Flora Brovina is a Kosovar Albanian poet, pediatrician and women's rights activist. She was born in the town of Skenderaj in the Drenica Valley of Kosovo, and was raised in Pristina, where she went to school and began studying medicine. After finishing her university studies in Zagreb, where she specialized in pediatrics, she returned to Kosovo and worked for a time as a journalist for the Albanian-language daily newspaper Rilindja. Soon thereafter, she returned to the health care profession and worked for many years in the Pediatrics Ward of the Pristina General Hospital.
Aleksandër Stavre Drenova, commonly known by the pen name Asdreni, was an Albanian poet, rilindas, translator, writer and the author of the poem which later became the national anthem of Albania. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century and composed most of his Albanian Renaissance-inspired known works during that period.
Ismail Kadare was an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. He was a leading international literary figure and intellectual. He focused on poetry until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army, which made him famous internationally.
E Bukura e Dheut is a character in Albanian mythology and folklore, depicted in some traditions as a crafty fairy, and in other traditions as a chthonic/earth goddess, the counterpart of e Bukura e Detit and i Bukuri i Qiellit. In some Albanian traditions she is regarded as the sister of e Bukura e Detit and the consort of Baba Tomor.
Albanian literature stretches back to the Middle Ages and comprises those literary texts and works written in Albanian. It may also refer to literature written by Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian diaspora particularly in Italy. Albanian occupies an independent branch within the Indo-European family and does not have any other closely related language. The origin of Albanian is not entirely known, but it may be a successor of the ancient Illyrian language.
Ervin Hatibi is Albanian poet, essayist and painter. At the age of 14, Hatibi published his first poems in the literary pages of the main newspapers of the epoch. His first poetry collection Përditë Shoh Qiellin, Naim Frashëri, Tirana prefaced by Ismail Kadare, was published in 1989 when he was only 15 and was widely acclaimed by the critics of the communist regime. At that time, following the sudden fame of the young author and his grooming as future national poet of the communist state, the National Film Studios of Albania "Shqiperia e Re", produced a documentary film on his works, entitled "The 15 Year Old Poet".
Pashko Vasa, known as Vaso Pasha or Wassa Pasha, was an Albanian writer, poet and publicist of the Albanian National Awakening, and Ottoman mutasarrif of Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate from 1882 until his death.
Llazar Sotir Gusho, commonly known by the pen name Lasgush Poradeci, was an Albanian philologist, poet, translator, writer and pioneer of modern Albanian literature. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century whose works are directly connected with Romanticism and Realism.
The Kângë Kreshnikësh are the traditional songs of the heroic legendary cycle of Albanian epic poetry. They are the product of Albanian culture and folklore orally transmitted down the generations by the Albanian lahutarë who perform them singing to the accompaniment of the lahutë. The Albanian traditional singing of epic verse from memory is one of the last survivors of its kind in modern Europe, and the last survivor of the Balkan traditions. The poems of the cycle belong to the heroic genre, reflecting the legends that portray and glorify the heroic deeds of the warriors of indefinable old times. The epic poetry about past warriors is an Indo-European tradition shared with South Slavs, but also with other heroic cultures such as those of early Greece, classical India, early medieval England and medieval Germany.
O Moj Shqypni is a poem written by Vaso Pasha, a political figure, poet, novelist, and patriot known for his role during the Rilindja. It was written between 1878, an important year for the League of Prizren and 1880. The poet, a critique of religious and political factionalism as a barrier to national unity of Albanians called for them overcoming religious divisions through a united Albanianism. In 1910, the music director of the orchestra of Vlorë melodized the poem.
Albanian epic poetry is a form of epic poetry created by the Albanian people. It consists of a longstanding oral tradition still very much alive. A good number of Albanian epic singers can be found today in Kosovo and northern Albania, and some also in Montenegro. The Albanian traditional singing of epic verse from memory is one of the last survivors of its kind in modern Europe, and the last survivor of the Balkan traditions.
Dima Wannous is a Syrian literary writer and journalist. She studied French literature at Damascus University and the University of Paris - Sorbonne. She also studied translation in France and has lived in Beirut, where she worked for the newspapers Al-Hayat and As-Safir. She has also worked for broadcast media.
Helena "Elena" Kadare is an Albanian screenwriter, translator and author of short stories and novels. One of the latter, 1970's Një lindje e vështirë, is the first novel by a woman to have been published in Albania. A Woman from Tirana (1990) is the novel of Kadare's that is perhaps her most widely read.
The literature of Kosovo is composed of literary texts written in Albanian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Turkish, specifically by authors of Kosovo. Kosovo produced several prominent writers in the Ottoman era. However, Ottoman authorities banned the written use of the Albanian language until 1912. This policy continued during Serb rule until the outbreak of World War II.
Sofia Samatar is an American scholar, novelist and educator from Indiana. She is an associate professor of English at James Madison University.
Lindita Arapi is an Albanian writer and journalist. She is cited as a noteworthy example of a generation of female Albanian writers. Together with her contemporaries, Ervin Hatibi, Agron Tufa, and Rudian Zekthi, Arapi is one of Albania's present-day literary avant-garde writers. She has been living in Germany since the late 1990s, where she has published several volumes of poetry. Her first book of poetry, Am Meer, nachts was the first book of poetry written by a female Albanian poet in German. Her first novel, Vajzat me çelës në qafë (2010), translated into German in 2012, was awarded a Book of the Year prize in Albania.
Diana Çuli is an Albanian writer, journalist and politician. She graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Tirana in 1973. After graduation she joined the editorial boards of Drita and French-speaking magazine Les lettres albanaises. In 1990, she became involved with the democratic opposition and became the head of the Independent Women's Forum, and then joined the Albanian Social Democratic Party.
Klara Buda is a French Albanian journalist and writer. She is the former head of the Albanian Department of Radio France Internationale (RFI), which she left in 2010. Buda has also worked for UNESCO and the BBC. She is of French nationality and Albanian ethnicity. Buda writes prose, poetry, fiction and TV plays.
Muhamet Kyçyku also known as Muhamet Çami (1784-1844) was a Cham Albanian author and one of the most famous bejtexhinj, the author of two religious poems. His major work is Erveheja written in 1820 but published in 1888.
