Alföld Editorial Board
PÉTER SZIRÁK editor-in-chief – szirak.peter@arts.unideb.hu
JÁNOS ÁFRA editor – janosafra@gmail.com
PÉTER FODOR editor – fodorpe@gmail.com
ÁKOS HERCZEG editor – akosherczeg@gmail.com
JÓZSEF LAPIS editor – lapisjozsef@gmail.com
BERNADETT SZABÓ editorial assistant – alfoldfolyoirat@gmail.com
Graphic design: Alkotópont Grafikai Műhely Kft.
Webdesign: Dániel Gyöngy
Managing editor: LÁSZLÓ IMRE
Published by the editorial board, commissioned by Alföld Foundation
Typography: Alkotópont Grafikai Műhely Kft.
Typesetting, layout: Alföld editorial board
Printing: Alföldi Nyomda Zrt., Debrecen
Managing director: Géza György, President and CEO
Index: 25 901 ISSN: 0401—3174
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Editorial office: 4024 Debrecen, Piac u. 68. —
PO box: 4001 Debrecen 144.
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Further information: 06 80/444-444; hirlapelofizetes@posta.hu — Yearly subscription 7200 HUF, half yearly 3600 HUF. — When transferring the payment, please always include the full name of Alföld irodalmi, művészeti és kritikai folyóirat.
Since 1950 „We Are Building”
The Debrecen-based literary journal, founded in 1950, was initially published with the title Építünk (“We Are Building”); however, in 1954 it was renamed as Alföld (after the Great Plain of Hungary). It gained national significance in the 1970s, when the journal became an intellectual hub for several trends and tastes – marked by the unquestionable predominance of the quality principle. Edited by Béla Juhász, Béla Márkus, Géza Aczél, László Fülöp, and László Imre, among others, Alföld offered a creative space for the literary historians of the János Barta school, it also represented folk-national progressivity and endeavoured to provide a platform for Hungarian literature from beyond the borders. Moreover, it featured established authors such as Péter Esterházy and Dezső Tandori, but also the works of Imre Oravecz Imre, rarely published anywhere else back then.
In the early 1990s, a new era started: the trend known as “young literature” at the time gained increasingly more ground in the journal, along with the literary critical approach examining it. Alföld has always been characterised by a professional curiosity towards the new as well as a risk-taking, experimental approach: Géza Aczél was an avant-garde scholar and from the mid-1980s onwards, Tibor Keresztury and Sándor Mészáros were also committed to the renewal of literary taste. The journal’s close cooperation with the University of Debrecen, the innovative thinking of the generation of young scholars graduating from there also called for a change. Under the growing influence of hermeneutics and reception aesthetics, young academics from Debrecen and other cities, especially Budapest, gathered at Alföld’s long-standing critical workshop (which is still exemplarily active). Those starting their careers around this time later tapped into the theoretical discourses of deconstruction as well as media and cultural studies, thereby giving the journal an unmistakable and lasting profile. In those years, Alföld continued to be associated with a wide variety of critical approaches from gender studies through intermediality to biopoetics; furthermore, we are also keen on sharing the latest results of children’s literature studies.
The current editorial board, formed in January 2016, aims to maintain the noble traditions of the journal, with its fundamental principles being openness, quality, and talent management; that is, to function as an intellectual workshop. With a team of both experienced and promising new colleagues we have created the vision of a faster-paced journal with a wider repertoire, one which showcases a broader spectrum of artistic projects, while also providing an international context for certain cultural processes; and, as a result, we are now also publishing thematic issues as well as translations of literary and academic texts. The new Alföld Online platform was launched in 2020, and after careful consideration, the updated design of the print issue was also introduced in January 2020. It is also a priority of ours to become more more visible and accessible for our readers, this is why we embark on regular tours and organise public events with the participation of our distinguished authors both in Debrecen and all across the country. We believe that making a better journal also makes better literature, and thus we can edit an even better journal!
