Péter Zilahy

Born 1970 in Budapest.

Studied English, philosophy and anthropology at Elte University in Budapest.

1995-98 docent at the BME University.

1997-1999 editor in chief of Link Budapest, an Internet magazine for contemporary literature.

Since 1998 he is an editor for the international series at JAK books, there he published works by Victor Pelevin, Ian McEwan and Arnon Grunberg as well as contemporary German authors such as Ingo Schulze, Jenny Erpenbeck, Kathrin Röggla.

In his works Zilahy often uses different media like photography, performance art and multimedia. His book “The Last Window Giraffe” – published 1998 with Abo Ovo in Budapest – has since been translated into fourteen languages, including the German translation by Terézia Mora (published in 2004 with the Eichborn Verlag). Resulting from this successful publication a multimedia CD-Rom in four languages was published in 2001 (first presented in Germany at the LiteraturWERKstatt Berlin) and in 2001 the radio stations Saarländischer Rundfunk and DeutschlandRadio produced a radio play based on the book. In 2003 “The Last Window Giraffe” was awarded the Book of the Year prize in Ukraine.

2002 solo exhibition in the Ludwigmuseum in Budapest. 2003 solo exhibition at Akademie Schloss Solitude „If You Go East, The West Will Be Behind You“. In 2003 publication of his text collection “Drei” in Edition Solitude.

2000 Grant of the German Foreign Ministry. 2001 visiting scholar at New York University. 2001 prize of the Preussische Seehandlung Foundation. 2002 Stiftung Kulturfonds for a residency at Schloss Wiepersdorf.