied dance theoretic at Hungarian Dance University. She had written five books: Varratok (L’Harmattan, 2014), Kinőtt szív (L’Harmattan, 2015), Lakása van bennem. Jelenkor, 2019), Rókamók és Círmacs (Cerkabella, 2020), Holtak aranya, holdak ezüstje / Złoto zmarłych, srebro księżyców (Cser, 2020). She received different literary and art prizes and fellowships: Móricz Zsigmond Literary Scholarship (2014), Beautiful Hungarian Book Prize (2015, 2016), Aranyvackor Prize (2015), 50 Young Talents Programme (2015), Írók Boltja Literary Scholarship (2016), WFA/Poland Scholarship (2020), Tengerszem Book Prize (2020), Molnár István Prize (2016, 2018), Szabó Magda Exhibition Prize (2021), Erzsébetvárosi Literary Scholarship (2022). She is a mother of three children. They are living with nine rescued animals in the countryside, Rókadomb.