Sándor Szúnyogh

The poet, journalist, teacher and translator Sándor Szúnyogh was born on the 3rd of March, 1942, in Dolnji Lakoš. He completed elementary school in his home village and, in 1963, he finished studying at the College of Education in Murska Sobota. He graduated from the university in Szombathely and, after that, taught at the elementary school in Domanjševci. In 1970, he became a member of staff at the Népújság weekly. From 1992 onwards up until his death, he was the director of the Studio for Hungarian Programmes at RTV Slovenija.

As a poet, he introduced himself to the public in the 1960s. He became an important personality of Hungarian literature in Slovenia and left behind a rich literary heritage for future generations. Szúnyogh´s work combines traditional messages with an avant-gardist approach in modern form. He died on the 10th of January, 1998, in Lendava and his premature death kept him from writing more of his longer poems on different topics, which often contained self-irony and sarcastic ridicule.

He was the founding father of the Hungarian literature of Prekmurje, therefore, a literary competition was named after him in which young writers compete for the Sándor Szúnyogh-Prize.

Some of his works include: