1) APPLY NOW for my 2025 Online Hungarian to English Literary Translation Course!

Round 4 is here! Dive into the world of literary translation with the fourth edition of this highly praised 10-week online course, running March through May 2025. We’ll meet weekly via Zoom for 2 hours, with scheduling tailored to fit students’ time zones.

Together, we’ll tackle fiction, poetry, and drama by celebrated contemporary and late Hungarian authors, including Ilka Papp-Zakor, lóránt kabai/Laura Spiegelmann, Dániel Nagy, Anna Hajnal, Réka Ágnes Tóth, and Zsombor Aurél Bíró. Living authors will join us as guest speakers, offering exclusive insights into their works and answering our translation questions. Plus, I’ll provide detailed feedback on all your translations.

This course is perfect for anyone curious about literary translation, whether as a hobby or a potential career. You’ll need advanced English and Hungarian skills (but don’t worry, you need not be native in either). Each week, you’ll read one text and translate one, sharpening your skills through practice.

In the final weeks, we’ll explore how to publish your translations, collaborate with publishers, and secure grants, residencies, and fellowships. Translator and editor Owen Good will join us for this special discussion. Plus, your final project will be workshopped in class, polished by me, then published on Hungarian Literature Online.

Scholarships: Five partial scholarships are available. The class is limited to 10 students. (All applicants will be automatically considered for a scholarship.)

How to apply: Email hello@timeasipos.com and answer these questions:

  1. What’s your Hungarian and English proficiency? (Beginner, intermediate, advanced, or native in reading, writing, and speech?)
  2. What’s your translation experience? (No experience? That’s fine!)
  3. What Hungarian literature have you read in its original language? (Don’t worry if it’s not much; I’m just curious.)
  4. Why do you want to take this course?
  5. How did you hear about it?

Don’t miss your chance to join this vibrant, hands-on literary journey. Email hello@timeasipos.com to secure your spot!

2) Now accepting applications for my debut Online English to Hungarian Literary Translation Course!

A new and exciting class! Be part of the very first edition of this brand-new 10-week online course, running March through May 2025. We’ll meet weekly via Zoom for 2 hours, with the schedule customized to suit students’ time zones.

Hone the skill of translating English works into Hungarian, focusing on fiction, poetry, and personal essays by acclaimed contemporary and classic American authors like Joe Milan Jr., Elizabeth Lukács Chesla, Robert Frost, Christie Goodwin, Brittany Bronson, and Daniel Hernandez. Living authors will join us as guest speakers, giving you the unique chance to connect directly with them, explore their creative processes, and refine your translations with their insights. bundle exec jekyll serve This course is perfect for those passionate about bringing English literature to life in Hungarian, whether as a professional pursuit or personal passion. A native level of Hungarian and advanced English proficiency are required. Each week, you’ll read and translate one text, gaining hands-on experience and building confidence.

In the final weeks, we’ll discuss how to publish your translations and navigate funding opportunities. Peer feedback will help polish your translations throughout the course. We’ll end on a class workshop to refine your final projects, which I’ll encourage you all to submit to a literary journal for potential publication.

Scholarships: Five partial scholarships are available. The class is limited to 8 students for an intimate, personalized experience. (All applicants are automatically considered for a scholarship.)

How to apply: Email hello@timeasipos.com and answer these questions:

  1. Are you a native Hungarian speaker? What’s your English proficiency (beginner, intermediate, advanced, or native in reading, writing, and speech)?
  2. What’s your translation experience? (No experience? No problem!)
  3. What English literature have you read in its original language? (Don’t worry if it’s not a lot; I just want to know what inspires you.)
  4. Why do you want to take this course?
  5. How did you hear about it?

Don’t miss the chance to be part of this exciting, inaugural course. Email me at hello@timeasipos.com today to claim your spot.

Past Courses:

It’s back! I’m offering my beloved online Hungarian to English Literary Translation Course again. The course will run for 11 weeks from the second week of September to the middle of November. We will meet via Zoom for 2-3 hours per week; the exact day and time will be determined based on students’ available schedules and time zones. We will translate prose, poetry, and drama from award-winning contemporary Hungarian authors Márton Simon, Panni Puskás, Péter Závada, Eszter Kállay, Csaba Mikó, and Réka Ágnes Tóth. All of these authors will be guest visitors in the course, so we will have the opportunity to speak with them, learn the context of their texts, and ask them questions to guide our translations. People interested in pursuing the art of literary translation as a hobby or as a potential career are encouraged to apply. Advanced English and Hungarian proficiency are required, but students need not be native speakers of either language. Students should be prepared to read a text and translate another each week. Our final unit will cover how and where to publish our translations, how to work with Hungarian and English-language publishers, and how to earn grants, fellowships, residencies, and other means of support. Translator and editor Owen Good will join us for one of these conversations. Students’ final projects will be published in Hungarian Literature Online. Finally, this year, scholarships to cover the full cost of the course are generously provided by the Cleveland Hungarian Development Panel. Five seats are available.

This year (2022), I had the pleasure of leading another edition of my online Hungarian to English literary translation workshop. Five students and myself gathered online from places such as Budapest, Berlin, Barcelona, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C. Together, we tackled a carefully curated selection of texts from classical and contemporary, male and female Hungarian authors, including poets Kornélia Deres and Sándor Weöres, dramatists Dóra Gimesi and Ferenc Molnár, and fiction writers Ilka Papp-Zakor and Géza Csáth. Of these, all the contemporary authors visited the class to answer translation questions, as well as translator extraordinaire Judith Sollosy and translator-editor Owen Good. These guests guided our conversations and translation process. Week to week, these students—a mix of native Hungarian and native English speakers—came to class with provocative questions, ideas, and comments. It was an absolute delight to discuss literature and translation with these students, and to guide the work of rising translators.

You can read the works of students from the course here:

From February 16th to May 25th 2021, I had the pleasure of leading an online Hungarian to English literary translation workshop of five students. We gathered on Zoom every Tuesday evening for an hour and a half from all across the globe—Budapest, Berlin, Paris, London, and Bloomington, Indiana. Together, we tackled a carefully curated selection of texts from classical and contemporary, male and female Hungarian authors, including poets, dramatists, and fiction writers. We discussed the nuances of both languages (like, does együttérzés translate as compassion or empathy? And what is the difference between the two?), compared the intricacies of the two cultures (what an American or British sanatorium entails vs. a Hungarian one); and asked difficult questions (like, just what exactly is in a gyros?). We also had the opportunity to pose our questions to some of the authors themselves, namely Lajos Parti Nagy, Panni Puskás, and Márton Simon. It was a thrill and an absolute delight to have discussions like these with such sharp minds, and to guide the work of such skilled rising translators. I can rightly claim to have learned as much over the course of these months as they did. At the end of our course, Hungarian Literature Online published a translation of each student.

Those works can be found here:

Testimonials:

On our first day, we puzzled over the subtle difference between 'süt' in Hungarian and 'bake' in English: this was how I knew I was in the right place. What a treat to think collectively about the many quirks, mysteries and possibilities of both the English and Hungarian literary traditions. I couldn't have been in better hands!

–Anna Polonyi, MFA Iowa Writers' Workshop, author of Wayword

Timea brought a wide variety of texts to class, encouraging students to push themselves and tackle texts that pose unique challenges for translation, allowing students to learn in a welcoming, collaborative environment. Throughout the course, she shared her knowledge about writing, translation, and the realities of publication, setting students up to emerge from the course with polished translations and a practical skillset for publishing their work.

–Alina Bessenyey Williams, Hungarian studies program, Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University

Timea's feedback on our individual translations was always invaluable, and the camaraderie engendered by the course format added much to the experience. And let us not forget the occasions that Timea organized for us to personally consult with the contemporary writers we were translating simply irreplaceable opportunities.

–Ryan Lane

I stumbled upon Timea's course at a very strange time in my life and struck gold! As a native Hungarian speaker I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of contemporary texts Timea brought to each class. Not only that, but getting the chance to speak to the authors themselves was an incredible unexpected bonus. I particularly enjoyed talking through the different challenges posed by the texts, because it proved what a talented and creative group I was in. The fact that I also learned to appreciate poetry a bit more is just a wonderful cherry on top of this literary cake.

–Gergely Gombos

Watching Timea in action as she guided a large group of emerging translators through her three-month long course was a real pleasure for me. She led an impressive class that included author visits, plenty of time for discussions, and wonderful feedback. Her course was well-structured and allowed abundant time for preparing translations week after week with her unwavering guidance. She always gave a fair and honest critique of the participants’ work, without fail. Her course is surely an eye-opening experience for anyone who would like to submerge themselves in the Hungarian literary scene and learn more about Hungarian authors, old and new. Her calm and warm demeanor is the glue that held the group together and made everyone feel at home

–Ági Bori, translation editor at the Los Angeles Review

On our first day, we puzzled over the subtle difference between 'süt' in Hungarian and 'bake' in English: this was how I knew I was in the right place. What a treat to think collectively about the many quirks, mysteries and possibilities of both the English and Hungarian literary traditions. I couldn't have been in better hands!

–Anna Polonyi, MFA Iowa Writers' Workshop, author of Wayword

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