Grażyna Plebanek and Noémi Szécsi Book Tour Launch, 17-20 October, Oxford, London, Manchester, Edinburgh
We are delighted to announce the UK Book Tour Launch of two our wonderful authors, the bestselling Polish writer Grażyna Plebanek, and Noémi Szécsi, the Hungarian winner of the European Union Prize for Literature.
Grażyna Plebanek is a bestselling, highly acclaimed author in her native Poland. Plebanek’s latest novel Illegal Liaisons is her first to be translated into English. In 2011 Plebanek was awarded the Literary Prize Zlote Sowy for her contribution to promoting Poland abroad. She lives in Brussels, Belgium.
Noémi Szécsi is at the heart of the new generation of Hungarian authors. Her second novel, Kommunista Monte Cristo (‘The Communist Monte Cristo’, 2006) won the European Union Prize for Literature in 2009. The Finno-Ugrian Vampire, her first novel to be translated into English, was selected for European Literature Night 2012.
Find out more about translators: Danusia Stok and Peter Sherwood.
We would like to thank Polish Cultural Institute in London and Balassi Institute, Hungarian Cultural Centre London for the generous support in organising these events.
Wednesday, 17 October – Oxford
Grażyna Plebanek and Noémi Szécsi, chaired by Tibor Fischer
Albion Bookstore Oxford, 6.00pm
34 Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6AA
Tibor Fischer is a British novelist and short story writer. In 1993 he was selected by the literary magazine Granta as one of the 20 best young British writers.
Thursday, 18 October – London
Grażyna Plebanek in conversation with Maggie Gee
Belgravia Books, 6.30pm
59 Ebury Street, London SW1W 0NZ
Maggie Gee has written eleven acclaimed novels, including The Ice People, My Cleaner, My Driver and The White Family, a collection of short stories, The Blue, and a memoir of her life as a writer, My Animal Life. She has judged many prizes including the Booker and has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the International IMPAC Award. Her books have been translated into 14 languages. Maggie was the first female Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, 2004-2008, and the first conference about her writing was held at St Andrew’s University in August 2012. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.
Noémi Szécsi in conversation with George Szirtes
Balassi Institute, Hungarian Cultural Centre London, 7.00pm
10 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7NA
Top Shelf Jazz – Fine Purveyors of Filthy Swing – will provide live entertainment! This event is not for the faint hearted – possible visit from a vampire.
George Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1948 and came to England as a refugee in 1956. He has published several books and won various prizes including the1980 Faber Memorial prize for The Slant Door and the T S Eliot Prize for Reel in 2005. Beside his work in poetry and translation he has written Exercise of Power, a study of the artist Ana Maria Pacheco, and, together with Penelope Lively, edited New Writing 10 published in 2001. George Szirtes lives near Norwich with his wife, the painter Clarissa Upchurch.
Friday, 19 October – Manchester
Sex and the Cities: Anjali Joseph, Grażyna Plebanek and Noémi Szécsi
Manchester Literature Festival, 7.30pm
Sex and the Cities: Anjali Joseph, Grażyna Plebanek and Noémi Szécsi
Paris, London and Bombay form a backdrop for a young woman’s search for fulfillment in Anjali Joseph’s Another Country. Her first novel Saraswati Park won the Betty Trask Prize and India’s Vodafone Crossword Book Award for Fiction. Grażyna Plebanek is the author of four highly acclaimed novels including Illegal Liaisons – a bestseller in her native Poland and set in the world of Brussels eurocrats, it explores desire and family drama from a male perspective. Noémi Szécsi’s linguistic tour de force, The Finno-Ugrian Vampire, tells the story of a reluctant young vampire in contemporary Budapest, experimenting with her sexuality and striving to become a children’s author against the wishes of her 200-year-old grandmother. They will be discussing everything from sexuality to the importance of setting in their fiction with local author Sherry Ashworth. This event is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute, Balassi Institute, Hungarian Cultural Centre London and Stork Press.
Saturday, 20 October – Edinburgh
Grażyna Plebanek and A.M. Bakalar in conversation
Blackwell’s Bookshop, 3.00pm
52-63 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1YS
A.M. Bakalar was born and raised in Poland before she moved to the UK in 2004. Madame Mephisto is her first novel and was one of the books nominated by the readers to the Guardian First Book Award. A.M. Bakalar lives with her partner, a drum and bass musician, in London. She is currently at work on her second novel.
Polish Salon (event in Polish)
Grażyna Plebanek and A.M.Bakalar in conversation
Polish Salon, 7.00pm
Sikh Sanjog and Punjab’n De Rasoi, Social Enterprise Community Cafe
122/124 Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5DT
RSVP kasia@caproject.co.uk
