Peter Hargitai
Encyclopedia
Peter Hargitai is an award winning poet
, novelist, and translator of Hungarian literature.
, Hungary
and as a child lived in the small town of Balástya
. At the age of nine, he immigrated with his family shortly after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst
with a Master of Fine Arts. He taught at University of Miami
, and Umass Amherst.
He is on the English faculty at Florida International University
in Miami.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, novelist, and translator of Hungarian literature.
Life
He was born in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and as a child lived in the small town of Balástya
Balástya
Balástya is a village in Csongrád county, in the Southern Great Plain region of southern Hungary.-Geography:It covers an area of and has a population of 3624 people ....
. At the age of nine, he immigrated with his family shortly after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
with a Master of Fine Arts. He taught at University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
, and Umass Amherst.
He is on the English faculty at Florida International University
Florida International University
Florida International University is an American public research university in metropolitan Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus in University Park...
in Miami.
Awards
- 2009 Martin Luther King, Jr. Poetry Award (1st Place) Miami Gardens, Florida
- 2009 Silver Medal of Honor for teaching Literature of Exile, awarded at Hungarian House, Los Angeles
- 2006 "Medal of Freedom" presented by the American Hungarian Federation in Washington, D.C.
- 2006 American Hungarian Federation Grant to write the novel Daughter of the Revolution in both English and Hungarian languages
- 2000 "Pro Cultura Hungarica" Medal from the Hungarian Ministry
- 1994 Fust-Milan Prize for Translation from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Traveler by Antal Szerb http://books.google.com/books?id=mYMnAQAAIAAJ&q=%22The+Traveler%22+1994+Puski-Corvin+books&dq=%22The+Traveler%22+1994+Puski-Corvin+books&hl=en&ei=EENHTYuwAoP68AbqnLzvAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAA
- 1992 Florida Arts Council Panelist
- 1990 Individual Fiction Fellowship (Florida Arts Council)
- 1988 Academy of American Poets Harold Morton Landon Landon Translation Award
- 1988 Fulbright Grant, Hungary
- 1978 Florida International University, Translation Fellow
- 1976 Martha Holden Jennings Foundation Grant for Poetry Forum Program
- 1975 National Endowmentfor the Arts: Teaching Poetry