Interview With Author Zita Muranyi
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Zita Murányi, and I am 41 years old. I am a Hungarian writer and poet. I graduated from the University of Szeged with a degree in communication. My first novel, entitled Tükörpalota, was published in 2003, for which I received the Sandor Bródy Prize in 2004. They awarded this prize to the best debut authors. Since then, I have consistently been publishing poetry, short stories, and children’s poetry in various literary magazines. I took part in international fairy tale and poem projects.
I have had three books of poems and three novels published in Hungarian so far. My latest published work is the novel “Freedom” (2022). A collection of my poems was published in the US anthology “They’ll Be Good for Seed” by Wine Pine Press, and one of my poems was featured in the October issue of La Stanza Poetry Journal. My first English literary women’s fiction “On Mr. Darcy’s sofa” is now self published.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
On Mr. Darcy’s sofa is a literary women’s fiction. The loss of an old friend supplies the starting point for the novel, but as in all my previous works, the story builds around personal and consciously selected seeds of life, in which fantasy plays as dominant a role as living. Beyond personal experiences, I was inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and its 1995 TV movie adaptation.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think it’s unusual, but it might seem strange to someone who doesn’t work in the arts that I’m often quiet, reserved and dreamy in my private life. I often have an idea or a thought in my head, which later unfolds in prose or poetry.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
In this case, the works of Jane Austen, as I mentioned, but I was also very influenced by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, I loved Kerouac’s On the Road, and Oscar Wilde’s work, I absolutely loved the Picture of Dorian Gray.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a YA novel about the importance of friendship, experiencing first love and the pitfalls of modelling, mixed with a little fantasy. But I’ve also been writing a lot of fairy tales lately, and I’d like to publish a selection of those as well.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Beyond my own social media platforms, what else can I mention but Awesome Gang?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Persistence, persistence, persistence – they say it’s even more important than talent. If you are hard-working enough, you can catch up with people who are even more talented than you.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Read a lot first, then write!
What are you reading now?
I’m about to start a new novel by Paul Auster.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I hope readers will enjoy my first English-language novel and will be curious to read my other writings.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Mihail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita
Virginia Woolf: Orlando
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