The Modern Novel

Biography

Attila Bartis was born in 1968 in Târgu Mureș, in the Transylvania region of Romania. His father, Ferenc, was a writer and and journalist. The family was part of the Hungarian minority in Romania, when Transylvania was transferred to Romania after World War 1. Ferenc was sent to jail after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but was given amnesty by Nicolae Ceaușescu seven years later and released.

As a child Attila was keen on drawing, painting, photography and writing poems and short stories. His mother died in 1983 and in 1984 the sixteen-year old Atttila and his father were stripped of their Romanian nationality and advised to emigrate to Hungary, so they moved to Budapest. Attila studied photography and worked as a photographer and in a used bookshop.

He published his first novel when he was twenty-seven and has since published novels, stories, poetry and a play. He has also been a keen photographer and has had several exhibitions and published a book of his photography. He lived abroad for a while, in Germany and Indonesia. Two of his novels have been published in English.

Other links

Attila Bartis
Attila Bartis
Attila Bartis
God, White, Man (story by Bartis)
Interview