Judit Gera
Judit Gera (b. 1954) was born in Budapest. She studied Hungarian, English and Dutch language and literature at the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest. She wrote her doctoral thesis on 'Frederik van Eedens Van de koele merendes doods in a European Context' and absolved her habilitation about interrelations between Dutch literature and painting. She began working at one of the most important publishing houses of Hungary, Magvető as a publisher's reader of modern Dutch and English prose. From the 70ies of the twentieth century she has been translating from these languages. In 1999 she was decorated as Knight of Oranje-Nassau for her achievements as cultural mediator between The Low Countries and Hungary. She received the prestigious Martinus Nijhoff Prize for her translation oeuvre in 2001. She is full professor of modern Dutch Literature and head of department of Dutch Studies at the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest. Her most important translations include:
Fiction:
- Houtekiet by Gerard Walschap
- 'The Johanna Maria' (Het Fregatschip Johanna Maria) by Arthur van Schendel
- Will-o'-the-Wisp (Het dwaallicht) by Willem Elsschot
Non-fiction:
- The Belgian Labyrinth (Het Belgisch Labyrint) by Geert van Istendael
- 'Dutch civilisation in the seventeenth century' (Nederland's beschaving in de zeventiende eeuw) by Johan Huizinga
- 'Erasmus' by Johan Huizinga