Born in 1967, Krisztina Tóth is one of the most popular and best known Central European authors, and the recipient of numerous awards. She studied sculpting and literature in Budapest, spending two years in Paris during her university years. She has published eleven books of poetry and ten books of prose to date. In 2015, her novel Aquarium featured on the shortlist of the German Internationaler Literaturpreis. Her works have been translated into 25 languages; her novels, short stories and poems can be read in German, French, English, Polish, Finnish, Swedish, Czech and Spanish, among others. Her bestselling short novel The Monkey’s Eyes was published in Hungary in 2023; an English translation is forthcoming from Seven Stories Press in the US. Her children’s books treat topics considered unusual, even taboo, in children’s literature. Mum Had an Operation explains cancer to schoolchildren in a humorous and lyrical tone, while the main characters in A Story for Nose-Blowers are two members of the ‘Snot family’ who live in the right and the left cavity of a nose. The Girl Who Wouldn’t Talk was inspired by the story of her own adopted daughter. Her musical Wanderer of the Years explains passing and letting go to children, whereas Pokémon Go and The Rubber Bat are for adults.
Her plays include The Bat, published in English translation in the compilation Plays from Contemporary Hungary: ‘Difficult Women’ and Resistant Dramatic Voices (Bloomsbury, 2023). Two collections of her short stories have also been published in English translation, Pixel (Seagull Books, 2019) and Barcode (Jantar Publishing, 2023). Her work was featured in the anthology New Order: Hungarian Poets of the Post 1989 Generation (Arc Publications, 2010). The first edition of her poetry in English, My Secret Life: Selected Poems, translated by George Szirtes, is forthcoming from Bloodaxe in 2025.
Author photo: Valuska Gábor
