Len Rix

Len Rix is a Zimbabwe-born translator of Hungarian literature into English, noted for his translations of Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight and The Pendragon Legend and of Magda Szabó's The Door and Katalin Street.

Early life and education Len Rix was born in Zimbabwe in 1942, where he studied English, French and Latin at the (then) University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1963 he won a Commonwealth Scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, where he read English. He worked as a lecturer at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and subsequently as a teacher of English at Manchester Grammar School (where he was also Head of Careers), before retiring in 2005 to live in Cambridge. Rix learned Hungarian on his own, using textbooks, audio recordings and literature.

Translations Len Rix's first published translation from Hungarian was of Tamás Kabdebó's Minden idők (A Time for Everything) (Cardinal Press, 1995), but he is best known for his renderings of Antal Szerb, especially Journey by Moonlight (Utas és holdvilág, 1937), and of Magda Szabó's The Door (Az ajtó, 1987) and Katalin Street (Katalin utca, 1969).

Awards and honors 2006 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (short-listed) for the translation of Magda Szabó's The Door 2006 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize winner, for the translation of Magda Szabó's The Door 2015 New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2015, for Magda Szabó's The Door 2018 PEN Translation Prize, winner, for the translation of Katalin Street by Magda Szabó 2019 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation (short-listed) for the translation of Magda Szabó's Katalin Street 2020 Hyman Wingate Prize for Writing about Jewry, long-listed for Magda Szabó's Katalin Street 2020 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation (short-listed) for the translation of Magda Szabó's Abigail 2021 Hungarian Gold Cross of Merit (Magyar Köztársasági Arany Érdemkereszt - Polgári) for his work in translating Hungarian literary classics into the English language