Franz Hodjak (27 September 1944 – 6 July 2025) was a German writer.

Life and career

Franz Hodjak was born in

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...

on 27 September 1944. He studied German and Romance languages and literature in

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

and worked there as an editor at Dacia Publishing House from 1970 to 1992. In 1982, he received a scholarship to become Mannheim's town writer (which he was only allowed to take up after the fall of the Berlin Wall). In: Leipziger Literaturverlag, in 2002, he became Dresden's town writer. Franz Hodjak moved to Germany in 1992 and began teaching at the Frankfurt Poetry Lectureship in 1993. He received numerous scholarships, most recently in 2006 from the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Arts and Culture and in 2007 a scholarship at the Edenkoben Manor House. Hodjak wrote poetry and prose and translated from Romanian. Between 1970 and 1989, he published 20 books, including prose, poems, and children's books. Hodjak's poems have been translated into Romanian and Hungarian. Franz Hodjak lived in Usingen in the Taunus Mountains. Hodjak died on 6 July 2025, at the age of 80.

Works

* ''Fallow Land. Poems.'' Dacia Publishing House, Cluj 1970. * ''Rooms for Play. Poems & Ideas.'' Kriterion, Bucharest 1974. * ''Open Letters.'' Kriterion, Bucharest 1976. * ''The Measure of Heads.'' Semi-fantastic texts. Kriterion, Bucharest 1978. * ''The Humorous Cats. Children's Verses.'' Kriterion, Bucharest 1979. * ''With Polly Knall, one talks about things one takes for granted as if they were self-evident.'' Kriterion, Bucharest 1979. * ''Lilac in the Ear.'' Kriterion, Bucharest 1983. * ''At a Corner Table.'' Kriterion, Bucharest 1984. * ''The Dog Joho'' (children's book). Kriterion, Bucharest 1985. * ''Sight.'' Kriterion, Bucharest 1986. * ''Fridolin Hatches from the Egg'' (children's book). Kriterion, Bucharest 1986. * ''Peaceful Circle''. Prose. Kriterion, Bucharest 1987. * ''change of air.'' Kriterion Verlag, Bucharest 1988. * ''Longing for Fig Brandy.'' Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin/Weimar 1988. * ''Transylvanian Speech Exercise.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-518-11622-3. * ''Payday.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-518-40381-8. * ''Franz, Story Collector.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-518-11698-3. * ''Loss of Land.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-518-40548-9. * ''Boundary Stones.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1995, ISBN 3-518-40688-4. * ''Arrival Subjunctive.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1997, ISBN 3-518-40905-0. * ''The Singers' Dispute.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2000, ISBN 3-518-41124-1. * ''A Suitcase Full of Sand.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2003, ISBN 3-518-41394-5. * ''The Fascination of a Day That Doesn't Exist.'' Ralf Liebe Verlag, Weilerswist, 2009, ISBN 978-3-941037-04-5. * ''The One We Want to Be Is Already Taken''. Aphorisms, Notes & an Essay. Afterword by Alexander Eilers. Verlag litblockin, Fernwald 2013, ISBN 978-3-923915-05-7. * ''The thought of kidnapping me suggested itself. Poems.'' With lithographs by Hubertus Giebe. Typostudio Schumacher-Gebler, Dresden 2013, ISBN 978-3-941209-28-2. * ''What never comes again. Poems.'' Stadtlichter Presse, Wenzendorf 2022, ISBN 978-3-947883-34-9.

Awards

* 1982: City of Mannheim Writer's Scholarship * 1990: Georg Maurer Prize Leipzig * 1990: Prize of the State of Carinthia at the

Ingeborg Bachmann Prize The Festival of German-Language Literature () is a literary event which takes place annually in Klagenfurt, Austria. During this major literary festival which lasts for several days a number of awards are given, the major one being the Ingeborg B ...

* 1991: Literature Promotion Prize of the Cultural Circle of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) * 1992: Honorary Award for the

Andreas Gryphius Prize The Andreas-Gryphius Prize is a prestigious literary prize in Germany, named after the German poet Andreas Gryphius (1616–1664). The prize is awarded to authors and translators whose work reflects German culture and history in Central, Eastern ...

* 1993: Frankfurt Poetry Lectures * 1995: Minden Writer's Scholarship * 1996: Nikolaus Lenau Prize of the Esslingen Artists' Guild * 1997: Scholarship from the Heinrich Heine House of the City of Lüneburg * 1998: Scholarship from the Calwer Hermann Hesse Foundation * 2002: Dresden City Clerk * 2005: Kester-Haeusler Award of Honor from the

German Schiller Foundation The Deutsche Schillerstiftung (German Schiller Foundation), headquartered in Weimar, is the oldest private foundation for the assistance of writers in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Eu ...

* 2013: Transylvanian Saxon Cultural Prize

Literature

* Réka Sánta-Jakabházi: "Constructed Identities in the Work of Franz Hodjak." Peter Lang Publishing, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-631-63956-6. * Walter Myß (ed.): "Encyclopedia of Transylvanian Saxons." Wort und Welt Publishing, Innsbruck 1993, ISBN 3-85373-140-6. * Emmerich Reichrath (ed.): "Reflexes: Critical Contributions to Contemporary Romanian-German Literature." Kriterion, Bucharest 1977.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodjak, Franz 1944 births 2025 deaths 20th-century German writers 21st-century German writers Romanian–German translators Romanian expatriates in Germany People from Sibiu Transylvanian Saxon people