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Founded | 1992 |
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Founder | Bujar Hudhri |
Country of origin | Albania |
Headquarters location | Rruga S. Gabrani Tirana, Albania |
Publication types | Books |
Imprints | Minerva |
No. of employees | 21 (as of November, 2012) |
Official website | www |
Onufri Publishing House is an independent Albanian publishing house with its centre in Tirana, Albania and a branch office in Pristina. It was founded in 1992 and is regarded as of the leading publishers of classics and scholarly works in Albanian. It also publishes works by foreign authors and scholars in Italian and English. In Albanian the publishing house is known as Shtëpia Botuese Onufri or Onufri Botime (named after the 16th century painter Onufri). The publishing house's founder and current CEO is Bujar Hudhri.
In 1992 Bujar Hudhri founded Onufri soon after the fall of communism with a vision to continue the promulgation of Albanian culture at a time of Albania's history when its population had become infatuated with foreign works. [1]
In 1996 Albanian author Ismail Kadare stated that he had chosen Onufri exclusively for all his works published in Albanian because of Onufri's seriousness, idealism, and lack of "greed for profit that has, unfortunately, become frequent in ... Eastern European countries." [2]
In 2008 and 2010 Onufri was awarded the Lumo Skëndo Bibliophilia prize by the National Library of Albania and Albanian Ministry of Cultural Affairs. [3] [4]
In 2012 Onufri launched its Minerva imprint for the publication of general interest books.
Significant titles published by Onufri include:
Ismail Kadare is an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. He is 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.
Marin Barleti was a historian, humanist and Catholic priest from Shkodër. He is considered the first Albanian historian because of his 1504 eyewitness account of the 1478 siege of Shkodra. Barleti is better known for his second work, a biography on Skanderbeg, translated into many languages in the 16th to the 20th centuries.
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.
Mid'hat Bey Frashëri was an Albanian diplomat, writer and politician. The son of Abdyl Frashëri, one of the most important activists of the Albanian National Awakening in 1908 he participated in the Congress of Monastir. In 1942 he became the president of Balli Kombëtar, an Albanian fascist collaborationist and anti-communist movement during the Second World War. Frashëri is referred to as one of the fathers of modern Albanian nationalism.
David Bellos is an English-born translator and biographer. Bellos is Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University in the United States. He was director of Princeton's Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication from its inception in 2007 until July 1, 2019.
Ervin Hatibi, Albanian poet, essayist and painter. Hatibi was born in Tirana, Albania, on May 31, 1974. 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".
Arcade Publishing is an imprint of the American book publisher Skyhorse. Founded in 1988 by Richard Seaver and his wife Jeannette, it was originally an independent company publishing trade fiction and nonfiction. After declaring bankruptcy following Richard's death in 2009, Arcade was acquired by Skyhorse Publishing in 2010 and relaunched the following year.
Broken April is a novel by Albanian author Ismail Kadare. Published in 1978, the book explores one of Kadare's recurring themes: how the past affects the present. The novel concerns the centuries-old tradition of hospitality, blood feuds, and revenge killing in the highlands of north Albania in the 1930s.
Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard, and the independent Soft Skull Press. The company published books under the Counterpoint Press and Soft Skull Press imprints. Counterpoint also entered into an agreement for the production, marketing, and distribution of approximately eight Sierra Club book titles each year.
Bilal Xhaferri was an Albanian writer and political dissident against the Albanian communist regime. He is seen as the representative poet of the Albanian Chameria.
The General of the Dead Army is a 1963 novel by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. It is the author's most critically acclaimed novel. Kadare was encouraged to write the book by Drago Siliqi, literary critic and director of the state-owned publishing house Naim Frashëri. It was first published when the writer was 26 years old.
Ndue Ukaj is an Albanian writer, publicist, literary critic
Kasëm Trebeshina was an Albanian member of national resistance during World War II part of the National Liberation Movement, an actor, translator, communist prosecutor and writer. He was one of the founders of the notorious communist secret police Sigurimi.
Drago Siliqi was an Albanian poet, literary critic, and publisher. At the age of 14 he became a scout and then a partisan of the National Liberation Movement. He published his first collection of poetry, and then pursued university studies at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow.
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.
Agamemnon's Daughter is a 2003 novella by the Albanian writer and inaugural International Man Booker Prize winner Ismail Kadare. It is the first part of a diptych of which the second and longer part is The Successor. It is considered by many critics to be one of the author's greatest works.
The Palace of Dreams is a 1981 novel by the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. Set ostensibly in the Ottoman Empire, but in a deliberately imprecise past shaded by myth and intended to represent the modern totalitarian state, The Palace of Dreams follows the rapid rise of Mark-Alem, a young Ottoman Albanian related to the powerful Köprülü family, within the bureaucratic regime of the title palace, a shady ministry whose objective is to gather, examine and interpret the dreams of the empire's subjects in order to uncover the master-dreams, which are believed to shell the future destiny of the Sultan and the state.
The Successor is a 2003 novel by the Albanian writer and inaugural International Man Booker Prize winner Ismail Kadare. It is the second part of a diptych of which the first part is the novella Agamemnon's Daughter. The diptych is ranked by many critics among the author's greatest works.
When Rulers Quarrel is a work by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, dealing with the relationship between rulers and literature. It was launched on 16 November 2018 at the 21st National Book Fair in Tirana.
Ilir Ikonomi is an Albanian-American journalist and author who has written several books on the history of Albania. Ikonomi's work, "Pavarësia - Udhëtimi i paharruar i Ismail Qemalit", was included in the year-long celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania as a literary accomplishment.