Szvoren was born in Budapest in 1974. She graduated from the Liszt Academy in 1998, and has received a wide range of awards for her works published since 2005: the Tibor Déry Award (2010), the Sándor Bródy Award (2011), the Artisjus Literary Award (2013), the Attila József Award (2013), the European Union Award for Literature (2015), the Mészöly Award (2019), and the Libri Award for Literature (2019). After her debut book came Nincs, és ne is legyen (None, and Nor Should There Be, 2012), a collection of short stories, Az ország legjobb hóhéra (The Best Executioner in the Land, 2015), Verseim (My Poems, 2018) and Mondatok a csodálkozásról (Sentences on Wonder), published in 2021. With its dark tone, gloomy atmosphere, and masterfully crafted stories, Szvoren's work draws the reader in and makes it difficult to let go. Yet her texts are far from disheartening or depressive. Her most recent book, for example, seeks to identify a literary response to questions such as why blind people ride chairlifts, just how many things can cause a horse to bolt, what the consequences might be if we move into houses with lower ceilings, and how many uses there are for hardback copies of Hungary's Chronicon Pictum.
Szvoren's prose is supremely moving and often breathtaking. With the help of a superb harpist and an incredible actress, Szvoren's Müpa Budapest debut promises to be an absolutely unmissable event for all lovers of Hungarian literature.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest