Kossuth Prize-winning writer István Szilágyi, the founding editor-in-chief of Helikon, died in Cluj-Napoca on March 13, 2024, at the age of 86, the newspaper he founded announced this on Facebook.
“István Szilágyi was born in Cluj-Napoca in 1938, the family moved to Zila in 1940, and the world of the small town of Szilágy remained a defining experience. With a law degree behind him, he published his first writings in Utunk, which he later worked on and became deputy editor-in-chief from 1968. 1990 editor-in-chief of the re-established literary magazine Helikon from 1964 onwards. His first book of short stories, Sorskovács, was published in 1964, and his first novel, Üllő, dobszó, harang, was published in 1969. Over the decades, he published such masterpieces of Hungarian literature as Kő falls into a dwindling well, Agancsbozót and Hollóidő, his last novel, Far from the horizon, was published in 2020” – they remember the deceased.
István Szilágyi has been battling an illness for a long time, Helikon notes in its post that they were unable to personally celebrate the publication of the special issue compiled for his 85th birthday. His funeral will be arranged later.
