Authors 2022

Aidan Hehir is a Reader in International Relations at the University of Westminster. His research interests include transitional justice, humanitarian intervention, and statebuilding in the Balkans. He is the author/editor of ten books and co-editor of the Routledge Intervention and Statebuilding book series. His poetry has been published in a number of magazines including Bare Fiction and Confluence and he has collaborated with a number of recording artists on spoken word poetry pieces including Hand of Stabs and Broken Banjo. A play he co-wrote with Stephen Mellon titled “A Wake” was staged at the Southwark Playhouse in London in 2018, and their play “A Leap of Faith” won the 2020 “Best Play” and “Best Original Script” at the 2020 Duncan Rand festival. He lives with his family in Gillingham, England. This is his first non-academic book. He can be contacted on A.hehir@wmin.ac.uk or via twitter @farcanals

Edis Galushi was born on March 6, 1989 in Prizren. After enrolling at university, Edis Galushi wrote various articles about the social, economic and political life of the Roma community, which have been published in distinguished media outlets and newspapers. It is worth mentioning his contribution to the heritage of Roma culture and literature through poetry and theatrical performances, most of which he wrote himself and is among the rarest Roma authors in Kosovo. He began his amateur theater career in 2005 and has since focused particularly on single act play and has written and performed two of them (“Panta Rhei” – Performed in 2017; “02.08.1944” performed in 2019). From 2007-2014 he worked as a journalist at Radio Television of Kosovo. He received his BA diploma in English language and literature from both University of Pristina (Kosovo) and University of Vilnius (Lithuania), and has recently gained his MA degree at the University of Zagreb. Currently, he works as an English teacher and translator.

Şebnem İşigüzel was born in 1973. Studied anthropology. Her first book, The Future Looks Bright, was published in 1993 and awared the Yunus Nadi Short Story Prize. With her latest books: Will Tell My Story ? (short story 1994) My Old Buddy Lizard (novel, 1996) Ivy (novel, 2002) The Garbage Dump (novel, 2004) Parade (novel, 2008) In The Shadow of My Eyelashes (novel, 2010) Venus (novel, 2013) Mansion of Tear (novel, 2016) The Girl in the Tree (novel, 2017) Goodness (novel, 2019) İstanbuliate
Amazons 1809 (novel, 2021) Şebnem İşigüzel lives in İstanbul where she makes her living as a writer.

Daniel Gustafsson (1972) is a writer and translator living in Stockholm. His first novel “Odenplan” (2019) received great critical acclaim, was shortlisted for the August Prize and will be published in French and Hungarian. He has translated numerous Hungarian writers into Swedish, such as Péter Nádas, László Krasznahorkai and Krisztina Tóth. He also translates from English. He currently works at Centre for Translators in Stockholm, and organizes the independent book fair “Stockholm Literary Fair”. In 2022 his second novel “Fine de Claire” will be published by Nirstedt/litteratur.

Carsten Jensen: Born 1952, in Denmark. Writer of novels, essay-books and travelogues, translated into 25 languages. Most popular works are “I Have Seen the World Begin” (1996), “We, the Drowned” (2006) and “The First Stone” (2015). Carsten Jensen is also an important contributor to political debate in Denmark and as a war-reporter he went to the Balkans and also covered the war in Afghanistan.

Joël Vernet was born in Margeride in a small village on the borders of Haute-Loire and Lozère. From the 1975s, he undertook several trips that would take him to the four corners of the world, to Africa, particularly to Mali. Over the course of numerous works published by Lettres Vives, Fata morgana, Le Temps qu’il fait, L’Escampette, La Rumeur libre, he has developed a singular style, between poetry and the travel diary. In his books, he celebrates the tiny and the immense, the near and the far. He lived two years in Aleppo (Syria). Lived for more than twenty years in a very small village, not to get away from the world, but to be closer to it. Vernet obtained the 2021 Heredia Poetry Prize from the French Academy. Latest books published include: Carnets du lent chemin, shavings (1978-2016), La rumor libre, Oblivion is a stain in the sky, Fata morgana, Fatigue dazzling, with paintings by Jean-Gilles Badaire, Ed. du Frau.

Mirishahe Syla has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Prishtina, Kosovo, and a master’s degree in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Northern Iowa, U.S. Her work, writing, and activism are informed by feminist thinking. Currently, she is working as a Gender and Inclusion advisor. As a researcher, Mirishahe’s goal is to contribute to the feminist critique in Kosovo with a focus on gender-based violence prevention, women’s economic rights, and intersectionality. As a writer, she is led by the premise that the personal is political, and through writing, she can rediscover and deconstruct her personal as an “outsider within”.

Nikola Nikolić was born in Podgorica (1989). He graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences, where he also received his master’s degree. He has published three novels: “The Knot” (2011), “Meander” (2014), “Alarm Sirens” (2019), as well as a collection of stories “Atacama” (2016). He is one of the six authors of the book of diary entries “2020.” (2021) He publishes stories in Montenegrin and regional magazines. Nikolić also writes literary criticism. He won the “Bihorska Venera” award for a short story. His stories have been translated into Albanian, English, Macedonian and German. In the period 2017-2019. he was the artistic director of the International Podgorica Book and Education Fair. He is a member of the editorial board of the Kombinat portal, where he publishes interviews with writers from the region.

Aleksandar Pavlović is a researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. He holds a PhD in Southeast European Studies from the University of Nottingham, and was a visiting fellow at the CSEES in Graz, NEC College in Bucharest, AIIS in Tirana and OSA in Budapest. He was a coordinator on the project “Figuring out the Enemy” and a number of other regional initatives, and his main areas of interest are Balkan oral and written tradition, Serbian-Albanian relations and traditional Balkan society. His main publications include: Epika i politika (XX vek, 2014), Figura neprijatelja: preosmišljavanje srpsko-albanskih odnosa(Beton/IFDT 2015; Albanian edition: Figura e armikut: ripërfytyrimi i marrëdhënieve shqiptaro-serbe, Quendra Multimedia, 2016; Englishedition: Rethinking Serbian-Albanian Relations: Figuring out the Enemy, Routledge, 2019), and Imaginarni Albanac (IFDT, 2019). He occasionally contributes articles to Beton (Danas), Peščanik and Koha ditore.

Jovica Ivanovski, born 1961 in Skopje, is author of sixteen poetry collections and a few collections of selected poems in Macedonian, English, Slovenian, Serbian and Croatian. His work has been translated into more than fifteen languages. He was winner of the “Miladinov Brothers” award for the best poetic book between two editions of the “Struga Poetry Evenings” for 2019. Ivanovski still lives and works in Skopje.

Zvonko Karanović is poet of distinctly urban sensibility. His works refer to the literature of Beat Generation, film and pop culture. In his latest books, he experimented with the techniques of surrealism and the form of prose poems. He received several Serbian literary awards for poetry and international fellowship for writers in 2011, awarded by Heinrich Boll Foundation (Cologne, Germany). He published ten collections of poems and three novels. His poems were translated into twenty languages and has been published in many anthologies, most significant in New European Poets (Graywolf Press, 2008, Minnesota, USA).

Ivana Bodrožić was born in 1982. in Vukovar, she attained a master’s degree in philosophy and Croatian studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. For the first collection of poetry First step into the darkness, published in 2005, she received the Goran Award for young poets and the Kvirin Award of Matica hrvatska. Five years later, she published her first novel, The Hotel Tito. In addition to writing prose and poetry, she write columns for newspapers and portals, lead creative writing workshops, and in various ways collaborate with other artists and associations in the field of culture. Her books have been translated into twelve languages (English, German, French, Italian, Czech, Danish, Spanish, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Hungarian, Turkish), published in thirteen countries, and three titles have been published in the United States.

See more: ivanabodrozic.com

Katarina Mitrović (1991) was born in Belgrade. She studied Serbian literature and language for four years at The University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philology. She is currently a graduate student at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, department of dramaturgy. She published two books of poetry: The Womb (Matica srpska, 2017) and While I wait for it to pass (“Karlo Bijelicki” City Library, 2018), as well as the verse novel Not all houses have a yard (PPM Enklava, 2020). She worked as a screenwriter on the television series: The Group, Mom and Dad are playing war, as well as adapting scripts for two episodes of the television program “Nečista krv”. She co-wrote the short feature film One who brings the rain, directed by Isidora Veselinović. Her drama “Breaking” has been adapted for TV and broadcasted on RTS in 2021.

Petra Nagenkögel, born 1968, lives in Vienna, Austria. She is an author and runs the literary association “prolit” in Salzburg, which has a special focus on communicating Eastern and South-Eastern European literature. Petra Nagenkögel also directs writing and theatre projects in various social fields (prison, psychiatry). As author, Petra Nagenkögel writes prose and essays, most recently published “Dort. Geografie der Unruhe” (“There. Geografy of disruption”, 2019). A current book project deals with “borders” in their ambivalence and different meanings.

Luan Buleshkaj is a whimsical wordsmith from Amsterdam. The well-known poet stands out with his powerful performance and strong presence. Luan started his spoken word career as a battle rapper. His affinity for witty wordplay and quick off the mark thinking has led him to be at the forefront of the spoken word industry. From TV ads to festival performances. Luan made a solo theatre play about his life and the city of Amsterdam. ‘Leeuwenkind’ received two awards: The Best of Fringe 2020 and the Shaffy Cheque 2020. The play consists of personal stories, funny anecdotes and interesting observations. In 2021 Luan organized a five-day poetry festival called ‘Omdat jij het bent’ together with Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival & Theater Bellevue.

https://www.luanbuleshkaj.nl/

https://www.instagram.com/luanbuleshkaj/

Eqrem Basha (1948) is a poet, storyteller and novelist born in Dibër. He completed his studies in Albanian Language and Literature at the University of Prishtina. He was a journalist at Rilinda and editor on TV. He is one of the founders of the Dukagjini Publishing House. Basha has published 10 poetry books, six prose books and four novels. Has written film and TV scripts, arts critique and has translated from French (Malraux, Sartre, Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, Levi-Strauss), Italian (Ungaretti). In 1999 Fayard (paris) he published a book with stories, in 2018 Non Lieu published his novel Lakorja e Ik’sit. His poetry collections have been published in France (Voix d’encre), Poland (pogranitze); USA (Gjonleka), Esperanto (Swidnik).

Rozafa Shpuza was born in Shkodër, where Pjetër Marubi opened the first Albanian and Balkan photography studio in 1856. That is why she believes she was blessed with the beautiful art of photography and Ghegh poetry. After completing her studies in Albanian Language and Literature, she moved to Tirana where she currently works as an editor in the publishing session of the Albanian Parliament. She has published a few poetry books such as “Kohë ikonash” (2011); “Anipse” (2013); “Grizhlat” (2016); “Nana i qindiste kryq dimnat” (2020). Her poetry is tightly connected to photography. She currently manages her own arts Gallery ODA, which she has opened in her parents’ old house.

Vlora Ademi currently deals with cultural diplomacy by implementing cultural projects and activities inside and outside Kosovo with the Social Creativity organisation that she leads. In addition, she has a secondary job as editor for the portal for culture, literature and art ObserverKult. After getting her bachelor’s degree at the High School of Journalism “Faik Konica” she ran her private business for 15 years while she also finished her masters in Mass Communication at AAB College. Whilst at college, for two years in a row she led the international campaign Challenging Extremism, funded directly by the Washington State Department. Vlora is also a board member and collaborator of EthnoFest Festival. Currently, aside from her role as a mother of three boys, jobs as a leader, editor and coach, she is also preparing her first poetry book which is expected to be published in December of this year. Her works have been translated into German and English and recently published in the MAGMA anthology.

Tanja Radmilo was born on 5 May 1966 in Split. She has a bachelor’s degree of English and Russian languages and literatures from the University of Zagreb. She is a freelance literary translator of English, Russian and Croatian, translating all Guzel Yakhina’s novels for Hena.com, Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory, and most recently Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. She is in a long and stable relationship with books, reading and everything related to language and translation. She comes with a wild streak that is mostly manifested at football matches of her favourite FC Hajduk from Split.

Alida Bremer (born 1959 in Split, Croatia) studied in Belgrade, Rome, Münster and earned her PhD in Comparative Literature in Saarbrücken. Since 1986 she has lived in Münster and has been writing in German since 1993. She has published stories, poems and essays in German that have appeared also in Croatian, Albanian, English, Macedonian, Romanian, Dutch and Russian. Bremer has translated novels, theatre pieces, poetry collections and essays by Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian authors into German. Her debut novel Olivas Garten appeared in 2013 by Eichborn Verlag (paperback in 2017 by Ullstein Verlag), and she was awarded the Robert Bosch Stipendium for this work. The unpublished manuscript of the novel “Dreams and Backdrops” has been nominated for the Alfred Döblin Prize 2017; the novel is published in 2021 by Jung und Jung. In 2018, she was awarded the International Literature Prize of the House of World Cultures for her translation of the novel “Liebesroman” by Ivana Sajko, the Brücke Berlin Theatre Prize for her translation of the play “Daumenregeln” by Iva Brdar, and the German Youth Theatre Prize for her translation of the play “Der (vorletzte) Panda oder Die Statik” by Dino Pešut. With KulturKontakt Austria she published the ten-part series Kroatische Literature der Gegenwart (Contemporary Croatian Literature). She was co-editor of the anthology Konzert for das Eis, Gedichte as Kroatien (Concert for the Ice, Poems from Croatia, 2010) and Glückliche Wirkungen. Eine literarische Reise in bessere Welten (Prosperous Impacts. A Literary Journey into the better worlds 2017). Together with Serbian writer Saša Ilić she set up Beton International, Zeitung for Literature und Gesellschaft in 2014. Bremer has been involved as a curator with numerous international literature festivals and other literary projects, and is a member of VdÜ (Verband deutschsprachiger Übersetzer literarischer und wissenschaftlicher Werke e.V.), Literaturverein Münster, PEN Croatia and PEN Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Daim Miftari was born in Gostivar (1979), North Macedonia. He studied at the Department of Albanian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology “Blaze Koneski” in Skopje, where he also received a master’s degree on “Poetic Individuality of Xhevahir Spahiu”. He has worked as a journalist, translator and teacher. Among his books we can mention: Sounds of Silence, (ASNOM Cultural Center, Gostivar 2007), Alone (Logos A, Skopje 2013), Beyond the Walls, (published by the author, Skopje 2016), Ice (published by the author, Skopje 2018) . His poems have been translated into several foreign languages and have been included in anthologies and literary magazines at home and abroad. His name as a author is included in the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Kosovo, published by the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, 2018. In April 2017, he was selected as a writer at the Literary Residence “POETEKA – Tirana in Between” in Tirana, while in March 2019, within the project “Reading Balkans”, he was selected as a writer in residence in Sarajevo. Winner of several awards such as “My Pen” at the poetry festival in Kumanovo in 2018, winner of the award “Naim Candle” 2020 at the international festival “Days of Naim”, and the first prize for best poetry at the national festival of poetry “Oeneum” in Tetovo in 2021. He lives and works in Skopje.

(c) AKUD/Lars Reimann, es gelten die AGB des Fotografen: http://www.akud.com]

Mechthild Henneke, journalist and author in Berlin, lived in Kosovo for more than seven years between 1999 and 2008, where she worked as spokesperson for UNMIK. Before that, she was an editor at the Berliner Zeitung. She studied political sciences in Munich and Berlin and later attended the Henri Nannen School of Journalism in Hamburg. After returning from the Balkans, she started writing. Her first novel “Ach, mein Kosovo!” was published in the edition PalmArtPress Berlin in November 2021 and was well received by the public. It is largely based on the true story of a fighter in the KLA. Further information can be found at www.mhenneke.de. The author can be contacted under mail@mhenneke.de.

Radmila Petrović was born in 1996 in Užice. Graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, where she also earned a master’s degree, Radmila Petrovic is one of the most sought-after poets in former Yugoslavia. She has been represented in anthologies, domestic and international journals and participated in numerous festivals and poetry readings across Europe. As the laureate of the 42nd Lim River Poetry Evenings, she published a collection of poems “The Scent of Earth“ (House of Culture “Pivo Karamatijević”, Priboj, 2014), and as the winner of the 22nd Poetry Competition “Desanka Maksimović” she published a collection “Cellulose Rock ‘n’ Roll“ (SKZ and Valjevo Gymnasium, Valjevo, 2015).Her third collection of poetry, “My Mom Knows the Kind of Things that Happen in Cities”, published by PPM Enklava in early summer 2020, has sold over 8,000 copies. The same collection was published in North Macedonia in 2021, and the Polish edition is in the works. Her poetry has also been translated into English, German, French, Greek, Italian, Slovenian, Spanish, Hebrew, Ukrainian and other languages. She has been a scholarship holder of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. She has stayed at writing residencies in Skopje (Reading Balkans), Berlin (Traduki) and Vienna (Q21).

Nikollë Berishaj was born on December 3rd, 1958, in Tuzi, Montenegro. From 1977 through 1989 he lived (studied and worked) in Ljubljana – Slovenia. Berishaj is a member of the Organization of Scientific and Technical Translators of Slovenia since 1980. Additionally, he is also a member of the Society of translators of Albania as well as that of Montenegro. In 1989 Berishaj returned to his hometown, where he lives and work to day. He took part in the first International Translation Seminar of Slovenian Literature, in August 2010 in Novo Mesto and is a laureate of the 2013 International PRETNAR AWARD, – the honorary title of Ambassador of Slovenian Literature and Language and Slavic Cultures (Velenje).

Edona Reshitaj is an actress and a singer from Kosovo. These two branches of art relate very well when she sings and acts at Kosovo’s national theater performances, where she is part of the ensemble of resident actors. She has been singing since she was a child, but made her public debut 15 years ago when she formed her own band. Her goal has always been to bring back the old Albanian music scene, creating new versions of songs using her unique style. Her music is a combination of traditional with that of jazz. She is very active with her live music performances at home and abroad. She has some original songs, an unplugged session titled “The Treasure” and 2 recital concerts titled ‘Red and Black’ organized in honor of the International Flag Day and “The Ladies of the Song”, a tribute to female Albanian Singers. In March 2019 she presented a concert in Bern, performed at the Schlachthaus Theater and in October 2019 in Lausanne at Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne. Soon she will release her new song titled “You Are More Than Beautiful”. The message of the song is to empower young girls to look beyond the superficial and to prepare them to make their mark in history.

Linda Rukaj is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She was born in Kavajë, Albania and started music at the age of 6, participating in several children’s festivals. She was the vocalist and guitarist of the band “Linda në Botën e Çudirave” (“Linda in Wonderland”) which won twice the “Best Alternative Band” award at the Top Fest festival. With her band she achieved national notoriety and played in many festivals in Albania, as well as in other Balkan countries. During this period, she also composed the music for several theater creations, including Antigone after Sophocles at the ancient theater of Dyrrachium. In 2011 Linda released her first solo album “Jam” (in English “I am”) which she composed and performed on nylon string guitar and vocals. The drawings in the cover of this album were also illustrated by herself. In 2011 she moved to Paris and continued her studies of guitar and jazz double bass. She is the first female jazz double bassist in Albania. She is very active in many festivals, such as “Festival des Balkans”, “Les Printemps Sonores”, “Balkan Trafik”, “Médiathèque de Saint-Gratien” etc. She performs in many Parisian scenes, including Duc des Lombards, Sunset-Sunside, Jazz Club Étoile etc. In 2018 she participated in the TEDxTIRANA as the ambassador of Albanian music and culture in France.

Since spring 2020 Linda Rukaj has been collaborating with the prestigious Théâtre de la Ville de Paris with the Troupe de l’Imaginaire, as part of the musical consultations, imagined, implemented and directed by Emmanuel Demarcy Mota.

AUTHORS 2021

Slavenka Drakulić (1949) is a well-known Croatian author, whose articles, essays and books have been translated into many languages. In her fiction Drakulić has touched on a variety of topics, such as dealing with illness and fear of death in Holograms of fear; the destructive power of sexual desire in Marble skin; an unconventional love in The taste of a man; cruelty of war and rape victims in S. A Novel About the Balkans; a fictionalized life of Frida Kahlo in Frida’s bed; Dora Maar in Dora i Minotaur and Mileva Einstein in Mileva Einstein, teorija tuge (Mileva Einstein, the theory of sorrow). In her novel Optužena (The Accused), Drakulić writes about the not often addressed topic of child abuse. In 2018 she published a book of short stories on ageing Invisible woman. Drakulić has also published non-fiction books. Her main interests in non-fiction include the political and ideological situation in post-communist countries, war crimes, nationalism, feminist issues, illness and female body. In How We Survived Communism and Balkan Express and Café Europa she deals with everyday life in communist and post-communist countries. Drakulic also wrote the history of communism through the perspective of animals in A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism. She explores evil in ordinary people and choices they make in They Would Never Hurt a Fly: War Criminals On Trial In The Hague, about the people who committed crimes during wars in ex-Yugoslavia. Her essays have appeared in The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine and The New York Review Of Books. She was also a contributing editor in The Nation (USA), and occasionally contributes to Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Internazionale (Italy), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), The Guardian (UK), Eurozine etc.

See more: http://www.slavenkadrakulic.com

Miloš Živanović (1976) lives in Belgrade. As an editor & co-editor, he signed several titles from the production of “Cultural propaganda set Beton” and publishing house Algoritam, from 2007 to 2017. He has published 4 poetry books: – Ignore The Nightmare In The Bathroom (Matica srpska, Novi Sad, 2006), Lirika pasa [Lyric of The Dogs] (Algoritam, Zagreb, 2009), Opera za dinar [Opera for A Dinar], musical performance by group “Ah, Ahilej”, based on the book Lirika pasa, Na raskršću tužnog đavola [On The Crossroads of The Sad Devil] (KPZ Beton, Beograd, 2017) He also published prose collection such as: Kubernetes – priče o pilotu [Kubernetes – Stories About The Pilot] (Plima, Ulcinj, 2008), and novels: Razbijanje [The Killing] (Algoritam, Zagreb/Beograd, 2011), Duhovi novembra [Ghosts of November] (Orfelin, Novi Sad, 2020). Photo by Srdjan Veljovic.

Adela Demetja is an artist, curator, writer and producer born in Tirana and lives between Tirana, Albania and Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Poetry has accompanied her since the teenage years and has served more as a tool for self-exploration and self-realization. She writes poems to capture an actual or recurring perception, that serve as a way for recording her life experience in the form of poetical diary. At other times she writes poems that arise out of a longer process of meditation and realization about human existence and purpose. She combines poetry with sound, video, photography and performance. She collaborates with other artists to create poetic conversations, which have been presented and performed as part of interdisciplinary exhibitions. Her poems have been included as part of performative exhibitions like “Center of Integration” at Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art; “9 Hours Away” Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, US; “NEXUS 1” Time Based Art Festival, Portland, US.

Danilo Stojić, born 13. 08. 1981. In Titovo Užice, Yugoslavia. As the first steps in working and writing, he would always proudly chose early works in different d.i.y. publications all over the region of former Yugoslavia, and few of his publications he had made during his high school years (Hot water, Review of the final poetry, Eclipse, Young geographer…); also would include graffiti writing and various other forms of street art. He wrote and published texts and stories (both in Serbo-Croatian and English language) in different magazines, internet sites and collections of stories. From late 2005 to early 2008, in cooperation with the E-761 Open Highway – Arts & Culture Cooperation Project, developed few art projects and two publications in his hometown Užice (D.I.Y. and independent publishing almanac: Add to the (under)history of art and culture of southwest Serbia; Studio for New comic). At the same time he has been cooperating with the Open arc theatre, Amsterdam cyber theatre and National theatre in Užice in different experimental theatre projects.

Halil Matoshi has studied Philosophy and Sociology at Prishtina University. He is a journalist and Op-ed columnist by profession. His columns are published at daily Express newspaper. As an author, Matoshi writes poetry, stories and essays. He is the author of the following works “Frymë varresh në dallgore” (poetry) published by Bota e Re in 1988, “Udhëtim nëpër ëndërr të keqe” (a mixed compilation of poetry, short stories and written outlines) in 1994, “Lajmësi memec” (stories) in 1996, “Udhëtim nëpër zgjëndërr të keqe” (a war diary and essays) in 2000, “Hija e Krishtit” (poetry) in 2004, “Katedralë letre: Qyteti i fundit dhe shtëpia, Saga për Prishtinën, njerëzit e saj dhe tregime tjera” (essays and portraits) in 2011, “N’zanafillë” (poetry) in 2013, “Pesë breza ushtarë Kosove” (monograph) in 2014. His poems have been translated and published in German language (Graz and Leipzig), in Romanian (Bucharest), in English (Pristina), in Spanish (Mexico City), in Greek (Athens) and also in Slovenian, Turkish and in Roma language (Prizren, 2013).

Portrait_Arlette_Louise_Ndakoze_Copyright_Courtesy of SAVVY Contemporary_Photo Raisa Galofre

As a philosopher, fiction writer, and curator, Arlette-Louise Ndakoze researches on pan-African sciences and their forms of mediation. She focuses on the connection between text and sound – in the broader sense, the one between spiritual-immaterial and physical-material spheres – those spaces of possibility in the making. As a special attention, A.-L. Ndakoze has been drawing on artistic and intellectual movements – in Rwanda in particular, and across pan-African cultures in general – with research on philosophical disciplines, sonic history, literary scenes, and the link that holds cultures together to this day. As a member of SAVVY Contemporary, A.-L. Ndakoze co-guides the radio SAVVYZΛΛR, a transposition of SAVVY Contemporary on air, launched in June 2020. In this sonic world of potentialities, forms of pain move to channels of their liberation.

Nora Prekazi Hoti – was born in 1986 in Mitrovica. She finished BA of Ethnology in Philosophic University, by the Department of Ethnology, and Cultural Anthropology in Pristine, Kosovo; MA of Ethnology in the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania; Short time scholar of museology at the University of Pennsylvania at the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation in November 2013. Nora currently is working as a curator at the Ethnology museum of Mitrovica. She published her poetry in MM – mixed magazine, published poems and essays in three volumes of the literary magazine “Fjalë e Valë”, Nora hosted 4 Rumi Nights with poetry in Mitrovica along with 7arte NGO and Pupëza NGO from Prishtina throught 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019; she attended a collective Poetry Night Poetry for Power- Everyday is the 8th March” in Dukagjini Library, hosted by Artpolis Art and Community in Prishtina 2019. Nora was two times a curator at “Kosovo Art Exchange Gallery in Mitrovica in 2018; One with the exhibition in collaboration with the Museum of Mitrovica “Capturing the City of Mitrovica – Images from WWI (1916-1918)”, and the second time a curator of the exhibition “Women of Mitro”, she was as well as being part of the expository jury “City Sites Photography”; In the same gallery Mrs. Prekazi Hoti with her husband Mr. Lulzim Hoti participated with the installation “Blue” in the exhibition “Feeling Blue”.

Nikola Madzirov (poet, essayist, translator) was born in 1973 in Strumica in the family of war refugees from the Balkan Wars. His poems are translated into more than forty languages. For the book Relocated Stone (2007) was given the East European Hubert Burda poetry award and the most prestigious Macedonian poetry prize Miladinov Brothers at Struga Poetry Evenings. Other awards include Studentski Zbor award for best debut and Xu Zhimo Silver Leaf award for European poetry at King’s College, Cambridge. American jazz composer and collaborator of Björk and Lou Reed — Oliver Lake, have composed music based on Madzirov’s poems. Nikola Madzirov was poetry editor in the e-magazine “Blesok” and in “Diversity”. He was granted several international fellowships: “DAAD” and “LCB” in Berlin; “Villa Waldberta” in Munich; “International Writing Program (IWP)” at University of Iowa in USA; “KulturKontakt” in Vienna; “Landis & Gir Stiftung” in Zug; “Marguerite Yourcenar” in France; “Civitella Ranieri” in Italy; “Traduki” writer-in-residence fellowships in Split (“Udruga Kurs”), Tirana (“Poeteka”) and Belgrade (“Krokodil”). His poems and essays and reviews on his poetry appeared in “Die Zeit”, “Der Spiegel”, “Tagesspiegel”, “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”, “Sinn und Form”, “American Poetry Review”, “Modern Poetry in Translation” (MPT), “London Times” (TLS), “World Literature Today”, “El Pais”…

Jehona Kicaj (born 1991 in Suhareka, Kosovo) is an author, editor and literary scholar based in Hanover, Germany. She studied Philosophy, German Studies and Modern German Literature in Hanover. During her studies, she received two scholarships and a sponsorship award for the best thesis. After graduating, Kicaj worked as a lecturer in German Literature at the Leibniz University of Hanover. She is currently working as an editor for an international academic book publishing house. Besides her work, Kicaj founded “re: sonar verlag” –– an independent publishing house for young contemporary literature. In addition to numerous publications in the scientific field, Kicaj published her first literary text “Diaspora Shadows” in 2020 in the renowned German literary journal “die horen”. She is currently writing her first novel “Ë”.

Arben Idrizi (1974), poet, prose writer, translator. He published the poetic summaries: Heqakeq (MM), Prishtina, 2003; Libri i të qenit (MM), Prishtinë, 2009; Zveri vole utadžbinu, (Beton), Belgrade, 2013; Fletore poezish ’10-’15 (Qendra Multimedia), Prishtina, 2016; “Pika pa sipërfaqe”, Tiranë, 2017; Poezi ’17-’18, (Qendra Multimedia), Prishtina, 2019; Libri i dhunës (Pika pa sipërfaqe), Tirana, 2019; Poezi ’19-’20, (Qendra Multimedia), Prishtina, 2019. Translations in volume: Valerio Magrelli, Hici që është nën (MM), Prishtina, 2009; Tino Caspanello, “Dy drama” (Qendra Multimedia), Prishtina, 2019.

Dhurata Hoti studied dramaturgy at the Faculty of Arts in Prishtina, currently following her Master studies in screenwriting and works as a journalist. She also is a Board member of Theater of Gjakova. Her writing include plays, short stories and film scripts. Her play “Sodom Sadomazo” was awarded as the best play at the National Competition for play “Katerina Josipi”. The ame play was staged at the National Theater of Kosovo. Her first short story book “Mjegulla” was published in January 2021. Her writings observe the inner side of the individuals in an extreme emotional situation, the unspoken and the search for identity.

Genc Kadriu is an artist, writer and curator. He has studied Sculpture and Photography at The School of Art, Architecture and Design, formerly the Sir John Cass School of Art, in London. His artistic practice is interdisciplinary, encompasing research fiction and object oriented poetics. His work has been published and exhibited extensively, among others at Ludwig Museum, WIELS center for contemporary arts, Taipei Biennial, and so on. He currently works and lives between Prishtina and Tirana. His poetical texts deal with the relationship between humans and their environment. A special attention is given to musicality, etymology and onomatopoetics. Writing between the English and Albanian languages, his editing procedure plays an important part, whereby translation becomes transformation, and participation authorship.

Stanka Radjenovic Stanojevic was born on January 25, 1977 in Cetinje. She graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Nikšić in the Department of Serbian Language and Literature. She participated in numerous festivals and poetry meetings. She has also won recognitions and awards at poetry festivals. Some of her poems have been translated into English, Albanian, Macedonian and Slovenian and published in numerous magazines for literature. She has published the following poetry collections: “Nijemo govori ljubav (INTER NOS)”, 1998; “Pjesme” in 2003, “Tajna polomljenih sitnica”, 2012; Co-authored collection “Personalni karusel”, 2017; “Karneval u Amnionu, 2020 and “Amputirani kosmos”, 2021. Her poems are represented in the anthology “Pjesnikinje Crne Gore 1975-2015” by Jovanka Vukanović, the first of its kind in Montenegro.

Agon Rexhepi, born on 25^th of November 2000, is a young queer poet and activist from Pristina, Kosovo. He is an out-spoken human rights activist. As a student of sociology, he is very interested in social issues and politics. Therefore, whenever he writes articles as a free-lance journalist, he always tackles social issues, mostly focusing on the rights of the marginalized groups. He is also the co-founder of the queer cultural collective “Hyjneshat”.
Agon was always a fan of poetry and started writing his own poems when he was in the 2^nd grade. At that time, Agon recalls, he would write poems about his family, his school etc.
Almost a month ago, Agon published his very first poetry book called “Mirror” originally written in Albanian and translated into English and soon-to-be-translated into Serbian. Agon organized a tour in Kosovo through which he promoted his book in 5 different cities. Adding to that, Agon has organized and participated in many slam-poetry events, in Kosovo and Albania. Talking about slam-poetry, two years ago Agon won the second place on the National Slam Poetry Competition with his poem “The Victim of Mentality”. Currently Agon is part of an international literature project, named “The Wrong Language Tour” a collaboration between Qendra Multimedia and Bern ist überall (CH). Also, he is a beneficiary of an artist residency in Belgrade on behalf of the “Reconnection 2.0” project. He is currently working on different projects related to poetry and human rights while being based between Prishtina and Tirana.

Milica Denković born in 1983 in Novi Sad, Serbia, finished Master in New Media Arts at Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia. Member of Artist Association of Vojvodina and has Status of Independent Artist in the Republic of Serbia. As a multimedia artist exhibited in Serbia and abroad, was part of non-formal professional workshops and residencies. As a slam poet was active in 2009-2011 on various open mic nights and reactivated in that field again in 2018. From 2014. collaborates with the cultural organization Mračna komora as a scenographer and videographer on short youtube literature presentation videos. From 2017. are a member of the editorial board of the web platform and magazine for literature, philosophy, and social theory Rizom.rs In 2018. after the artist residency in Tranas started to collaborate with the Swedish cultural organization Kultivera on the international art project Letters, supported by Swedish Art Council. As an independent artist from 2020. collaborates on the Tranas at the fringe festival organized by the same cultural organization as a multimedia professional and slam poetess. Active in the field of multimedia, the extended area of photography, installation, video and slam poetry as some of the main fields. Currently works on her first manuscript for the multimedia slam poetry book Manual for (Un)learning.

Šaban Šarenkapić is a writer, poet and novelist. He was born on 1956 in Novi Pazar. He studied Political Sciences and Yugoslav Literature. He is the founder of the Cultural Center “DamaD” and initiator of the literary magazine Mak and the magazine Has. He is a member of the Writer’s Society of Bosnia and Hercegovina. He lives in Novi Pazar and Sarajevo. Published poetry books: “Home care” (1987), “Learned water” (1990), “The bread empire” (1993), “Earth Power” (1997), “Istanbul preparations” (1997), “Memorial plaques” (2002), “Lyrics of the minority” (2005), “Motherhood ghetto” (2005), “Selected songs ” (2006), “Earthly remains” (2007), “The Red Houses ” (2014) i “Kafka’s Apprentice” (2019), that won the BUKS prize “Sulejman Tabaković” for the Book of the Year. Published prose books: “Bukvica” (2000), “Bazaar Trilogy” (2005), “Mazija”, that in 2009 won the “Ćamil Sijarić” prize and “Kvartida” (2020).

Adelina Tërshani is a feminist activist and a slam poetry performer living in Kosovo. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology, Department of Journalism, at the “Hasan Prishtina” University and now works at the Kosovo Women’s Network in the field of gender based discrimination. Adelina is known for her criticism of the patriarchal system in Kosovo and beyond. She found herself writing slam poetry which led to her being known for performances such as “Patriarchal Logic”, “Pillar House”, “Patriarchal Trauma” and others. Her poems have been translated into German and English, and in several languages in Western Balkan countries. Photo by Celine Stettler.

Etrit Hasler was born in 1977 as the son of a Swiss mother and a father from Doganaj. With his lightning-speed texts, he became one of the pioneers of Poetry Slam in Switzerland, where he has performed since 2000. He has performed in dozens of countries, amongst them Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Egypt, the USA and even Serbia – he is happy to be able to perform for the first time in Kosova. Aside from his career on-stage, Etrit Hasler is Vice-President of the Swiss writer’s association A*dS and is a member of both the city parliament and the state parliament of St. Gallen.

Dimitris Lyacos’s Poena Damni trilogy is one of the best-selling and most higly regarded works of contemporary European poetry in translation. Developed as a work in progress over the course of three decades the trilogy has appeared in magazines such us the Los Angeles Review of Books, World Literature Today, BOMB, Gulf Coast and Asymptote, and following several editions, was published in its final form in English in 2018, when Lyacos was also mentioned for a Nobel Prize in Literature. Poena Damni has been translated in 20 languages and has given rise to sister projects across various artistic media. Renowned for combining, in a genre-defying form, themes from literary tradition with elements from ritual, religion, philosophy and anthropology, Poena Damni reexamines grand narratives in the context of some of the enduring motifs of the Western Canon. New editions are forthcoming in Brazil (Relicario) and Italy (Il Saggiatore) early in 2022. Photo © Walter Melcher

For more info: http://www.lyacos.net

Francesca Borri (Italy 1980) is a war reporter. After a short experience in Kosovo at the time of the UN administration, in 2007 she moved to Ramallah, Palestine, as human rights specialist. She turned to journalism in 2012, with the Arab Spring, and three years later she was the last Western reporter to leave rebel-held Aleppo. Since then, she has been working throughout the Middle East, and beyond. She has covered the rise of jihadists in South East Asia, the refugee crisis in Europe, social unrest in Latin America: but she is still based in Ramallah, as the only reporter in the region allowed to write for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s largest paper. She is now covering Covid-19 and its fallout in worst-hit countries, one by one, in a long journey across four continents. So far, her work has been translated into 24 languages. Her latest book is “Destination Paradise. Among the jihadists of the Maldives”, 2018.

Nurie Emrullai is born in 1992, Kicevo, North Macedonia. She recived her BA of Albanian Language and Literature and the MA of Albanian Languag at University of Tetova. Currently she works as a teacher at an Elementary School in Kicevo. In 2018 she has been in a literature representative at the CEEC Literature Forum in Ningbo, China. She presented her poems dedicated to the Albanian woman at the Exhibition Girl, not bride, in Zurich, 2018. She was part of the FemArt2019 edition in Kosovo. She has published two books of poetry: “Për gjysmën tjetër të hënës” (For the Other Half of the Moon), Syth, Tetovë, 2020, “Vargmale nën dhe” (The underground range mountain), Onufri, Tiranë, 2021. Her third book will be published this year: “Exile, Identity and Nostalgia in the books of Milan Kundera”

Ralph Hammerthaler, born in 1965 in Wasserburg am Inn, lives as a writer in Berlin. He was a city writer in Dresden, Rheinsberg, Prishtina and Split, and a street writer in Oberhausen. His best-known novels include “Everything is Fine”, “The Fall of Friedrich Voss” and “Short Novel About a Crime”. His libretto “Die Bestmannoper” about the Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner was set to music by Alex Nowitz and premiered in 2006; his plays have been translated into several languages and published in Albanian in Kosovo. In 2018, “Artisti i vetëm” premiered in Prishtina with a guest performance in Tirana at the Albanian National Theater. Most recently, his novels “Kosovo’s Daughters” and “The Fifth Night” have been published.

Darija Davidović (1986) lives and works in Vienna. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna and scholarship holder of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. 2016/17: Research stay in Belgrade as holder of the Marietta Blau Scholarship. She studied History of Art, Theatre Studies and Catholic Theology at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. The topic of her research project is the negotiation and representation of the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia in Serbian and Croatian contemporary theatre. With the concept of “performative politics of history”, the dimension of performative and theatrical explanations of various politics of history will be examined and pointed out, which directed against revisionist images of the past. She has been also involved as activist in many feminist and antifascist projects and campaigns in Germany and Austria.

Marko Dinić is a freelance writer and editor based in Vienna. He grew up in Belgrade, Serbia. Since 2008 he is living in Austria where co-founded the literary platform and magazine MOSAIK. He studied German literature and Jewish cultural history at the University of Salzburg. In 2016 he was nominated for the renowned Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis and in 2019 his debut novel “The Good Days“, which the critics have praised very much, was published. In intensive cooperation with the Peace Office in Salzburg, he deals with the topic of identity in the former Yugoslavia. Numerous publications in journals and anthologies, including Kolik, Lichtungen and Lyrik im Anthropozän.

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Authors 2020

Bora Cosic, born in 1932, is a Serbian and Croatian novelist and essayist who was born in Zagreb and lived in Belgrade until the early 1990s, when he left the country due to the protest against the Milosevic regime. The author has written more than 30 novels, volumes of stories and essays and is one of the last writers to call his language Serbo-Croatian, rejecting the orientation of any national literature. His best known novel “The Role of My Family in the World Revolution” (NIN Prize 1969, published in German 1994) is also adapted for the theater. Despite the book’s prizes and cult status, Cosic was blacklisted for his satirical, carnival-like description of socialist society and was unable to publish for years. In the 1960s, he translated and adapted the musical “Hair”, which was performed in Belgrade just one year after the Broadway premiere. The period after leaving Belgrade is marked mainly by essays, including the “Diary of a Homeless Man” (1993), one of the most important post-war works from this region. Without nostalgia for Zagreb or Belgrade (which he now sees as a private museum), Bora Cosic has lived in Berlin for two decades and Rovinj in Istria for two decades. In 2002 he was awarded the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding and in 2008, together with the Translator Katharina-Wolf Griesshaber the Albatros Prize of the Günther Grass Foundation.

Alida Bremer (born 1959 in Split, Croatia) studied in Belgrade, Rome, Münster and earned her PhD in Comparative Literature in Saarbrücken. Since 1986 she has lived in Münster and has been writing in German since 1993. She has published stories, poems and essays in German that have appeared also in Croatian, Albanian, English, Macedonian, Romanian, Dutch and Russian. Bremer has translated novels, theatre pieces, poetry collections and essays by Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian authors into German. Her debut novel Olivas Garten appeared in 2013 by Eichborn Verlag (paperback in 2017 by Ullstein Verlag), and she was awarded the Robert Bosch Stipendium for this work. The unpublished manuscript of the novel “The Coral Princess. Adria 1936” has been nominated for the Alfred Döblin Prize 2017; the novel will be published in 2021 by Jung und Jung. In 2018, she was awarded the International Literature Prize of the House of World Cultures for her translation of the novel “Liebesroman” by Ivana Sajko, the Brücke Berlin Theatre Prize for her translation of the play “Daumenregeln” by Iva Brdar, and the German Youth Theatre Prize for her translation of the play “Der (vorletzte) Panda oder Die Statik” by Dino Pešut. With KulturKontakt Austria she published the ten-part series Kroatische Literature der Gegenwart (Contemporary Croatian Literature). She was co-editor of the anthology Konzert for das Eis, Gedichte as Kroatien (Concert for the Ice, Poems from Croatia, 2010) and Glückliche Wirkungen. Eine literarische Reise in bessere Welten (Prosperous Impacts. A Literary Journey into the better worlds 2017). Together with Serbian writer Saša Ilić she set up Beton International, Zeitung for Literature und Gesellschaft in 2014. Bremer has been involved as a curator with numerous international literature festivals and other literary projects, and is a member of VdÜ (Verband deutschsprachiger Übersetzer literarischer und wissenschaftlicher Werke e.V.), Literaturverein Münster, PEN Croatia and PEN Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sibel Halimi is a sociologist and poet. Halimi is pursuing her PHD studies in the Department of Sociology of the University of Prishtina with the topic “Body as a social construct: Towards the sociology of the body in Kosovo”. So far she has published three poetry books: “Garden of Sins” (2002), “Being does not live here” (2013) and “With existence is the meaning itself” (2020) as well as the essay collection “Society in Alarm” ( 2017). Since 2004 she has been actively involved in studies, scientific research in the field of gender studies and sociology of the body and sexuality. She actively deals with the treatment of socio-philosophical problems, while her writings have been published in Albanian and foreign periodicals. From 2014 – 2018 she was engaged as an assistant in the Department of Philosophy and Sociology and for two terms she was a member of the Presidency of the Association of Philosophers of Kosovo. Sibel Halimi is known as a women’s rights activist. With her commitment, she has managed to put some issues related to women in the focus of public debate. She is also active in the field of journalism. As a sociologist, she regularly publishes articles that address the problems of Kosovar society and the options for overcoming them.

Faruk Šehić was born in 1970 in Bihac. Until the outbreak of war in 1992, Šehić studied Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb. However, the then 22-year-old voluntarily joined the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he led a unit of 130 men as a lieutenant. After the war he studied literature and since 1998 has published his own literary works. The literary critics regard him as the voice of the so-called mangled generation. His debut novel ‘Knjiga o Uni’ (2011; tr: Quiet Flows the Una) was awarded Meša Selimović prize for the best novel published in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia in 2011, and European Union Prize for Literature 2013. For his book of selected poems in Italian and Bosnian language ‘Ritorno alla natura / Povratak prirodi’ he received XXXI Premio Letterario Camaiore – Francesco Belluomini 2019 (Premio Internazionale). His books have been translated into English, Turkish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, German, Bulgarian, French, Spanih, Dutch, Arab, Romanian and Macedonian. He work in respected political magazine BH Dani as a columnist and journalist. Faruk Šehić lives in Sarajevo. Photo by Ema Fris.

Lydia Haider, *1985, author, based in Vienna, head sermoniser of the music band “gebenedeit” (blessed), studied German and Philosophy. Is the mother of two, joined by contemporaries she organises the series of readings called “Blumenmontag” as well as the art festival “Perspektiven Attersee”. Together with the collective “Wiener Grippe/KW77” (Vienna Flu) she writes travel journals. Most recent work: Word of the living Rotten. Chants to exorcise (2020). Photo by Apollonia T. Bitzan.

Dimitris Lyacos is the author of the Poena Damni trilogy (Z213: EXIT, With The People From The Bridge, The First Death). So far translated into seventeen languages, the trilogy is one of the most widely acclaimed and best-selling works of contemporary European poetry. Poena Damni developed as a work in progress over the course of thirty years with subsequent editions and excerpts appearing in journals around the world, as well as in dialogue with a diverse range of sister projects it inspired. Renowned for combining, in a genre-defying form, themes from literary tradition with elements from ritual, religion, philosophy and anthropology, the trilogy reexamines grand narratives in the context of some of the enduring motifs of the Western Canon. Dimitris Lyacos has been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Photo © Walter Melcher

For more info: http://www.lyacos.net

Anja Kampmann is a German poet and author of fiction. She was awarded the MDR- Literaturpreis as well as the Wolfgang Weyrauch-Förderpreis. For her first novel “High as the waters rise” (2018) she was awarded the Mara-Cassens prize for the best debut novel, aswell as the Lessing-Förderpreis and she received the “Stadtschreiber of Bergen-Enkheim”- prize for both books, the jury stating that “High as the waters rise” is not only a novel but can be read as a long poem. Her poetry was translated into Italian, Hebrew, Greek, Hungarian, English, Spanish and Russian. Her work has appeared in Akzente, modern poetry in translation (mpT), Ho! (Tel Aviv), Poesia (Madrid), Anthology of German poetry (Athens), words without borders, Sinn und Form, Sprache im technischen Zeitalter, et al. Her first collection of poetry was published by Carl Hanser Verlag, 2016. Her novel “High as the waters rise” is highly poetical exploration of grief in the globalised world of oil rig workers and was nominated for the German book prize as well as fort he Prize oft he Leipzig book fair. She performs part of her poetry together with a double bass player. Her new collection of poetry will appear at Carl Hanser Verlag, Autumn 2020. She lives in Leipzig. She was invited to international poetry festivals such as Struga Poetry Evenings (2019), Poesiefestival Berlin (2019), Poetry on the road (2018), Solothurner Literaturtage (2018), Cartagena (2017), Literaturfestival Leukerbad (2017). © Juliane Henrich.

Saša Ilić (b. 1972, Jagodina, Serbia) earned his degree at the Belgrade Faculty of Philology. He has published three books of stories: Predosećanje građanskog rata (A Premonition of Civil War, 2000), Dušanovac. Pošta (Dušanovac. Post Office, 2015); Lov na ježeve (Hunting for Hedgehogs, 2015); and three novels: Berlinsko okno (Berlin Window, 2005), Pad Kolumbije (The Fall of Columbia, 2010), Pas i kontrabas (The Dog and the Double Bass, 2019). He was the founding editor of Beton, the literary supplement to the daily newspaper Danas, from its inception in 2006 to October 2013. In December of that same year, he and Alida Bremer began Beton International, which comes out periodically as a supplement to the Tageszeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau. Beton International, which he continues to edit, is also the official magazine of POLIP International Literature Festival Prishtina. He is a regular columnist for Peščanik.net portal and an editor for the literary website Kunalinks.com. His prose is available in Albanian, French, Macedonian, and German translations. The novel Pas i kontrabas (The Dog and the Double Bass) received the 2019 NIN award for Best Novel of the Year in Serbia. He lives in Belgrade.

Ivana Bodrožić born in Vukovar in 1982. She studied at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, where she has lived since then. In 2005, she published her first poetry collection entitled Prvi korak u tamu (The First Step into Darkness) as part of the Goran Award for young poets. Her poems have been included in numerous Croatian and international magazines and anthologies of contemporary poetry. Her first novel Hotel Zagorje (Hotel Tito) was published in 2010, receiving high praises from both critics and audiences and was an ultimate Croatian bestseller. The novel has been published at numerous respectful publishing houses and received a prestigious Prix Ulysse for the best debut novel in France, as well as numerous important awards in Croatia and the Balkan area such as the Kočićevo Pero Award, Josip and Ivan Kozarac Award, and Kiklop Award for the best work of fiction in 2010. She has since published her second poetry collection Prijelaz za divlje životinje (A Road for Wild Animals) and a short story collection 100% pamuk (100% Cotton), which has also received a regional award. Her novel The Pit was awarded Balkan Noir prize for best crime novel written in 2016. Her works have been translated into English, German, French, Czech, Danish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Spanish, Italian and Macedonian.

Bystandr was formed in Ferizaj in 2015 by 4 members. Fatos Shabani, Kushtrim Shemsedini, Luan Rexhepi and Shkumbin Avdiu. The genre of their music is: rock n ‘roll, indie rock, alternative rock, experimental rock. As a band Bystandr has released the song “Shiu” in collaboration with Albulena Jashari and remake the popular song “3 Daire”. The two band members, Shkumbin and Luan have taken the migration route, at the moment Bystandr consists only of Fatos and Kushtrim. Their first album has met our ears and soul this year which is titled “Fire and thieves”. It was recorded in Studio C by producer Dritero Nikqi.

Izabela Kisic is executive director of the Helsinki committee for human rights in Serbia, one of the leading civil society organizations in Western Balkans. She has been working on dialogue among intellectuals, artists and activists from Serbia and Kosovo, since 2000. In 2014, she initiated one of the first cultural programs “Serbia and Kosovo: Intercultural Icebreakers ” aims at renewing old ties and creating new ones among young people, academic and artistic circles, media outlets and civil society organizations from two countries. She organized the first post-war conference “The Future Status of Kosovo” (Pristina, 2005) bringing together high officials of the Kosovo government, local Serbian minority representatives, the progressive Belgrade opposition and international representatives to discuss crucial political, security and human rights issues. In a number of media studies she detected and analyzed nationalistic narratives, hate speech, smear campaigns, character assassination and its consequences. She is the author of film documentaries, including the 10-episode series “A Look into the Past: Serbia 1965 – 1991” addressing the origins and growth of Serb nationalism, and the causes of Yugoslavia’s disintegration. As a journalist, she worked in various independent media, including daily “Danas”.

Driton Selmani (b. 1987) lives and works in Prishtina and Doganaj. Selmani approaches the idea of perceived reality by deconstructing formations of social, political and cultural topics that have been embodied around him. At a young age, he was told to worship a country that no longer existed, which caused him to form a basis of skepticism towards any supposedly given reality. He later used this as a beneficial tool to reconstruct his beliefs into visual artifacts. In 1999, old simulacra have been replaced by new simulacra; the ornaments of a previous space have been refurbished in order to unfold with new meanings but also new uncertainties. Selmani confronts himself as a spectator of this “on-going event”, and positions himself as an actor, enacting his performances based on his personal histories,beliefs and doubts. He has exhibited at solo and group exhibitions in Stacion Center For Contemporary Art Pristina, Ludwig Múzeum in Budapest, Kunstraum Niederosterreich Vienna, Casa
São Paulo, Mediterranea Biennial 16 Ancona, U10 Belgrade, 5th Marrakesh
Biennial, Amsterdam Light Festival, Fabbrica del Vapore Milan, Bregenz Biennale,
Exchiesetta Polignano a Mare, National Art Gallery Tirana, Thessaloniki Center of
Contemporary Art, Eugster || Belgrade, Norrköping Light Festival, La Maison des Arts Brussels, MMSU Rijeka, Škuc Galleryamong others…Photo by Blerim Racaj.

Una Hajdari is a freelance journalist focused on nationalism, minorities, and far-right groups. She has reported widely from the Western Balkans for the past seven years, and has now shifted her focus to covering central and eastern Europe. She has reported for outlets like The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, The Nation, among others. She was a longtime correspondent for the journalist watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders. As a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology she focused on nationalism and identity, and has had her work supported by organizations such as The International Women’s Media Foundation, The Ground Truth Project, and others.

Plator Gashi (1996) is a writer, poet, translator, journalist, and musician based in Prishtina, Kosovo. He studied journalism and communication studies at the University of Prishtina and Marymount University (Virginia, US), and received his bachelor’s degree in 2018. Gashi was a staff writer and translator (between English and Albanian) at the English-language magazine Prishtina Insight for three years before switching to freelance translation, editing, writing, and music in 2019. His poetry and literary translations have been featured in various Albanian-language blogs and magazines, and he is a regular attendee at urban poetry readings in Prishtina. His unpublished poem “Fluturimthi (Fleetingly)” was awarded by the jury of KultStrofa, an international Albanian-language poetry contest in Prishtina. His mostly unpublished work, lightly self-described as an “off-the-cuff potpourri” draws from various influences, such as Albanian folklore, the futility of life in the city, jumbled memories from the war, and—somehow—his insufferable love for historical linguistics.

Katja Grcić is a poet, playwright, translator and dramaturge, born in Split, based in Zagreb. She received MA in English and German language and literature at the University of Zadar, Croatia. As a holder of Südost and Tempus scholarships she attended both Karl-Franz University in Graz and Centre for Translation Studies in Vienna. She got two books of poetry and short prose published: Load-bearing walls (MeandarMedia, 2015) and Summer (MeandarMedia, 2018). Her third book, Letters to Zita, is announced for 2020, both as a book and as a theatre play. She wrote several drama texts – Molecules, Necrography/Disconnected, Body’s fear of floor. In 2017 she made in Sedmica Prize shortlist for prose, an award announced by the Croatian literary portal Critical Mass. In autumn 2018 she enrolled the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb for an MA in Theatre dramaturgy. Alongside with her artistic endeavors she has also worked as an interpreter, cultural coordinator and theatre critic.

Ilir Bajri is a composer and a pianist born in 1969 Peja. He finished studies at Academy of Arts in the University of Prishtina in the Music Arts Department. Mostly known for his Jazz compositions he also worked and experimented with different genres such as Pop, Classical and Contemporary Classical Music, and also wrote music for many theatre plays and feature and documentary film. Besides his work as a composer, he is also known for his visual work and his performances that introduce his new works in a multimediatic domains. A co founder of Center for New Music in 2001, A founder and leader of Quasi Fusion Orchestra youth ensemble and the founder and organizer of Prishtina Jazz Festival (2005 – 2014). In recent years he is also involved in producing open sourced and free virtual music instruments for computer platforms and preparation of programs and materials for self education in music. Portrait by Gani Llalloshi.

Olivera Ćorveziroska (1965) is born in Kumanovo (North Macedonia) where she finished elementary and high school. Olivera finished her bachelor studies at the Philological Faculty in Skopje where she currently lives and works. Her works were represented in twenty anthologies of contemporary Macedonian stories which were published in Macedonia as well as in other countries. Olivera’s works were translated in English, French, Hungarian, Czech, Serbian, Slovenian, Polish, Russian, German, Bulgarian and Greek languages. She is laureate of many significant awards in Macedonia while for her collection of stories “(Inter)woven Stories” (Сплетени раскази) in 2003, she was awarded the “Stale Popov” Prize for the best prose which was presented by Society of Macedonian Writers. She is the author of the following books: “Third Floor” (Трети кат) and “Tall Whites” (Високите бели) – poetry; “Mirna the Pastry” (Кифличката Мирна) and “My Brother from the Thirteenth Floor” (Мојот брат од тринаесеттиот кат) – novels for children; “Grandpa Mile” (Дедо Миле) – illustrated tale; “Do the Dreams Make Work” (Отвораат ли сништата работа) and “One Text and One Woman” (Еден текст и една жена) – critics and essays; “The Locked Body of Lou” (Заклученото тело на Лу) and “Danewort” (Аб’т) – novels; “Sorrows of the Young Proofreader” (Страдањата на младиот лектор), “(Inter)woven Stories” (Сплетени раскази), “Тwo Pillows” (Две перници), “Sewn Stories” (Сошиени раскази), “Short Stories without Sugar” (Новелички без шеќер) and “The Streets Which Are Gone” (Улиците што ги нема) – collections of stories.

Craig Chisholm is a writer, poet and researcher based in Belgrade where he is an MA candidate at a joint degree program between the University of Belgrade and the University of Graz. He studies the effects of the Belt and Road Initiative on labor conditions in Serbia. He was the book review editor at the literary-arts journal Gigantic Sequins. Before moving to Belgrade he co-hosted summer workshops at the Marxist Education Project in New York, formally the Brecht Forum, on the relationship between literature and revolutionary movements.

Natasha Tripney is a writer and theatre critic based in the UK. She studied English Literature at Kings College, London, and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick, where she won the university’s Derek Walcott Prize for her short fiction. In 2011, she founded Exeunt, an online platform for experimental theatre criticism. She is the theatre critic for The Stage, the newspaper of the UK theatre industry, and has written about theatre and the arts for the Guardian, the Independent, Time Out and Tortoise. Two of her short plays were staged at London’s Arcola Theatre as part of the Miniaturists series.

Jeton Neziraj is the Director of Qendra Multimedia. He has written over 20 plays that have been staged translated and published in more than 15 languages. As a playwright, he has worked with theatres and companies including La MaMa in New York, Volksbühne Berlin, Volkstheater Vienna, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Vidy theater in Lausanne, National Theater of Wales, National Theater of Montenegro, Turkish National Theater, etc. His plays have won numerous prizes and have been performed in theatre festivals throughout Europe. “The plays [of Jeton Neziraj] are raucous, irreverent and absurdist. They invoke Ibsen, Molière and Kafka…” The Guardian wrote about his work, while Los Angeles Times called him “a world- class playwright who challenges our complacency at every twist and turn”. Drawing by Biba Kayevich.

Anna Kove is a well-known poet and translator from Albania. She graduated at 2001 at “Goethe” Institution, Germany, with the Diploma “German as a foreign language in theory and practice”. She continued her Post-University (Master) studies at the European University of Viadrina in Germany (2002-2004) in “Media and Intercultural Communication”. She also graduated in “Albanian Language and Literature” at the University of Tirana (1986-1990). Anna Kove is author of many poetry books, such as “Shën Valentin ku ishe”, “Djegë Ujërash”, “Nimfa e pemës së humbur”, “Kambanat e së dielës” and has been awarded with many prizes, in different competitions in Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. She is one of the most distinguished contemporary authors in Albania, having the attention of the critics, researchers and journalists, who have been continuously writing about her works. She has participated in different seminars and translation workshops like LCB “Berlin” “In Käte tanzen” (September 2006); “Artistic Translation of Children Literature: Kein Kinderspiel” (2013), organized by Robert Bosch Stiftung– Hamburg,the International translators meeting LCB march 2019.

Loer Kume, born in Durres in 1982, is a prose writer and essayist. In 2005 he finished his studies in Stomatology in the Medical Faculty of Tirana. In 2011 he published his first book “Lux”. In 2015 he co created and was part of the artistic anthology book together with other well known poets “The anthology of of poetry and visual arts – A dangerous Method”. Through a cycle of essays under the title “The Albanian sphere” he is active in the analysis of the social phenomena of Albania. In 2017, he published his novel “Short story of clutter”. In 2019, he wins the Kadare prize, with the summary of stories “Amygdala Mandala”, with the motivation ‘representative of the new generation of writers, which experiments in new forms of literature, far from commercialism bringing a new spirit to literature.

Nurduran Duman is a Turkish poet and playwright who lives in Istanbul. Pursuing her passion for the sea, received a degree as an Ocean Engineer and Naval Architect from Istanbul Technical University. And she’s a columnist in one of the most prestigious newspaper of Turkiye, Cumhuriyet. Her books include Yenilgi Oyunu, the 2005 Cemal Sureya Poetry Award winner, and Mi Bemol. Semi Circle, a chapbook of her poems translated into English, was published in the United States in 2016 and further English translations can be found in Asymptote, Colorado Review, Kenyon Review, Faultline, Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) and others. Her books of “Selected Poems” (Versopolis, 2017, Macedonian-English-Turkish) in Macedonia, “Selected Poems” (Versopolis, 2019, Dutch-English-Turkish) in Belgium. Her poetry collection “Steps of Istanbul” (Herald Publisher Proprieraty, 2019, Chinese-English-Turkish) was published in China in November 2019, and was awarded as “The Poetry Collection of the Year of the Second Boao International Poetry Award”. Her poem “The River”was published in Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) in 2017 in the UK. She featured in the #internationalwomensday2018 (#IWD18) MPT list of ten women poets in translation from all over the World.

Artrit Bytyçi is from Kosovo. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School in New York City. His background in biological sciences influenced how he sees the world. He tries to approach art with an experimenter’s curiosity, and to think about science with an artist’s playfulness. To date, all such attempts have given inconclusive results. He was the co-founder and co-host of Rooftop Readings NYC, a seasonal reading series. His works have appeared or are upcoming in The Seventh Wave, Hand Written Works, Doctor-Doctor, Kosovo 2.0, and Prishtina Insight.

Ariane von Graffenried is a Swiss poet and playwright. She graduated from the University of Berne with a PhD in theatre sciences. Von Graffenried is a member of the award-winning writers’ collective «Bern ist überall» and a curator of the International Poetry Festival Basel. Since 2005, she has performed as a spoken word artist with musician and sound artist Robert Aeberhard as the duo «Fitzgerald & Rimini». In 2017 her book «Babylon Park» was published. Her most recent work is «50 Hertz», a CD with a collection of poems. She has received several literary prizes for her texts. Photo by: Alexander Jaquemet.

www.avgraffenried.ch

Denijen Pauljević, born in Belgrade, Serbia, fled during the recent Yugoslav Wars to Germany and spent four years in a refugee camp. He studied Intercultural Communication, participated in the screenplay section at the HFF film school in Munich and works on various literature, screenplay, music and theater projects.He is also involved in the initiatives Meet your Neighbours and Arriving in Munich. Pauljević received several nominations and prizes (e.g. at the Filmfest Emden-Norderney and Film Festival Sehsüchte in Potsdam). From 2013 to 2018 he was responsible for the coordination of the Balkan Days Festival. In 2014 he received the literary grant Raniser Debut for “Der Wundenleser”, in 2015 the literary scholarship of the city of Munich for “Mimicria”. His next novel will be published by dtv in the spring of 2021.
www.denijen.com

Aurela Kadriu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Pristina. She is a junior researcher who has been actively involved in social causes concerning gender issues and human rights. She has experience in digital humanities, having worked as a researcher for three years for Oral History Kosovo, a digital archive preserving life stories of people from different historical events. Her interests include culture, collective memory, gender, public space, socio-urbanism, oral history and the contemporary history of Kosovo and former Yugoslavia countries. During the past years, she has had the chance to work closely as a member of the production team and researcher in a few exhibitions and documentary films dealing with Kosovo’s contemporary history, gender and human rights. Aurela is working full time as a Project Coordinator for the EU funded project Culture for Change which is implemented by Qendra Multimedia and Goethe Institut.

Edis Galushi was born on March 6, 1989 in Prizren. He worked as a journalist at Radio Television of Kosovo during the period 2007-2014 where he reported about the social, economic and political situation of Roma population in Kosovo and beyond. His articles have been published locally and internationally. It is worth mentioning his contribution to the heritage of Roma culture and literature through poetry and theater. Galushi is considered one of the few Roma authors in Kosovo. He completed his basic studies on English language and literature in Kosovo and Lithuania, while he holds a master’s degree in the same field at the University of Zagreb. He currently works as a translator and teacher.

Svetlana Slapšak (born in 1948) is a retired professor-coordinator of studies programs and a former Dean of ISH (Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis, 2004-14), a graduate school in humanities in Ljubljana. She was teaching courses on the anthropology of the ancient world, gender studies and Balkanology. Editor-in-Chief of Pro Femina, a quarterly for Women’s studies and culture in Beograd, since 1994. Laurie Chair in Women’s Studies at Rutgers, USA, 1994-1995; Fellow at NIAS, Wassenaar, 1999-2000; Fellow at Max Planck Institute, Berlin, 2000; Director of research at CNRS, Paris, 2003; Fellow at Collegium Budapest, 2005. Photo by: Iztok Dimc.

Nora Prekazi Hoti – was born in 1986 in Mitrovica. She finished BA of Ethnology in Philosophic University, by the Department of Ethnology, and Cultural Anthropology in Pristine, Kosovo; MA of Ethnology in the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania; Short time scholar of museology at the University of Pennsylvania at the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation in November 2013. Nora currently is working as a curator at the Ethnology museum of Mitrovica. And she is a founder and Director of Dhemetra Foundation. She published her poetry in MM – mixed magazine, published poems and essays in three volumes of the literary magazine “Fjalë e Valë”, Nora hosted 4 Rumi Nights with poetry in Mitrovica along with 7arte NGO and Pupëza NGO from Prishtinathroughout 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019; And she started “Zana” poetry event in Mitrovica, where local male poets of Mitrovica are being reflected through their writing about women muses. Nora was a curator at lots of exhibitions in Museum of Mitrovica in fields of cultural heritage and art;She was also a curator in “Kosovo Art Exchange Gallery in Mitrovica in 2018 with the exhibition in collaboration with the Museum of Mitrovica“Capturing the City of Mitrovica – Images from WWI (1916-1918)”, she was as well expository jury “City Sites Photography”; In the same gallery Mrs. PrekaziHoti with her husband Mr. LulzimHoti participated with the installation “Blue” in the exhibition “Feeling Blue”.

Tomislav Marković (1976.) writes poetry, satire, essays and nonfiction. He work as a columnist of web portals Al Jazeera Balkans and Tacno.net. He cooperate with numerous newspapers, magazines and web portals, such as: Analiziraj.ba, Behar, Journal, Lupiga. He has published several books: Vreme smrti i razonode (Time of death and joy, satirical texts and poetry, 2009), Čovek zeva posle rata (A man yawns after the war, poetry, 2013), Napred u zlo (Forward to evil, selected and new poetry, 2017), Velika Srbija za male ljude (Greater Serbia for little people, satirical texts, 2018). His poems and satirical texts have been translated in German, English, Albanian, Slovenian, Polish and Hungarian. He lives and works in Belgarde as the deputy of editor-in-chief for the portal XXZ magazine.

Laura Freudenthaler, born in 1984 in Salzburg. She studied German language and literature studies, Philosophy and Gender Studies. She lives in Vienna. Her stories Der Schädel von Madeleine were published in 2014. For her novel The Queen is silent she was awarded the Förderpreis zum Bremer Literaturpreis 2018 and the novel was recommended as best German debut at the Festival du Premier Roman 2018 in Chambéry. In 2019 she published her second novel Ghost Story that is awarded with the European Prize for Literature 2019. Photo by: Marianne Borowiec

Lulzim Haziri is a poet and journalist. He was born in 1962 in Gostivar, Macedonia. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Pristina (Kosovo). During the eighties his first poems were published in the magazines “Zëri i Rinisë”, “Bota e Re”, “Fjala”, “Rilindja” etc. In 1989, the Publishing Company Rilindja has published his first book of poems titled “Kënga lind në vetmi” (The Song is born in Solitude, 1989). By this work, the poet brought the urban sensitivity to Albanian literature. With his second book of poetry “Kur dyert hapen me zile” (When the Door Opens with a Bell, 1995) and especially with other books of poetry “Dalja nga Safari” (Exit form Safari, 2005), “Vetmi e varur si numër në portë” (Loneliness Hangs Like a Number on the Gate, 2015) and “Testament prej mëndafshi” (Silk’s Testament, 2019) he continued to reinforce poetic discourse with poetry emanating from urban daily life, rooted in preoccupations, dilemmas and worries.

Karen Köhler was born in Hamburg, Germany. She wanted to become a cosmonaut, she learned to skydive and studied to be a theatre actress. After 12 years working at theatres, she is now writing theatreplays, screenplays and prose. 2014 she was nominated for Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. 2019 she was nominated fort he German Federal Award “Lola in Gold” for the best unfilmed screenplay for „Cowboy & Indianer“. Her well received Collection of shortstories „Wir haben Raketen geangelt“ was published 2014 at Hanser Verlag and has been translated into several languages, as well as her her debut novel „Miroloi“, which was published 2019 and longlisted for the German Book Prize. Karen Köhler is living in St. Pauli and she would like to be part of a sychronized pogo swimming group. Photo by: Christian Rothe.

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AUTHORS 2019

Robert Prosser is an Austrian writer, poet and performer born in 1983. He studied Comparative Literature and Cultural Anthropology and spent several years in Asia, the Middle East, and Great Britain. Prosser has received numerous prizes and grants, most notably from the Robert‐Bosch‐Stiftung, Literarisches Colloquium Berlin as well as the Reinhard‐Priessnitz‐Prize for Literature. He lives in Vienna and Tyrol and is the Austrian curator of Babelsprech, an initiative in charge of the funding of young German‐language poetry. His second novel Phantome (Phantoms) was long listed for the German Book Prize in 2017. Photo by: Dirk Skiba.

For more Information please visit:

www.robertprosser.at

Tanja Raich, born in 1986 in Meran (Italy), studied German and history. She has published in various literature magazines and anthologies and has been awarded a number of prizes and scholarships, including the Writer in Residence Program to Sri Lanka (One World Foundation), “Start-Stipendium” of the Austrian Federal Chancellery for her novel “Jesolo”, the Ö1 literature prize “Aber sicher” 2017, the Frontiere – Grenzen literature prize 2015 and the Exil-Literaturpreis 2014. Tanja Raich lives in Vienna, “Jesolo” ist her first book. www.tanjaraich.at

Besnik Mustafaj, born in September 1958, studied French language and literature at the University of Tirana. Until 1991 he worked as a professor of foreign literature at the Univiersity where he studied. He has also worked as a journalist and as a French language translator. Besnik Mustafaj is by profession a writer. He also has an important political career. He is one of the founders of the democratic opposition in Albania, the Democratic Party. For many years he has been a Party Member and a Secretary for International Relations. Since the first free elections (March 1991), he has been elected for four times as a Member of the Parliament. He was also appointed Ambassador in France and UNESCO (1992-1997), and as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005-2007). In 2007 he resigned from all political and public functions, returning to full time writing. Besnik Mustafaj’s literature work includes poetries, novels, short stories, movie scripts, theatre plays, and essays. His work is also translated into French, German, Italian, Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Macedonian. Two of his novels are made movies. Besnik Mustafaj is the winner of a several national and international literary prizes.

Lindita Ahmeti, was born in Prizren, Kosovë. She has graduated at the University ‘San Kirili e Metodi’ in Skopje, in the Faculty of Philology, where she studied Classical Philology. Her poems are published in different literary magazines, into Albanian in Macedonia, Albania and Kosovë. She is represented in many anthologies into Albanian, Macedonian and Balkans languages, and she is also published into European languages. Her first poetry collection, “Mjedra dhe bluz” (Raspberries and the Blues), Skopje 1993, was well received. Ahmeti, among the best-known female poets of the Albanians in Macedonia, is the author of seven volumes of verse: “Ishulli Adular” (Adular Island),1996; “Brezi i Zonjës” (Rainbow), 2000; “Vetë përballë Erosit” (“Alone in front of Eros”), 2004; “Nga Mështeknaja e babait, me mallëngjim” (“From the birchwood of my father, with longing””), 2015; “Dhoma pa derën dalëse” (“A room without exit door”), 2015.

Aude Samama (1977) has studied at the École Supérieure de l’Image of Angoulême, France. She published her first comic book En série in 2002 (Frémok) and then L’Intrusion in 2008 (Rackam). Then, she worked in collaboration with Denis Lapière and Jorge Zentner, two comic scriptwriters, for the publishing houses Futuropolis (France) and Les Impressions nouvelles (Belgium). She has also illustrated novels and periodicals. Her artistic production lies between comics and expressionist painting – an artistic movement which appeared in its strength at the beginning of the XX^th century in France, Germany and Belgium for instance. Aude Samama is particularly interested in rendering the emotions of its characters, often lead by a tragic fate.

Ville Ranta (born 1978) is an internationally renowned comic artist who is also known as a heavy-handed cartoonist. His anarchic style has received praise and criticism alike. Ranta has published a number of graphic novels which have been translated to several languages. He is particularly well-known in France where his work has been published in close to its entirety. Ranta works as a cartoonist for several different newspapers in Finland. He also tours as a live comic artist with musicians. Ranta has received all kinds of nominations, awards, grants and acclaims both in Finland and France.

Dave McKean is an English artist, illustrator, comic book author, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician. He was born in 1963 in Berkshire, where he attended the College of Art and Design (1982-1986). Among his notable work are numerous collaborations with author Neil Gaiman such as Violent Cases (1987), Black Orchid (1988) and Signal To Noise (1990), as well as covers for Gaiman’s famous The Sandman series. Arkham Asylum (1989), which he coauthored with Scottish author Grant Morrison is still the single most successful graphic novel ever published. As illustrator and designer his works include major C.D. and book covers, film, theater and festival posters, children’s picture books, stamps as well as illustrations for magazines such as The New Yorker and Playboy. In 1996 he composed and performed the music for the BBC Radio adaptation of Signal to Noise with saxophonist Iain Ballamy, with whom he has recently initiated the Feral Records label. And since 1998 he is also making films. He lives on the Isle of Oxney in Kent, England with his wife, studio manager and musician, Clare.

Marcello Quintanilha (born 1971) is a Brazilian comic book artist. Born in Niterói, he first published comics in 1988, for magazines such as Mestre Kim, General, Metal Pesado and Zé Pereira, under the pseudonym Marcelo Gaú. In 1999 he published his first graphic novel, Fealdade de Fabiano Gorila. That year, during the first edition of the International Comics Festival of Belo Horizonte, he met François Boucq, who became interested in his work and convinced him to send his drawings to European publishers. In 2003, he published La promesse the first volume of the series Sept balles pour Oxford, by Belgian publishing house Le Lombard, written by Argentine writer Jorge Zentner and the Spanish Montecarlo. The contract with the Belgian publisher made Quintanilha move to Barcelona, to stay closer to the series’ writers. He also started to publish illustrations for the Spanish newspapers El País and Vanguardia. At the same time, he continued to produce albums for the Brazilian audience. For his 2009 comic Sábado dos meus amores he was awarded the HQMIX Trophy as best Brazilian artist. In 2016, he was awarded the Fauve Polar SNCF award at the 43rd Festival d’Angoulême, for his graphic novel Tungstène.

LITERAMI means in Czech „(with) moveable letters“, a word picked up from the opening sentences in Bohumil Hrabal’s novel „Too Loud a Solitude“ ‒ in our case it means a group of four translators, literary scholars and authors, based in Leipzig, who shared a special affinity for Czech literature and culture: Matteo Colombi, Lena Dorn, Anna Förster and Martina Lisa. We are translating Czech literature into German, organizing cultural events, researching and bringing people together. This year we co-edited with Alida Bremer and Saša Ilić the German edition of Beton International, published for the book fair in Leipzig on the topic “paralelní polis” (parallel polis) in civil society: we gathered for it 18 authors from East Central and Southeastern Europe who wrote very different texts on this subject (essay, poetry, drama, short-story) … do you not know what a parallel polis is? Don’t worry: in May we are bringing it to Pristina!

Tom Kaczynski is a nominated cartoonist, designer, writer, illustrator, publisher, and teacher. He is the author of the Eisner Award nominated graphic novel Beta Testing the Apocalypse (Fantagraphics), Ignatz nominated Cartoon Dialectics series, the forthcoming Trans Terra graphic novel. His comics have appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, MOME, Punk Planet, The Drama, and many other publications. As a designer he’s worked on projects for many well-known companies including AOL, Motorola, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Herman Miller, and for non-profits including IRC (International Rescue Committee). Kaczynski is the founder of Uncivilized Books, a boutique publishing house. Since its inception, Uncivilized Books has published acclaimed and award nominated graphic novels by Gabrielle Bell, Noah Van Sciver, David B., Joann Sfar, Kickliy, Sam Alden, Sophie Yanow, and many others. He’s currently teaching comics at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and occasionally contributes to the Rain Taxi Review of Books.He lives in Minneapolis with his partner Nikki, two cats, and a dog.

After secondary school, Frank Margerin went to a school of applied art, where he met Denis Sire. He joined Sire’s band, Los Crados, as a drummer. The band later became Dennis’ Twist. In 1975, while looking for work in publishing or illustrating, Margerin met Jean-Pierre Dionnet, who ordered his first comic strip, a four-page parodical science fiction story named “Simone et Léon”, for the Métal Hurlant magazine. He later drew and wrote several other stories for the magazine. His first album, Frank Margerin présente, which gathered his first works for Métal Hurlant, was published in 1978. These first stories often have elements of science fiction, to fit with the other strips of Métal Hurlant. After “Simone et Léon”, he also wrote and drew several works for Rigolo, a short-lived magazine. He won his first prize in 1980 at the Lucca Comics & Games festival in Lucca. His most famous character, Lucien, was created in 1979. Lucien is a rocker from Malakoff with a huge pompadour hairstyle that forms a cone in front of his face. Lucien first appeared as a friend of Ricky, another rocker, but he eventually became the center of the stories. With Ricky’s and later Lucien’s stories, Margerin comically described the life of suburban French rockers of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Bananes métalliques, one of Lucien’s albums, was a commercial success in 1982 with over 100,000 books sold. His other characters included Albert and Mauricette, created in 1982, and Skoup and Max Flash, two journalists created in collaboration with Phil Casoar in 1984.

Hermann Huppen was born in 1938 in Bévercé (now a part of Malmedy) in Liège Province. After studying to become a furniture maker and working as interior architect, Hermann made his debut as comic book artist in 1964 in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou with a four-page story. Greg noticed his talent and offered him to work for his studio. In 1966, he began illustrating the Bernard Prince series written by Greg, published in Tintin magazine. In 1969, also in collaboration with Greg, he began the western series Comanche. This appeared at the same time as other western series such as Blueberry. Hermann began writing his own stories in 1977, starting the post-apocalyptic Jeremiah series, which is still produced today. In the same period, he also made three albums of Nick, inspired by Little Nemo in Slumberland, for Spirou. In 1983 he began a new series, Les Tours de Bois-Maury, which is set in the Middle Ages and is less focused on action than his other works. Hermann is characterized by a realistic style and stories that are both somber and angry, with a sense of disillusion with regards to the human character in general, and current society more specifically.

Saša Ilić was born in 1972 in Jagodina. He graduated from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. He is the author of the stories Predosećanje građanskog rata (The prevision of the civil war, 2000) and the novels Berlin skookno (Berlin Window, 2005/2006) and Pad Kolumbije (Fall of Columbia, 2010). Saša has also edited Psećivek (The century of the dog, 2000), a collection of stories from narrators born after 1970. He was one of the founders and editors (till October 2013) of the literary supplement Beton. In 2013, he founded Beton International – newspaper for literature and society together with Alida Bremer. His novel Pad Kolumbije has been translated into Albanian (Rënia e Kolumbisë, 2013).

Alida Bremer (born 1959 in Split, Croatia) studied in Belgrade, Rome, Münster and earned her PhD in Comparative Literature in Saarbrücken. Since 1986 she has lived in Münster and has been writing in German since 1993. She has published stories, poems and essays in German that have appeared in, among other languages, Albanian, English, Macedonian, Romanian, Dutch and Croatian. She has translated novels, theatre pieces, poetry collections and essays by Croatian and Serbian authors into German. Her debut novel Olivas Garten appeared in 2013 by Eichborn Verlag (paperback in 2017 by Ullstein Verlag), and she was awarded the Robert Bosch Stipendium for this work. With KulturKontakt Austria she published the ten-part series Kroatische Literature der Gegenwart (Contemporary Croatian Literature). She was co-editor of the anthology Konzert for das Eis, Gedichte as Kroatien (Concert forthe Ice, Poems from Croatia, 2010)and Glückliche Wirkungen. Eine literarische Reise in bessere Welten (Prosperous Impacts. A Literary Journey into the better worlds, 2017). In 2014, she setup Beton International, Zeitung for Literature und Gesellschaft together with Saša Ilić. Bremer has been involved as a curator with numerous international literature festivals and other literary projects, and is a member of VdÜ (Verband deutsch sprachiger Übersetzer literarischer und wissen schaftlicher Werkee.V.), Literatur verein Münster and PEN Croatia. Photo by: Carola Loeser.

Eleni Suela Douxi is a poet based in Athens, Greece. Born in 1979, in Albania, she received her BA in Theology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She also studied classical guitar and musical theatre. She was awarded the Anagnostis 2017 Best New Poet Award for her first poetry book, Μείον Δεκάξι (Minus Sixteen), 2016, Melani Publications, which is set to be translated and published in Albanian later in 2019. She is a co-founder of Silver Alert Hellas, a voluntary organization for the support of the elderly. Her poetry has been published in numerous anthologies and literary magazines along with her Greek translations of contemporary Albanian poetry.

Matteo Colombi is a scholar in literary studies based in Leipzig, Germany, where he works at the Leibniz-Institutfür Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa. He was born in Bergamo, Italy in 1978. Matteo studied Comparative Literature in Bologna and German as well as Slavic Studies in Leipzig and Prague. He got an international PhD in Comparative Literature and Western Slavic Studies in L’Aquila, Italy, and Leipzig, on the issue of literature and multi-ethnicity in Habsburg and post-Habsburg Prague and Trieste. Matteo likes combining his research in the humanities with cultural and artistic projects: he is the author and performer of the theatre play ‘In den Arschheutenicht’. Some of his publications include: the collection Stadt – Mord – Ordnung. Topographien des Verbrechens in der Kriminalliteraturaus Ost- und Mitteleuropa (2012, as editor), articles “(Ethni)City Under Scrutiny – Tell Me Which Prague You like and I’ll Tell You Which Nation You Are (Not)!” (2016), “Hranice Terstaneb Obrazy provincie, centra a periferie naji hustře dovýchodní Evropy” (2015), and “Andere Geschichten. Das Nachleben der Partisanen in der slowenischen Kunst und Literatur” (2014).

HOMAGE FOR BEKIM LUMI

Bekim Lumi (1966 – 2018) was a prominent theatre director from Kosovo. He studied Albanian Language and Literature at the University of Prishtina and Theatre Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana.As the founder and artistic director of ‘Loja’Laboratory Theatre, his work was distinguished by his minimalistic style, concepts and ideas, as well as by his bold creative inclinations towards experimentation and unconventional performative paradigms.His theatre was mainly informed by Grotowski’s concept of ‘poor theatre’. He was the author of several theatre performances, based on the plays of Eugene Ionesco, Bertolt Brecht, William Shakespeare, Slawomir Mrozek, Bernard Marie Koltès, Federico Garcia Lorca, A. P. Chekhov etc.With his performances, such as ‘The Lesson’, ‘The Blood Shirt’,‘The Martin Couple’, ‘The Dealers’, and ‘John Cage’s Hamlet’, he was part of various international and regional theatre events and festivals, receiving a number of international theatre awards. Besides his directing work, he was the founder, editor in chief and publisher of the theatre magazine ‘Loja’which was published in the years 2006-2010 in Kosovo. From 2002, helectured Theatre Directing at the University of Prishtina. For his last performance ‘Arturo Ui’, Lumiwas awarded ‘The Best Directing Annual Prize’ by the Kosovo Ministry of Culture.Lumi wrote also several poems. His poetry work is going to be published soon in Prishtina. His poems in polip festival will be read by his friends and theater colleagues.

Jasna Dimitrijević (1979, Negotin, SFRJ) writes short fiction, poetry and reviews. She graduated at the Department of General Literature and Theory of Literature in Belgrade. Co-organizer of the first regional competition for the best short story on the topic of reconciliation in BHSC, Albanian and Macedonian language – Biber (2015) – and the co-editor of the multilingual collection (2016). Author of two short story collections Prepoznavanja (Recognitions), Public Library Karlo Bijelicki, 2015; and Fibonačijev niz (Fibonacci Sequence), Partizanska knjiga, 2018. Regular contributor at the magazine Liceulice. Lives in Belgrade, works at a bookstore. Photo by: Tamara Zrnovic.

Sreten Ugričić was born in Yugoslavia 1961. Author of nine books: novels, stories, essays, theory. Lived in Prishtina 1993-1997 and worked as Assistant Professor at Philosophy Faculty and as program manager at Open Society Foundation. Then moved to Belgrade and Budapest managing Open Society Foundation programs for publishing and libraries. Director of the National Library of Serbia from 2001 to 2012. In January 2012 Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić accused him of supporting terrorism, in front of cameras of all Serbian TV stations. The Government of Serbia dismisses him immediately, at an alleged “emergency telephone” session. All media controlled by government, print and electronic, for months had been engaged in relentless campaign of smear and intimidation against Sreten Ugričić. Since then he has been living abroad (in Switzerland, and before that in Austria and the USA). He was a visiting fellow and lecturer at Stanford University 2013-2015. Currently he is research associate on cultural studies at the University of Lucerne.

Fumio Obata (born in Toyko, 1975) left Japan for Britain when he was 16 years old and completed his Illustration degree at Glasgow School of Art and a Master of Art degree at Royal College of Art in London. He then decided to pursue his creative and comic book career after realizing that there were more challenges in Europe than his own home soil back in Japan. He is now an author whose work and inspiration come from cultural differences and social issues in his surroundings. His style and work are influenced by both Japanese and European esthetics. He is latest Graphic Novels ‘Just So Happens’ published by Jonathan Cape, Random House, has won many high acclaims and now been translated and published in 8 different countries. Fumio also has a career as an animator. Between 2003 and 2008.He worked with Duran Duran,Channel 4, and joined Red kite Animations in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2006. He currently lectures Illustration at the University of Gloucestershire in the UK and supports young talents in various sequential contexts such as animation, graphic novel and children’s book. His next project is a graphic novel reportage on Tsunami and nuclear disaster incident which hit Japan in March 2011. Hs is a regular contributor to Italian News Magazine Internazionale for his graphic reportage on a series of natural disasters in Japan.

Olga Grjasnowa was born in 1984 in Baku, Azerbaijan. She is a graduate of the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig. In 2011 she was awarded the “European Border Crossers Prize” by the Robert Bosch Foundation. In 2012 her book „All Russians love Birch Tress“ was published and translated into 15 languages. 2012 she won the Klaus-Michael Kühne-Award und Anna Seghers-Prize. It was nominated for varies prizes, among others „Deutscher Buchpreis“, „Aspekte-Literaturpreis“ and the „Dublin Literary Award“. 2014 her second novel „The legal haziness of a marriage“ was publishes and won the Chamisso Literary Prize and the Prize of Berliner Senat and short-listed for the „Preis der deutschen Wirtschaft“. Both novels were adapted by theaters and will be adapted for cinema soon. She was writer in residence in Istanbul, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro and Lenzburg, Switzerland. Since 2016 Olga Grjasnowa is a member of General Assembly of Goethe-Foundation. 2017 her third novel “God is not shy” was be published.

Ilija Ludvig was born in 1976 in Belgrade. He emerged from musical anonymity in 2007, appearing on the compilation Jutro će promenitisve? (Morning Will Change Everything?). Ivan Loncarevic from popdepression.com notices: “Ilija plays guitar and sings, has a stand-up performance during the concert, expressing himself through songs and visually. Is involved in the fight against all injustices of this world and loves to show how much he cares about everyone in the audience. Ilija is a poet, an artist, a performer,a musician. Is Woody Guthrie and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins; is Billy Bragg and Lou Reed; Ilija is Ludvig.” As for his official releases, Ilija is represented on the popular compilations Pesme is podpokrivača (Songs From Under The Covers) (2013) and Jason Molina Tribute: Just Be Simple (2014), Tapi: LJUBAVNA TEOREMA. (2018) i Piano Sky (2018). He lives the music he creates as an upcoming, unfulfilled friendship,a document of that anticipation, as a Ulysses’s trace of the one true love. The lyrics are never well articulated. They are either sung, murmured or mumbled. Their meaning resonates creating Ambivalens – the spatial equivalent of the scene – and within that space a new closeness is achieved. This achievement depends primarily on the need to keep the air alive, the invisible one. And, of course, on the courage to do so.

http://www.ilijaludvig.com

Gerhard Meister is known as a playwright and as a performer of his spokenword-texts, he also writes radio-plays and poems. Born in 1967, he grew up in the Emmental and studied later on history and sociology at the university of Bern. He has written a lot of plays for theatres in Switzerland and abroad among them Schauspielhaus Zürich, Stadttheater Bern and Burgtheater Wien. This spring his play Lauter vernünftige Leute is shown at the Landestheater Vorarlberg. As a performer he is a member of the group Bern ist überall and works together with the musician Anna Trauffer as meistertrauffer. After Viiecher&Vegetarier (2011) now is released Mau öppis ohni Bombe, another collection of his spokenword-texts. With Eine Lichtsekunde über meinem Kopf he also has published a book of poems.

Melinda Nadj Abonji was born 1968 in Bečej, former Yugoslavia, present-day Serbia. Writer, musician (violin and vocals). Studied German philology and history in Zurich (Lic. Phil. I). Since 1998 collaboration with the poet, singer and beatboxer Jurczok 1001. In 2010 winner of German National Book Award and of the Swiss National Book Award for the novel “Taubenfliegen auf”. Since 2010 cooperation with the multi-instrumentalist BaltsNill. Since 2015 in trio with Nill and contrabass player Mich Gerber. From 2003 to 2009 guest lecturer at the Pädagogischen Hochschule Zürich (creative writing workshop). From 2007 to 2012 managing a writing workshop. In 2018 winner of Schillerpreis for the novel “Schildkrötensoldat”. During 2018 poetics lecture at the University of Hildesheim and auto-poetics lectures at the University of Zurich. Web: http://www.masterplanet.ch

Gani Jakupi, Kosovo born multimedia artist, exercised journalism, writing, translation, illustration, design and photography, before eventually reducing his activities to the graphic novel and jazz composition. The French adaptation in a comic book of his novel Dia de grácia (written in Spanish) entered the selection of the Angoulême Festival in 2010. He was awarded for his graphic novels: Brique d’or in Toulouse for Le roi invisible, Cognito award in Brussels Book Fair and the Special Prize of the Jury in ROMIC (Rome) for the Retour au Kosovo. His graphic novels are translated to Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalonian, English, Russian, Albanian and Bosnian.

Marek Šindelka (1984) is a poet and novelist. He made his debut with the volume of verse Strychnin (Strychnine) for which he was awarded the Jiří Orten Prize 2006. Two years later he published his first novel Chyba (The Mistake), a book that was well received by both critics and readers. Šindelka is one of the new upcoming authors in Czech literature and has already shown his ability as a writer. Together with the illustrator Vojtěch Mašek he turned his novel The Mistake into a graphic novel. It gave them the opportunity to present the story in another way and develop other lines in the story and thus presenting a new view. In 2011 he published a volume of short stories called Zůstaňte s námi (Stay Tuned), expressing a critical and ironic view on contemporary life. The book was awarded with the Litera Magnesia Prize 2012 and was nominated for the Josef Škvorecký Prize 2012. In 2014 came out Mapa Anny (Map of Anna), a set of short stories that are interconnected with each other and digs deep into the personal feelings and lives of young people. His last book is Únava materiálu (Material fatigue), in which Šindelka focuses on European “migrant crisis”. A cultural studies and script writing graduate, Šindelka is now studying for a PhD at Prague’s Charles University’s Film studies department. He lives in Prague and works as a scriptwriter and literary reviewer in the Czech newspaper Hospodářské noviny.

Sarah Hehir was born in Scunthorpe, England in 1974 and studied Drama at Manchester University. She is a playwright and poet who writes for TV, radio and the stage. She was recently presented an Arts Council England award to work with artists in both UK and Kosovo to develop collaborative theatre in evolving spaces. In 2013, she won the inaugural BBC Writer’s Prize for her drama Bang Up and in 2016, won a place on the BBC TV Drama Writers’ Programme with her TV drama The Seafort. Her plays Child Z, Zero Down,Echoes Through the Dust, March and Son of a Precariat have been performed in London at Theatre 503, Southwark Playhouse and The Park Theatre. In 2016, Zero Down was transferred to The Pleasance at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She leads creative writing workshops in prisons, theatres, schools and universities. Her poems have been published in Confluence and Bare Fiction Magazine and performs she them at poetry readings and literary festivals. She is currently writing for BBC Doctors.

Petar Matović is a Serbian poet and essayist. Born in 1978 in Požega, Serbia, he has graduated from Belgrade University, Faculty of Philology with a degree in Serbian Literature. He has published four poetry books: Kamerni komadi (Chamber Pieces), 1997; Koferi Džima Džarmuša (Suitcases of Jim Jarmusch), 2009 (Walizki Jima Jarmusha, Poland, 2011; Les maletes de Jim Jarmusch, Spain, 2013); Odakle dolaze dabrovi (Where the Beavers Come From), 2013; Iz srećne republike (From the Happy Republic), 2017. His work has been published in a number of poetry anthologies, and he has participated in several poetry festivals in the Balkan region and abroad. Matovic’s poetry is translated to Polish, English, German, Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Macedonian, Slovenian, Hungarian, Swedish, Romanian, Slovak, Italian, French… His work has been published in renowned magazines and awarded a number of prizes such as ‘Treci Trg’ and ‘Branko Miljkovic’. Matovic has won scholarships and writer-in-residence in Gauda Polonika (2013), Baltic Center for Writers and Translators, Visby, Sweden (2015), Traduki Network, Split (2016), Artist-in-Residence KulturKontakt, Austria (2017), and Q21, Vienna, Austria (2017).

Mariklena Niҫo was born in 1978 in Korça, Albania. She studied Literature at the University of Tirana. It was a long journey from the first verses till the first book of poetry “Pylli i muzave “, in 2007 (by Ombra GVG). She has been publishing in literary magazines: “Mehr Licht”, “MM”, “Haemus”, “Poeteka”. Parts of her work are included in the Anthology with Balkan poets and thinkers, “My last million”, published in Romanian language, 2014. Also she is present in the Anthology of New Albanian Poetry and Prose, published in Croatian by the bookstore Booksa in Zagreb, 2014.

Ivana Maksić is a poet, essayist and translator born in 1984, in the former Yugoslavia. She has published three poetry books: O telo tvori me (O Body Em-Body Me), 2011; Izvan komunikacije (Beyond Communication), 2013; La mia paura di essere schiava (My Fear of Being Enslaved), 2014; and a chapbook Jaz sem tvoj propagandni film (I Am Your Agitprop Film, IGNOR festival, Slovenia), 2018. Her poetry has been published in several anthologies and numerous literary magazines in the Balkan region and she has participated in several poetry festivals. She co-edited two collections of socially engaged ex-Yu poetry: Do zuba u vremenu (Teeth Gritting in Time), 2014 and Rez (The Cut), 2016.

Lena Dorn is a scholar in literary studies and translator from Czech to German based in Leipzig, Germany. Recently, she translated children‘s books (David Böhm), poetry (Olga Stehlíková) and a novel (Vratislav Maňák). She also developed music arrangements for theater plays. Her essays about society, history, and memory culture have been published for example in „outside the box – Zeitschrift für feministische Gesellschaftskritik“, „Prager Frühling Magazin“, or „Pop Zeitschrift“. Additionally, she contributed to the „Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe“, and she has an ongoing PhD project on the cultural and philosophical history of literary translations. She is interested in electronic music and analog synthesizers.

Azem Deliu was born on 10^th of January 1996 in Skwnderaj, Kosovo. In literature he debuted with the poetry volume “Rain Funeral” in 2013, while as an early student he received the award “Distinguished Student”. However, the success that would make the name of Albanian literature, has reached with the novel “Illegal Psychology”, which was also published in London in English and was read at the Fabula Festival in Poznan, Poland, in Albanian and Polish. Part of his creativity are presented and published in English, Serbian, German and Polish. The Albanian and foreign press has compared him with names like Dostoyevsky, Kadare and others. In the largest Polish newspaper, Wyborcza, it was argued that the comparisons made by the press to Delius with Kadaren were right, until he was commented “a name to be remembered” shortly before meeting with the public at the Residence of the Artists in Poznan, Poland. Since the age of 19, Azem Deliu is a member of the Association of Philosophers of Kosovo. He has been invited to three residencies of two international literary festivals and will read part of his prose in this edition of POLIP.

Dragan Protic Prota is a famous artist and activist from Belgrade, active on the scene from the early 90’s in the art collective Skart, with strong sense of political and especially social in his work. Together with a couple of friends, also active in the field of poetry, he started the open mic festival Pesnicenje http://www.skart.rs/

Ermirë Vrella was born in 1993, in Suhareka. She finished her Masters in Albanian Literature, at the University of Prishtina, and she works in lecture and editing. She has been published in Anthologies and online media, but mainly writes for fun. She is very much interested in Poetry and Photography. Currently she lives in a village, just like Thoreau, “for poetic motivations”.

AUTHORS 2018

Clemens Meyer (born 3 October 1977 in Halle an der Saale, then East Germany) is a German writer. He is the author of Als wir träumten (As We Were Dreaming, 2006), Die Nacht, die Lichter (All the Lights, 2008), Gewalten (Acts of Violence, 2010), Im Stein (Bricks and Mortar, 2013), and Die stillen Trabanten (The Silent Satellites, 2017). Meyer won a number of prizes for his first novel Als wir träumten (As We Were Dreaming), published in 2006, in which a group of friends grow up and go off the rails in East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He received the Rheingau Literatur Preis in 2006. His second book, Die Nacht, die Lichter (All the Lights, 2008), was translated by Katy Derbyshire and published by independent London publisher And Other Stories in 2011. It won the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2008. His third book, Gewalten (Acts of Violence), is a diary of 2009 in eleven stories. His 2013 novel Im Stein (Bricks and Mortar) has been translated by Katy Derbyshire and included in the long list for the International Man Booker Prize. The novel won the prestigious Bremer Literaturpreis in 2014, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Buchpreis in 2013.

Dragan Velikic was born in 1953 in Belgrade. He grew up in Pola in Croatia. Dragan studied world literature at the University of Belgrade. From 1991 until 1995 he was a columnist at the independent weekly newspaper „Vreme“, and from 1995 until early 1999 he was editor in chief at the publishing house of the Independent Radio B92 in Belgrade. Since March 1999 until 2005, he has been living in exile in Budapest and Vienna. From June 2005 to November 2009 Dragan was the Ambassador of Serbia in Austria. He has published ten novels and five books of essays, translated into sixteen languages. All of his novels were translated into German language. He is the most translated Serbian writer in Hungarian language. He received The Award of the City of Budapest for literature in 2013. He won the NIN Price (Serbian Booker) two times: for the novel The Russian Window (2007) sold in 20.000 copies and for The Investigator (2015) sold in 50.000 copies. The Russian Window was published in Albanian language by Koha in 2008. Dragan Velikić lives in Belgradeand works as a freelancer.

Elona Pira is the co-founder and the manager of Peizazhe të Fjalës, an online Albanian-language magazine devoted to critical examination of key social, cultural and political topics since 2007. She holds a Master of Arts in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University, with a concentration in cities. Elona lives in New York City and works at Cornell University, School of Industrial Labor Relations.

Majlinda Bregasi is a linguist, a writer and a filmmaker. She has published a number of linguistic books and studies. In 2015 she published the university book “Beyond the public debates – conversation analysis”. She has translated into Albanian several generative studies of the eminent linguist Leonardo M. Savoia and Rita Manzini, published by the Academy of Science of Kosovo. Her first novel “Ikja” was selected best novel of 2016 by the Ministry of Culture and Sports in Kosovo. ‘Fillimi i një fundi’, published in 20016, is a post modern novel that takes us back to the Albania of the seventeenth century. Bregasi is the author of several documentary films and has participated in many international festivals. She completed her studies of European Language and Literature, and American Studies at the University of Florence with honours, and obtained her PhD in Albanian Language and Literature, at the University of Prishtina.

Josep M. Rodriguez was born in Súria, Barcelona in 1976. He has written an essay about Japanese poetry in western literature, Hana o la flor delcerezo (2007), and six books of poems: Las deudas del viajero (1998), Frío (2002), La caja negra (2004), Raíz (2008), Arquitecturayo (2012) and Sangre seca (2017). These poetry collections compiled the anthology Ecosistemain 2015. His work, which is featured in the most important anthologies of contemporary Spanish poetry, both inside and outside the country, has been translated into many languages. In 2017 his work has been published by Radar: a bilingual anthology Spanish-English. Josep has received several awards, including the Generation of ’27 International Prize. Additionally, he has published some short histories, the critical anthologies Yoesotro(2001) and Alfileres (2004). He has translated Kobayashi Issa’s Poemas de madurez (2008). Recently, the Universidad Autónomade Madrid has organized a conference on his poetry, and the magazine Fragmenta has published a monograph on his poetic work.

Lenhart Tapes is a Belgrade (Serbia) based musical project of Vladimir Lenhart. He started performing as a solo artist in October 2010, focusing on cassette tape sound manipulation. Based on ready-made principle, Lenhart selects diverse prerecorded material and mix it live on top of original rhythmic loops, while using walkmans as musical instruments. As a long and passionate collector of audio cassettes, Lenhart was always impressed with field recordings, ethno musicological content, spoken word and sound propaganda material, as well as audio postcards and various other forms of tape art. By using his fundus as audio structure, he intervenes on the material and brakes it into pieces and sound details, blending it this way into his own unique sound collage. As a part of cooperation with other musicians, in 2013 he started Lenhart Tapes Orchestra, a five piece ethno-noise ensemble that re-played and re-arranged the music he previously made using walkmans.

Mirjana Raić from Novi Sad is ethnomusicologist, professor at art school and singer. She sings in a capella group called Rođenice. She was the lead vocal in Lenhart Tapes Orchestra, later occasionally working with Lenhart Tapes as a duo. Her latest solo works goes toward experimental and free improvised music, using her voice only.

Ilire Zajmi is a writer and journalist born in Prizren, Kosovo in 1971. She studied journalism and communication science. Currently she works as the Head of Training Center of Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK). She also works as university professor and as a trainer of television journalism in Kosovo Media Institute. Ilire is also correspondent of the Italian news agency ANSA. She is author of five poem collections, three published in Albanian language, “Këmbanat e mëngjesit” “Baladë e bardhë”, “Valsi i mesnatës” and “Amnesia” published in Portugal by Corpos Editora, and “C’est la fin” published by l’Harmattan in France. She has written two novels “Fashitja e ëndrrave rebele”, “Era”, the book “Un treno per Blace” published in Italian language, in Italy in 1999, translated in Albanian and Croatian languages, and the study book “Television pictures and reality”, published by Saga publishing house, Kosovo. Ilire Zajmi’s poems are also translated in foreign languages. She has been presented with poems in many literary anthologies. Ilire is a winner of a special prize for poetry “Venttenale” of the international poetry contest held in Milan, Italy in 2011. She is also a winner of the National Poetry Prize “Mitingu i Poezisë” in 2013.

Shkumbin Brestovci was born in 1969 in Prishtina. He is a linguist, translator and free culture hacktivist. Shkumbin studied mathematics in Prishtina, Linguistics in Vienna and has been an entrepreneur running a comics publishing house and a digital production studio since 2002. Since 2009 he’s been engaged in grass roots groups advocating free culture, free software, feminism and open education. Bresta is a co-founder and head of the board of Alter Habitus – Feminist Institute for Studies in Society and Culture, and co-founder/board member of Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova.

Elona Culiq was born in Shkodra in 1986. She studied Psychology and has undergraduate studies in organizational department. She depicts the written word, poetry. In her poetry she keeps alive small, peripheral realities, which seem to be overwhelmed by the existence of human ignorance. In addition to the numerous literary and artistic festivals in and out of the country, in March 2017 she represented Albania at the Leipzig Book Fair and has been a member of the Biennale of the Mediterranean Artists in a duo performance with another artist. She has won several prices and her poems have been published in various literary anthologies in Albania and in Italy. In 2015 she published a book in German-Albanian in Austria and she will soon publish her second book supported by the Ministry of Culture in Albania. During November 2017, as a writer in residence in Qendra Multimedia, she started working on her newest literary project. In January and February as a resident in Vienna, she presented herself with a poetry-photography at the HERstory exhibition along with three other artists. Few months ago, she left her hometown and the river to come and live in Prishtina without a river. Photo by: Fjona Bashi

Peter Wawerzinek was born in 1954 as Peter Runkel. He is a German artist and writer. He was born in Rostock, at the time part of East Side Germany. His parents escaped from East Germany shortly after his birth leaving him behind. He grew up in the north of East Germany near the coast of the Baltic Sea and was adopted after some years in orphanages. He moved to East Berlin in 1978 where he studied art (without completing a degree), worked various jobs including as a gravedigger and a carpenter. In the 1980s, he became a performance artist and poet. Since 2010 he has been living in Berlin. He won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 2010 for his excerpt Ich finde dich (I’ll Find You) of his novel Raben liebe (Bad Love, literally: Ravens’ Love) which was also on the short-list of the 2010 German Book Prize.

Laura Huerga is the founder and editor of the Rayo Verde Editorial, Raig Verd Editorial. She publishes books in Spanish and Catalan. Some of the authors’ works published include Gerbrand Bakker, Peter Terrin, Magdalena Tulli, Kevin Barry, Zoran Malkoc, Ali Smith, Svetlana Aleksiévitx, Ngugiwa Thiong’o, Richard Flanagan, and Jean Echenoz. She wrote two books for children and one essay about censorship and repression in Spain. She published a catalogue with a selection of 60 Catalan women writers. She speaks twice a month about feminism in Catalunya Radio, the Catalan public radio.

Bashkim Shehu was born in 1955 in Albania. Since a very young age, he had experienced in his own flesh the extremes of a totalitarian system. Son of one of the most important members of the system’s top leadership, purged by the dictator in 1981, he spent eight years in what is known as “Albania’s Gulag”, sentenced twice for what was considered a crime of opinion. Bashkim Shehu moved to Barcelona in 1997 thanks to the program Ciudades Refugio from the International Parliament of Writers, and he was a representative of this association in Barcelona from 1998 to 2000. Meanwhile,he continued his work as a literary writer and as a translator. Some of the authors he has translated into Albanian are: George Steiner, Hannah Arendt, Søren Kierkegaard, Roberto Bolaño, Gabriel García Márquez, J. G. Ballard, Eric Hobsbawn, Zygmunt Bauman and many more. His own books have been translated into English, French, Italian, Romanian, Serbian, and Catalan.

Gonca Ozmen was born in Burdur, Southern Turkey in 1982. She has graduated in the English Language and Literature Department of Istanbul University in 2004. She finished her graduate studies with her thesis: “The Poet’s Descent into the Underworld in Nineteenth Century English Poetry” in 2008 and finished her PhD. with the thesis: “A Revision in Ekphrastic Poetry of Cubist Male Painters’ Representation of the Female Body” in 2016. Her first poem was published in 1997 when she was fifteen years old. She was rewarded as ‘worth paying attention poet’ in Yaşar Nabi Nayır Youth Prizes in the same year. She was also awarded with Ali Rıza Ertan Poetry Prize in 1999.

Svetlana Rakočević was born in 1973 in Mitrovica, Kosovo. She obtained a BA in Yugoslav and Comparative Literature from University of Belgrade. In 1990s she wrote book reviews and worked in the independent cultural center Rex, organizing its literary events and political debates. Since moving to London in 1999, Svetlana’s work has mainly been revolving around education (teaching Serbo-Croatian language and literature), translating and writing poetry. A selection of her poetry was published recently in Ovo nije dom (“This is Not A Home”, 2018.), a poetry collection of ex-Yugoslav female poets on the theme of immigration. Since 2010, when the Conservatives took power in the UK, she has been also involved as activist in many campaigns on the left, individually and through the grass root organization Momentum and the Precarious Workers Brigade collective. Her activism is directed against the neoliberal policies leading to the exploitation of free labor in the cultural sector and the marketization of higher education, as well as against the media blackout of the emancipatory struggles and plight of the Kurdish in Rojava/Northern Syria.

Agron Tufa was born in 1967 in Diber, Albania. He studied Albanian philology at University of Tirana and later world literature at Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. There he also studied at the Russian State University for Humanities (RGGU), where he obtained his MA in literary translation, with emphasis on the poetry of Joseph Brodsky. He is a poet, author, translator from Russian and professor of the 20th Century Foreign Literature at the Philological Faculty at the University of Tirana. His works include the books of poetry Aty tek portat Skee (There at the Scaean Gates, 1996), Rrethinat e Atlantidës (The Surroundings of Atlantis, 2002), Avangardë engjëjsh (Vanguard of Angels, 2005), Fryma mbi ujëra (Spirit upon waters, 2007), Gjurma në rrjedhë (Footprint along the stream 2010),Fragmentet e Gjësë (Fragments of It) 2012, Kafsha apo fantazma (The animal or the ghost) 2016; the novels:Dueli (The Duel, 1998), Fabula Rasa (2004) for which he won the National Albanian “Silver Quill” Literary Award, Mërkuna e Zezë (Black Wednesday, 2006) and Tenxherja (The Pot, 2009) for which he won“Rexhai Surroi” National Kosovar Award for the best Albanian novel, Gurit të varri tia rrëfej (I confess it to the tombstone)2015, as well as the collection of essays Janusi qind fytyrësh (Hundred-faced Janus, 2004), Kuja e Mnemozinës (Mnemozine’s Howl, 2010), Nga hiri i të vdekurve (From the dead ashes), 2009, and the monographic work Dibra me sytë e tëhuajve (Dibra as foreigners have seen it, 2008).

Susanna Rafart is a poet, fiction writer and literary critic. She obtained a degree in Hispanic Studies (1985) and another in Catalan Studies (1992) from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She worked in senior positions teaching Spanish Language and Literature in secondary schools. Currently she works as a literary critic for a number of publications and is engaged on a regular basis with the media (Avui newspaper, the review Caràcters, and various radio stations). Notable among her collections of poetry are Pou de glaç (2002) (Ice Well), winner of the 2001 Carles Riba Prize, Retratenblanc (2004) (Portrait in White) and Baies (2005) (Berries). Her poetic work is featured in various anthologies and has been translated into different languages. This poetic facet is completed with translations of the works of Yves Bonnefoy, Dino Campana and Salvatore Quasimodo. Susanna has also published works of fiction including La inundació (2003) (The Flood), Les tombes blanques (2008) (White Tombs) and Un corgrec (2006) (A Greek Heart). She has also published various works for children. Her oeuvre has received various awards including the Cavall Verd Prize (conferred by the Association of Catalan Language Writers) in the categories of translation and poetry, and the Crítica Serra d’Or Prize, among others.

Born 1962 in Zürich, Zora del Buono studied architecture at the ETH Zürich and HdK Berlin and worked as an architect and construction manager in Berlin. In 1998, Zora co-founded the ocean themed magazine mare (www.mare.de) with her childhood friend Nikolaus Gelpke. Alongside her work as journalist and editor of the culture section, in 2008 she published her first book, „Canitz’ Verlangen“, a novel about the contemporary Berlin gay scene and the last days of the Second World War. Since then she has published five books on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from cross generational love, the NSA, the character of trees, the working class of the Swiss tunnel system, and life on the road from top to bottom of the US Atlantic Coast. Throughout her work one can notice a constant conflict: on one hand the raw experience of simple pleasures, nature, travel, companionship and sex, and on the other hand the brutal truths of human life, injustice, animal suffering, poverty and misinformation. Her current work revolves around her Slovenian grandmother, a fiery communist, who collaborated in a murder in 1948, and whose story, like that of all grandmothers, still resonates in the lives of her grandchildren. Zora regularly leads workshops on the writing process. She lives in Berlin and Zürich.

Manjola Nasi, born in Tirana in 1982, is an Albanian poet and translator. Manjola holds a PhD in literature from the University of Tirana where she currently works as a lecturer in the Faculty of Foreign Languages. She has translated several important works into Albanian, most notably a collection of essays on Futurism, William James’s Pragmatism, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Selected Short Stories, a collection of poems, etc. As a poet, from an early age she has won several local and national prizes. She published her first book, Sonnet of Autumn in 2002 upon winning a literary competition. Following a relatively long hiatus, she returned to writing poems in 2014. From then on she has been actively participating in literary events in Albania and in the region, with some of her poems appearing in anthologies and periodic press. In 2017 she was awarded a national prize by the Albanian Ministry of Culture. Her second collection of poems, A Journey and a Half,was published in early 2018 and has been greeted with critical acclaim. She was one of three authors invited to represent Albania at the 2018 Leipzig Book Fair, where she was part of panel discussions on women in literature and the role of literature in present times and in Tradukistan. Manjola Nasi is a translator and poet who brings the vivid poetry of a younger generation of writers emerging in Albanian literature.

Evelyn Schalk, born 1981 in Graz, Austria. Lives and works as a freelance author and journalist in Graz, Vienna, Berlin and wherever the road takes her. Mainly covering politics, social injustice, migration and feminist issues as well as cultural stuff. Studied Romance languages and literature, German Philology and Media and graduated with a dissertation about Austrian antifascist satire and political cabaret. Since 2004 she is co-founder and editor in chief of the wall newspaper ausreißer – Die Wandzeitung and publishes as a columnist in perspektive – hefte für zeit genössische literatur. 2013-16 she was a member of the Cultural Advisory Council of Graz. Directing the European Theatre Night 2016 she is a board member of the cultural lobbying organisation IG Kultur Österreich since 2017. Received several grants and scholarships, i.a. START – scholarship for literature 2015 of the Federal Chancellery of Austria and literature scholarship of Graz 2016. Currently finishing her first two books Graz abseits der Pfade (April 2018) and nacht.schicht (spring 2019). Always a traveller, journalist, author, activist and poet surfing cities, languages and literary experiments.

Rina Krasniqi (1988) is a writer and photographer. She is co-founder and curator of Lirindja,the independent literary zine that is published in Prishtina. Her literary works were published in Lirindja, while her articles and interviews were published by the National Gallery of Kosovo, Foundation Unë e du Kosovën, Balkan Insight, Kosovo 2.0 and Prishtina Insight, where she writes regularly on culture. Rina has graduated in Media and Communications (RIT) and currently works as communications coordinator at Foundation Unë e du Kosovën and is also involved in other commissioned work. Photo by: Tadi

Nikola Madzirov (poet, essayist, translator) was born in 1973 in Strumica, Macedonia. His poetry has been translated into over thirty languages. The contemporary US jazz composer Oliver Lake, collaborator of Björk and Lou Reed, has composed music based on Madzirov’s poems. His book Relocated Stone (2007) was given the East European Hubert Burda poetry award and the most prestigious Macedonian poetry prize Miladinov Brothers at Struga Poetry Evenings. Other awards include Xu Zhimo Silver Leaf award for European poetry at King’s College in Cambridge and Studentski Zbor award for best debut in Macedonia. Madzirov was granted several international fellowships: International Writing Program (IWP) at University of Iowa in USA; DAAD in Berlin, Marguerite Your cenar in France or Passa Porta in Brussels. American poet and Pulitzer award winner, Mark Strand, wrote: Madzirov’s poetry is like discovering a new planet in the solar system of the imagination. He lives in Strumica.

Alida Bremer (born 1959 in Split, Croatia) studied in Belgrade, Rome, Münster and earned her PhD in Comparative Literature in Saarbrücken. Since 1986 she has lived in Münster and has been writing in German since 1993. She has published stories, poems and essays in German that have appeared in, among other languages, Albanian, English, Macedonian, Romanian, Dutch and Croatian. She has translated novels, theatre pieces, poetry collections and essays by Croatian and Serbian authors into German. Her debut novel Olivas Garten appeared in 2013 by Eichborn Verlag (paperback in 2017 by Ullstein Verlag), and she was awarded the Robert Bosch Stipendium for this work. With KulturKontakt Austria she published the ten-part series Kroatische Literature der Gegenwart (Contemporary Croatian Literature). She was co-editor of the anthology Konzert for das Eis, Gedichte as Kroatien (Concert forthe Ice, Poems from Croatia, 2010)and Glückliche Wirkungen. Eine literarische Reise in bessere Welten (Prosperous Impacts. A Literary Journey into the better worlds, 2017). In 2014, she setup Beton International, Zeitung for Literature und Gesellschaft together with Saša Ilić. Bremer has been involved as a curator with numerous international literature festivals and other literary projects, and is a member of VdÜ (Verband deutsch sprachiger Übersetzer literarischer und wissen schaftlicher Werkee.V.), Literatur verein Münster and PEN Croatia. Photo by: Carola Loeser.

Ardian Vehbiu is the author of 13 books, including several works of fiction that narrate everyday life and recent history. He is also the author of non-fiction works, focusing on the linguistic and semiotic aspects of contemporary culture. He has notably analyzed public discourse in totalitarian Albania and the nature of exchanges between cultures lacking a common language. Ardian is the founder, director and editor of “Peizazhe të fjalës” (Landscapes of the Word), a leading Albanian-language online cultural magazine for over 10 years. His work was most recently included in the Dalkey Archive Press “Best European Fiction 2018” anthology.

Tinka Kurti was born in Gjakova and lives in Prishtina since she was 18. Kurti studied Journalism at University of Prishtina while also worked as journalist in several local media, including Koha Vision for three years and as a freelancer for Jeta në Kosovë. Actually she is also studying Philosophy for Master degree at University of Prishtina. Now, she is committed as a political activist at SELF DETERMINATION! Movement. She also writes articles and poetry. Some of her work has been published in online media in Kosovo.

Edi Matic (Croatia) was born in 1962 in Split where he studied electrical engineering. During the war he was in charge of a German peace and humanitarian organization in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He worked as a graphic designer, organized concerts, produced music and videos and also co-produced Sarajevski krug, a musical staged in a dozen countries in Europe and the US. Edi has published three novels: Ovdje fali ženska ruka (2008), which, besides being one of the finalists of VBZ Competition for the best unpublished novel, was nominated for Kiklop Prize and shortlisted for T-Portal Award, Grimalda (2012) which was translated into German, Serbian and Macedonian and awarded the Steier märkische Bank literary award, and finally Regija stranaca (2016). His short stories and poems were published in anthologies and literary journals in Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria, Germany, Kosovo and Macedonia. His photographs were exhibited at Art Point Gallery in Vienna, Foto galerie im Rathaus in Graz, and Forum Europa / Leipzeger Buchmesse. He is a member of the Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association, Croatian Writers’ Society and an honorary member of PEN BIH. In 2008, he founded Kurs – the Association for Promoting Culture and the Arts and the Writers in Residence Project which has until now hosted and presented hundred international authors and translators to the Split audiences.

Ann Cotten (born 1982, Ames, Iowa) is an American-born Austrian writer. At the age of five years Ann Cotten was taken to Vienna by her parents, who are both biochemists and worked in Vienna. There she finished university in 2006 with a work about Concrete Poetry. At the same time she first emerged as a poet at poetry slams. In 2007 Cotten, whose work has been published in anthologies and poetry journals, found considerable success as a writer with her first book, Fremd wörter buch sonnette, which was published at Suhrkamp. Other books with Suhr kamp are Florida-Räume in 2001, Der schaudernde Fächer in 2013, Verbann! Versepos in 2016. Some of her poems have been translated into English and published in journals like burning deck (USA). In 2010 Cotten collaborated with visual artist Kerstin Cmelka in a book called I, Coleoptile containing original English poetry and film stills, published by Broken Dimanche Press. The book Lather in Heaven, published by the same editor in 2016, assembles her work in English up to date, as well as some selected translations from the German. She lives in Vienna and in Berlin.

Jurgen Jankofsky was born in 1953 in Merseburg, Germany. After he studied chemistry and worked as professional musician, Jurgen studied literature at Literatur institut Leipzig. He is member of Verband Deutscher Schriftsteller (VS), PEN and bursary and writer in residence in Canada. In 2012, Jurgen was honored by the Governmental Department for Culture of Armenia and is a Member of Honour of Writers Organisation of Armenia. Since 2006, he is Vice-President of the Federal Society of the Friedrich-Bödecker-Kreise. Jurgen is the editor of the literary magazine of Saxony-Anhalt “oda – Ort der Augen” and since 2017 he works as a Treasurer of the German PEN. He is the author of more than 50 books. His works are published in more than 20 countries.

Miruna Vlada is a Romanian writer, cultural facilitator and political researcher based in Bucharest. She studied political science and international relations in Bucharest, Graz, Berlin and Ljubljana. In the last 10 years she organized and moderated numerous literary events in the main cities in Romania. In 2014, Miruna published her PhD thesis (Bosnia and Herzegovina – a critical case study of Europeanization) and now she teaches international relations at the university in Bucharest. Her first book “Poemextrauterine / Ectopic Poems” (2004), was published when Miruna was 18 years old. Her book provoked a public debate about “feminine” writing. The book received several national awards for debut in poetry. Her second book “Pauzadintrevene / Break Between Veins” was published in 2007. Miruna’s work was included in several anthologies of the most important young Romanian poets and she was awarded by the Bucharest Writers’ Association. In 2014, she published her 3rd book of poetry „Bosnia.Partaj / Bosnia.Partition” considered by Romanian literary critics a „revival of Romanian political poetry” and nominated for the most important cultural awards of the year. The book was awarded with the Best Poetry Book of the Year 2014 Prize at the National Gala of Radio Cultural Romania, the National Broadcasting Company. In 2016 she received the Traduki Literary Residency in Sarajevo. She participated in international literary readings in Bruxelles, London, Stockholm, and Leipzig. Selections of her poems have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Serbian, Macedonian, Spanish, Swedish and Albanian.

Antoine Jaccoud (1957) is a Swiss author who writes for film, theatre and performance. His film credits include « Home » and « Sister », directed by Ursula Meier, both films receiving international awards, among them a Silver Bear at Berlinale for « Sister » in 2012. As a playwright, Antoine Jaccoud wrote « Lolo’s husband>>, monologue about the famous dead french porn star Lolo Ferrari, « Pandemic » (a black farce about bird flu epidemic) or « Farewell to animals» (a farewell to animals..), all plays that were– or are still- performed in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, or Poland. Involved in the support of bosniak refugees in Switzerland, Jaccoud also created in 2005 a one week performance gathering 14 survivors of the Srebrenica genocide on the stage of a Geneva theater. Jaccoud is also a member of « Bern ist überall », a group of Swiss writers performing
their works on stage with musicians, who had a tour in Kosovo in 2017 with many local guests and the support of Quendra Multimedia.

AUTHORS 2017

Gregory Pardlo‘s collection Digest (Four Way Books) won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Digest was also shortlisted for the 2015 NAACP Image Award and was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His other honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts; his first collection Totem was selected by Brenda Hillman for the APR/Honickman Prize in 2007. He is also the author of Air Traffic, a memoir in essays forthcoming from Knopf. Pardlo joins the faculty of the M.F.A. program in creative writing at Rutgers University-Camden in the fall of 2016. He lives with his family in Brooklyn.

Ghayath Almadhoun is a Palestinian poet born in Damascus in 1979. He has lived in Stockholm since 2008. Almadhoun has published four collections of poetry, the latest “Adrenaline” in Milano 2014. In Sweden he has been translated and published in two collections: Asylansokan (Ersatz, 2010) which was awarded the Klas de Vylders stipendiefond for immigrant writers. He also authored Till Damaskus (Albert Bonniers Forlag, 2014) together with the Swedish poet Marie Silkeberg, which was included in “Dagens Nyheter” (the largest Swedish newspaper) literary critic list for Best New Books and converted to a Radio Play for Swedish National Radio. With Silkeberg, Almadhoun has also made several poetry films. His work has been translated into Swedish, German, Dutch, Greek, Slovenian, Italian, English, French, Danish and Chinese. The Dutch translation of Almadhoun’s poems, Weg Van Damascus, (Uitgeverij Jurgen Maas) Amsterdam 2014, was one of the top 10 selling poetry books in Belgium for several weeks in 2015.

Born in 1965, Laurence Boissier is a graduate of HEAD, the Geneva school of art and design. She started her work with performance art before turning to writing. In 2008, the canton of Geneva awarded her a grant which encouraged her to pursue her writing career. In 2011, Cahier des charges, a collection of short stories, was published by d’autre part. Inventaire des lieux, her second book, published by Art@fiction in 2016, won the 2017 swiss litterature prize. Since 2011, she is part of Bern ist Überall, a spoken word group of swiss authors and musicians. Bern ist Überall produces one CD every year. This year, they have chosen Kosovo as their theme. A tour is planned for the month of October 2017.

Ana Ćurčin is a singer-songwriter born in Baghdad, raised in Moscow and based in Belgrade, Serbia. Her music blends the traditions of folk, Americana and dream pop into a musical atmosphere of her own. She performs either as a solo artist or with her band. Two amazing singles “Cut Loose” and “I Can’t” as well as deeply touching live performances brought Ana under the spotlight in a short period of time and made her one of the most promising acts of Eastern European singer-songwriter scene. Ana’s live performances include many notable venues throughout Europe including Exit Festival. In January 2015. “Sketches of Belonging” was released in January 2016, the first single was “Remain Calm”. Ana Curcin & the band are: Ana Ćurčin, Goran Antović (keyboards), Marko Cvetković (bass), Marko Benini (drums).

Alida Bremer, (born 1959 in Split, Croatia) finished her Comparative Literature studies at the University of Saarbrücken. Some of her publications, among others, are: Jugoslawische (Sch)Erben: Probleme und Perspektiven (Osnabrück 1993); Kriminalistische Dekonstruktion: Zur Poetik der postmodernen Kriminalromane (Würzburg 1999); Literarischer Reiseführer: Istrien (Klagenfurt/Celovec 2008); etc. Together with the KulturKontakt Austria she is the publisher of the „Kroatische Literatur der Gegenwart“ in ten volumes. She has translated literary works of authors such as Edo Popović, Ivana Sajko, Renato Baretić, Zvonko Maković, Delimir Rešicki, Marko Pogačar. Together with the Hungarian author György Dalos she is was the curator of „Kroatien als Schwerpunktland zur Leipziger Buchmesse“ program in 2008. She received „Grenzgänger“ fellowship of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for the work on the novel Olivas Garten (published in August 2013 at Eichborn Verlag, Köln) and was 2008-2014 a freelancer for the S. Fischer Foundation and the network Traduki. Alida is a member of the Croatian PEN center.

Una Hajdari is a Prishtina-based journalist who has covers politics and interethnic issues in the wider Balkan region for English, Serbian and German outlets. She is involved in media activism as a regional representative of Reporters Without Borders, as well as being part of various political activist campaigns.

Eli Krasniqi is anthropologist, writer and feminist activist. She is co-founder and director of Alter Habitus – a feminist institute for studies in society and culture in Prishtina. Her literary work was published in Prishtina and Tirana Albanian literary magazines and in an anthology of Roma poetry. In May 2017 Multimedia Centre will publish her play ‘Citycide’ which was awarded by National Theatre in 2011. Photo by: Jetmir Idrizi

Naime Beqiraj was born in Peja. She did her master degree in philology sciences. She is lecturer in several universities in Kosovo. From the early age she started to work in journalism, as reporter, analyst of cultural issues, editor and moderator. She writes poetry, stories, essays, literature studies and publicity history. She published 3 books of poetry: “Mbi Siparunt” (1990), “Maket Kosove” (2000), and “Njomja e fikut” (2009). Her poetry is presented in several anthologies and awarded with literary prizes at variety poetry festivals in Kosovo and abroad. She also writes song texts. Photo by: Bashkim Hasani

Arben Idrizi was born 1974 in Vushtrri, Kosovo. In 2003 he published his first poetic collection Heqakeq (MM, 2003); and his second one Libri i të qenit in 2010. He has translated and published Valerio Magrelli’s poems in a collection titled Hiçi që është nën. Arben has worked for five years for the weekly magazine ‘Zëri’ and as of 2005 he writes for the daily newspaper ‘Gazeta Express’. He is regular contributor to the literary magazine MM. Arben has also translated from Italian works of notable poets such as S. Quasimodo, E. Montale, Cesare Pavese, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mario Luzi, Alda Merini, F. Santi, which were then published at various literary magazines in Kosovo and Albania. In 2013 his collection with poems Kafshët e duan atdheun was published in Serbian language supported by the 2012’s annual edition of polip literature festival. In 2016, his new collection with poems Fletore poezish 10 – 15 was published by Qendra Multimedia. Photo: Kushtrim Ternava.

Aïcha Arnaout born in Damas, the 13th of October 1946. Living in Paris since 1978. From 1961, she started writing, publishing and participating in different poetical manifestations and as well as being part of several anthologies. Her first book was publisht in arabic « L’Incendie », her last novel being the « Je te conduis vers l’autre». She published five books in french language, the last one is « La traversé du blanc » in 2011. She is also translating poetry and theatrical pieces into arabic, like « Le Spleen de Casablanca » from the poet Abdellatif Laâbi.

Bernhard Studlar (Playwright) was born in 1972 in Vienna, Austria. He studied Dramatics, Philosophy and Literature at the University of Vienna and Playwriting at the UdK Berlin. He won several prizes for his work, for example the „Kleist-Förderpreis“ for his play „A. Ist eine andere“ („A. Is another) or the prize for Best play of Heidelberger Stückemarkt for „Transdanubia-Dreaming“ (Engl. „Vienna Dreaming“) The WorldPremiere was in January 2003 at Burgtheater Wien. Since this time he is working as a playwright, dramaturg, tutor and director for theatres in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In 2005 he founded the intercultural playwrights-project WIENER WORTSTAETTEN together with the director Hans Escher. For more infos visit www.wortstaetten.at. (c) foto Anna Stoecher.

Fatos Lubonja (human rights activist, writer, journalist, artist) was born in 1951. In 1974, finished his studies for physics. In the same year was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for “agitation and propaganda” after police found his writings, which contained criticisms of the dictator Hoxha. In 1979, while still incarcerated, faced a second accusation, as a member of a “counterrevolutionary organisation” and was sentenced to a further 16 years. Following his release from prison in 1991, became involved in human rights, as General Secretary of Albanian Helsinki Committee. In 1994 has founded the quarterly review Përpjekja (“Endeavour”), – an endeavour to introduce the critical spirit in the Albanian culture. 33 issues have been published untill now. Lubonja is author of several books, fiction and non-fiction. He is winner of many important local and international prices and awards. Living between Tirana and Florence he continues his work as director of the cultural journal “Perpjekja” and as a writer, freelance journalist and artist. http://www.revistaperpjekja.org

Ekaterina Petrova is a literary translator, cultural journalist, and interpreter. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1980, she graduated from the American School of Kuwait, then went on to earn a BA from Macalester College in Minnesota and an MSc from the London School of Economics. Currently based in Sofia, she has also spent time living in New York, Berlin, Cuba, Northern Ireland, and the south of France.Her original nonfiction writing and her translations of short stories, excerpts from novels, screen and theatre plays, and journalistic articles have appeared in Bulgarian and international publications. In 2014, Ekaterina was awarded the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation’s Fellowship for Literary Translators and spent a three-week residency at Open Letter Books in Rochester, New York. As a participant in the “Pristina has no river” artists-in-residence program, she will be working on several projects, including new texts for her collection of nonfiction short stories about fascinating and curious objects from the Balkans and around the world, and her translation of BogdanRusev’s novella collection Come to Me, which will be published by the Dalkey Archive Press in the US. In the fall of 2017, she will begin an MFA program in Literary Translation at the University of Iowa, where she has been awarded an Iowa Arts Fellowship.

Dinko Telećan was born in 1974 in Zagreb, Croatia. In 1999 graduated in Philosophy and English language and literature from the University of Zagreb. He is currently studying sinology at the same university. He published four books of poems (Clashes, 1997, Gardens & Red Phase, 2003, Beyond, 2005, and Needlestack, 2011), a metaphysical study Freedom and Time (2003), travel books Lotus, Dust and Poppy (2008) and Asian Suite (2015), a book of essays called The Desert (2009) as well as a novel titled The Deserter (2013). Selections from his works were translated into dozen languages. Translated over 70 books from English and Spanish into Croatian. Also works as a free lance literary and radio editor. Won various awards for his translations and essays, among them the annual award of the Croatian Literary Translators’ Association for the translation of J. G. Frazer’s Golden Bough in 2002, and the Award for the best non-fictional translation at the Sarajevo Literary Fair in 2006 for the translation of Slavoj Žižek’s The Ticklish Subject. Winner of the European Prize for Poetry at the Festival of Poetry in Curtea de Argeş (Romania) in 2013, as well as Sahitya Shree Award for his contribution in the field of literature (Thiruvananthapuram, India, 2014). He is a member of the Croatian Writers’ Society and Croatian Literary Translators’ Association.

Rrona Jaka was born in 1995 in Gjakova, where she finished elementary school in “Mazllum Këpuska”. She attended “Hajdar Dushi” high school, but ended up graduating from “Sami Frashëri” high school in Prishtina due to her family moving. In 2013 she started her studies of Albanian literature at the University of Prishtina. For two years now she’s been translating for literary magazine “Jeta e re”. In 2015 she published her first novel called “Aresa” which elaborates social justice and homosexuality. Currently interested in metafiction and post-postmodernist studies.

-tandem- is a duo, newly formed by Blerta Kosova&Oda Haliti, both fanatics of experimental music. The energy, the same taste in music, the love for music, the courage for navigation on various music genres, experimentation on mixing, keyboards, and vocals will make us understand why these to artists merged into this duo. It’s a new format of presentation if we compare to what we are used to expect from them on stage. tandem is moving on…follow them. Photo by: Meddy Huduti

Fatime Kosumi is a singer, songwriter and a film producer born in Rosenheim, as the daughter of Albanian parents, originating from Kosovo. After moving to Kosovo from 2001 till 2010 where she was politically and musically active, she now is based in Berlin, where she founded her musical project ANDRRA, which is an interdisciplinary music and film project. Together with filmmaker Vincent Moon, who also worked with Arcade Fire, REM, Beirut and more, she traveled with the support of Music Board Berlin and the Municipality of Prishtina to different regions of Kosovo in May 2014 to find and record nearly forgotten old female folk songs. They were in search of a specific approach to folk music, that of, rhapsodies sung by peasant women. The result manifested itself in the short documentary “KANG E DEFA – Female Rhapsodies of Kosova“. With the Berlin based music producer and composer PC Nackt, together they produced ANDRRA’s upcoming EP ‚Palinë‘ which is based on 5 songs from various Albanian speaking regions that tell the story of a 14 year old girl called Palinë. Her story was the story of the majority of Albanian women in the villages only a few decades ago and still is a widespread phenomena in the global sense, considering that over 700 Million women alive today where married as children. Photo: Kushtrim Tërnava.

Kralj Čačka eng. King of Cacak, Čačak is a city in west-central Serbia) is the musical brainchild of Nenad Maric, a painter and a poet. For more than a decade Kralj Čačka is best kept secret of Balkan music scene, often called the “Serbian Tom Waits” and compared to Leonard Cohen, Serge Gainsbourg, Frank Sinatra… Kralj Čačka proves with every concert – music is only a question of love and emotion! His music is an unique walk through the blues, jazz and folk, painted with socially engaged comments. “Zemlja snova” is the first studio album for Kralj Čačka. It was recorded in Belgrade during summer and autumn of 2016.

Majlinda Bregasi has a Ph.D. in Linguistics. She studied European Language and Literature and American Studies at the University of Florence and Albanian Language and Literature at the University of Prishtina. She is the Dean of English Language and American Studies at Dardania College and has worked as an assistant professor at the University of Prishtina since 2003. She also worked as a video-journalist and documentary producer at Radio Television of Kosova. Her documentaries – “the lament of mountains” and “the code of life” have participated in many international festivals. She has published many linguistic papers. In 2015, she translated from English and Italian the book of many generative studies of the eminent linguist Leonardo M. Savoia, published by the Academy of Science in Kosovo, and published her book “Beyond the public debates, conversation analysis”. Her first novel “Ikja” won the best novel of 2016 prize by the Ministry of Culture and Sports in Kosovo.

Nina Cara was born in 1982 in Albania. She obtained a degree in English Language and Literature and worked for several years in Journalism. After going in PR from journalism she shifted towards a more business oriented career, while always keeping on writing editorial pieces and poetry. Her poetry has been published in various literary magazines, such as Lirindja, Saras, as well as published in the Anthology of some young poets in Albania. She is a regular writer and poetry reader among her fellow young writers in Tirana.

Lura Limani is a writer, editor, and researcher based in Prishtina. She studied sociology, comparative literature, and cultural studies in Prishtina, New York, and Freiburg. Her short stories have been published in Lirindja; her essays & comments in Fabrikzeitung, Balkan Insight, Prishtina Insight, etc. She is currently the editor-in-chief of Prishtina Insight and curates the independent zine Lirindja.

Shpetim Selmani born on 1986 in Pristina. Has obtained a degree from the University of Pristina – Faculty of Arts in Acting. Beside writing poetry and novels he also plays regularly in theatre plays. His last book is, “Writings from a Wrangler”. Shpetim writes continuously for the alternative blog S’bunker. He’s also a dreamer that doesn’t seem to be needed by anyone. Photo by: Blerta Hocia

Kefah Ali Deeb, b. 1982, Latakia/Syria, is an artist and children’s book author. After studying fine arts in Damascus and Latakia, she taught drawing and worked as an editor of children’s books at the Syrian Ministry of Culture. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Syria, and most recently the Venice Biennale. Her short story for children Nuzhet Alsulhufat (tr.: Turtle picnic) was awarded the Sharjah Arab Creativity Award in 2012. As a member of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, Ali Deeb is an advocate for peaceful and democratic change in Syria. She has been repeatedly arrested for her oppositional stance towards the Assad regime. In fall 2014, she fled to Berlin, where she has been granted asylum.

Hamed Abboud born in Deir Ez-Zor 1987, Syria lives in Vienna, Austria. Abboud participated in public reading events since 2005 in Syria, Egypt and Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He published regularly his texts in numerous magazines since 2005 in Syria and the Middle East. Abboud published his first poem collection “The Rain of the First Cloud” (2012) by Arwad Publishers International Inc. He is the winner of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau scholarship from the Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart in Germany (2015). E-Mail:hamedabboud@gmail.com

Entela Tabaku Sörman was born in Shkodra, Albania, living from 1998 in Sweden. She works at the University of Stockholm, from where she also obtained her PhD on Italian Linguistics. Tabaku have published two books with her poetry in Albanian: “50 poezi dhe 5 intermexo”, Shkodër, 1996 and “Një grusht jetë sa me vdekë” [A fist of life so I could die], Tiranë, 2016.

Shqiptar Oseku is a social worker, poet, translator, and publicist. He is born in 1970 in Gjakovë, Kosovo, and has lived in Sweden for the last 28 years. He has authored and/or co-authored seven translations of Albanian contemporary poetry to Swedish and vice-versa. He authored two poetry colletions, Kryquesi i shpirtit (Drita/ABF, 2000) and Poezi (Drita/ABF, 2004) in Sweden, while his third, Requiem (PA, 2014), was published in Prishtinë, Kosovo. He writes columns in Albanian newspapers and magazines, mulling politics, gender and social issues, and shifting cultural identities.

Nir Baram was born into a political family in Jerusalem in 1976. His grandfather and father were both ministers in Israeli Labor Party governments. He has worked as a journalist for Harretz newspaper and as an editor of Non fiction books and classic novels in Am-Oved publishing house. Baram is also an advocate for equal rights for Palestinians. He began publishing fiction when he was twenty-two, and is the author of five novels, including The Remaker of Dreams (2006), Good People (2010) and World Shadow (2013). His novels have been translated into 13 languages, were best sellers in Israel and in different countries and received critical acclaims around the world. In the prestigious German newspaper, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, Baram was described : “Quite possibly, Dostojewski would write like this if he lived in Israel today”. Baram has been shortlisted several times for the Sapir Prize (the Israeli Booker), for Rome prize for foreign literature and in 2010 received the Prime Minister’s Award for Hebrew Literature. In 2016 his non fiction book, “In a land beyoned the mountains”, describing his one year journey into the West Bank and East Jerusalem, was published both in Israel and in Germany.

Miloš Živanović (4.8.1976, Belgrade), co-founder and co-editor of KPZ Beton ngo and Cultural-propaganda set Beton. Author: Ignore The Nightmare In The Bathroom, Matica srpska, Novi Sad, 2006; Kubernetes – priče o pilotu(Kubernets – stories about a pilot), Plima, Ulcinj, 2008; Lirika pasa(Lyric of Dogs), Algoritam, Zagreb, 2009; co-author of theatrical-musical performance “Opera za dinar”, with “Ah, Ahilej” ensemble, based on the book Lirikapasa; Razbijanje(The Killing), Algoritam, Zagreb/Beograd, 2011.

Jazra Khaleed (b. 1979 in Grosny, Chechnya) lives in Athens, writes exclusively in Greek, and is known as a poet, editor, translator and filmmaker. His works are protests against the injustices in contemporary Greece, especially the growing xenophobia and racism. His poems have been widely translated for publications in Europe, the US, Australia and Japan. He is co-editor of the poetry magazine “Teflon”, where he publishes his own translations and essays. His newest short film “Gone Is Syria, Gone” has been selected for numerous international festivals.

Theodoros Grigoriadis was born in 1956 in Paleohori, Kavala. He studied English Literature at the University of Thessaloniki, taught English in public schools and conducted literary seminars in Serres Public Library. He has published ten novels, one novella, two collections of short stories and three plays. The novel “Partali” (2001) was translated in French and adapted as a monologue for the Athens Festival in 2011. A few short stories were translated in Dutch, English and Turkish. He is a literary reviewer, member of the jury of the “Athens Prize for Literature” and member of the Hellenic Author’s Society. He lives in Athens. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001399527104

Bardh Frangu was born in 1956, in Sllatinë të Poshtme, in the municipality of Vitia, where he also went to elementary school. He attended high school in Ferizaj and completed his education by studying philology at the Department of Albanian Language and Literature in the University of Prishtina. He works and lives in Ferizaj and regularly writes articles for publication. He is currently the culture editor of the daily newspaper, Zëri [Voice], in Prishtina. He has published the following books: Ora e shtëpisë [House snake] (poetry), , “Rilindja”, Prishtina 1989; Kohë të kauçukta [Time of ambiguity] (novel), “Rilindja”, Prishtina 1993; Fluturimi dhe rënia e Ben Balës [The rise and fall of Ben Bala] (novel), “Rozafa”, Prishtina 2010; Laviret e duan atdheun më shumë [Prostitutes love their homeland more] (poetry), “OM”, Prishtina 2013; Udhëtim në përjetësi [Eternal journey] (play), “De Rada”, Ferizaj 2014; Në sheshin e krenarisë [In the square of pride] (play), “De Rada”, Ferizaj 2014; Duke pritur trenat [Waiting for the train] (play), “De Rada”, Ferizaj 2014

Authors 2016

Viveka Sjögren was born in Sweden 1966. She left Stockholm in her twenties to live on the countryside in the northern part of Sweden, and has remained there. She has studied art, psychology, children’s culture, creative writing and literature. Most of her writing is pointed towards the young readers; she has published fifteen illustrated children’s books with her own illustrations, and three teen novels, out of which one was nominated for the Swedish literary prize Augustpriset. She has also written drama and poetry for performances, and was one of six female authors in the performing group BLÄCK. She is currently involved with a community theatre project based on her book That day, handles an educational literary exchange project between Sweden and Nepal, and is the chairman of the International Council at the Swedish Writer’s Union. In the links below you can find more information about Viveka:
www.prick-i.se
www.kabusabocker.se
www.sff.se

Annette Rosengren, Sweden, is a former museum curator who turned to nonfiction writing. With a PhD in ethnology and great interest in documentary genres she has studied and written about aspects on Swedish subcultures, mostly to understand everyday life from The Others point of view, less to analyze theoretically. Her latest book (2014) is about everyday life and surviving in Athens, Greece, among refugees from Afghanistan and other countries. She continues to follow the great, tragic exodus of now. For an earlier book about people waiting for asylum in Sweden she travelled in Kosovo 2005 to meet people who had been deported back or had relatives in Sweden. Her books are in Swedish.

Xhevdet Bajraj was born on the 6^th of March in Kosovo but he currently lives in Mexico. He is a poet and translator. He has won literary awards and his poetry was translated in many languages and was involved in various anthologies in Albanian, Spanish, Serbian and English. Bajraj lives in Mexico since 1999, where he got a scholarship from the International Writers Parliament. He is a co-star in the movie Aro Tolbukhin – in the mind of the killer, of the director Agustin Villaronga and the movie has won various International Awards. He has recorded as well some of his poetry with the Spanish rock band (Silencios incomodos), Grabaxiones Alicia, 2006. Since 2002 he works as a professor in the Academy of Literary Creativity in the Autonoma University of Mexico, where he teaches poetry.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007228967001&fref=ts

Senem Cevher was born in 1982. She finished her education at Izmir Municipality Theatre and Izmir Youth Theatre when she was at high school. She studied at Yeditepe University Fine Arts Faculty Theatre Acting Department in 2005. After graduation, she worked at Amsterdam Theatre Rast, Istanbul Tiyatro Oyunevi, Ahsap Cerceve Puppet Theatre and Istanbul National Theatre. In 2011, she graduated from Bahcesehir University Acting Department Master Degree Programme and now she works for Bahcesehir University as a lecturer.And also she studies at 9 Eylul University Fine Arts Faculty Theatre Department PhD Programme and Sofia National Academy Theatre Film Arts Theatre Directing Department. She translated Jeton Neziraj, Edward Bond, Simona Semevic, Lia Karavia, Stefan Capaliku and Ilir Gjocaj’s texts.

Xhevahir Spahiu a poet, publisher, translator, academic. Born in 1 March 1945, in the town of Malind, Skrapar in southern Albania. He studied Albanian Literature at the University of Tirana, from which he graduated in 1967. He has since worked as a journalist, teacher, publisher, poet and playwright. In 1993 he became secretary of the Albanian Artists’ and Writers’ Association, whose president he has been until 2001. Since 2008 he is a member of the Academy of Science of Albania. Spahiu got affirmed as poet in the late ‘60s with his particular poetic voice. Concise free lyrics, dynamic rhythm, and generalizing thinking of the metaphoric expression are the characteristics and particularities of Spahiu poetic work. Considered one of the most forceful, vociferous and talented poets of modern Albania, a voice of survival, he is author of 12 poetry books. Additional works of Spahiu count seven poetry books for children, three literature essayistic summaries, translations from the international poetry, as well as lyrics of songs.

Shukrije Gashi (Shuki), was born in Prishtina, in Kosovo. Her political activism started in the ‘80s in the Movement for a Republic of Kosovo within Yugoslavia. In 1983, she was sentenced to 2 years in prison. After her release from prison, the authorities obstructed the completion of her studies, but she graduated in 1989. From 1994 onwards,she worked as a journalist for the daily newspaper ‘Rilindja’ (Rebirth). Gashihad published much earlier in the press of that time, but because she was categorized as ‘politically unsuitable’, she usually published under a pseudonym. After prison and until 1999, she was denied the right to a passport. She published her first book of poems, “The Art of Forgetfulness,” in 1997, and she has over 80 unpublished poems and prose texts. Shuki Gashiis the executive director of the organisation, ‘Partners KosovoCentre for Conflict Management’ and she is a feminist activist for human rights.

Svetlana Rakočević (Belgrade, 1973), lives and works in London, as a precarious cultural worker and educator. Before moving to the United Kingdom, she had completed her BA degree in Yugoslav and Comparative Literature at the University of Belgrade. In the mid 1990s she was writing literary reviews for the magazine “Reč” and working at the cultural centre “Rex”, curating and organizing various programmes, mainly literary and theatrical events.
After coming to London in 1999, her work has mainly been revolving around teaching Serbo-Croatian language and literature, translation and writing poetry.

Rosa Pock was born in 1949 in Wagna, where she studied philosophy in Salzburg, where she was married to H.C. Artmann till he passed away and now she lives in Vienna. She won the Literature price in the Forum Stadtpark in 1996, italo Svevo prize in 2005 and Literature Prize of the Province of Steiermark in 2007. Rosa Pock has found a way not only to relativize grammar, but our understanding of the hierarchy of the Universe. Everything is simultaneously sad and funny, simple and complicated, conventional and surprising. The author twists and turns the words, chopped the Syntax and demonstrates sense of humor.

Dije Neziri Lohaj was born in Skopje, in Macedonia, and later resettled in Ferizaj. At high school, she took part in the illegal group ‘Shote Galica’ that sought to challenge discrimination against Albanians by the Yugoslav regime of that time and also to unite with Albania. In 1983 she was sentenced to 3 years in prison. After her release, she was denied the right to study, being considered ‘politically unsuitable’. She began and completed her studies in literature in the 1990s. In 1997, she was sentenced again, but this time in her absence, and so she was forced to emigrate to Tirana from 1997 to 1999. She has published the following books of poems: ‘Dreams of the Homeland’ (2009), ‘I brought the Tsunamis’ (2013), ‘The Calamity of Peace’ (2015).In addition to poetry, she also writes short stories. Dije Neziri Lohajis a professor in the high school ‘Gjon Serreqi’ in Ferizaj.

Sabina Viktor Veizaj was born in Berat on 3 March 1982 and grew up in Fier, where she studied at Janaq Kilica High School. She studied Journalism at the University in Tirana – Faculty of History and Philology during 2001-2005. She then earned her Master Degree in Political Sciences. She has been working in the field of media for several years. At present, she is working as a reporter/journalist of economy at Top Show in Top Channel. With her first book Myshku i Muzgut (The Moss of the Dusk) she was part of the Albanian Young Writers, an anthology published in Zagreb in Croatian Language. It was in the framework of a festival called “Small Literatures”. Veizaj was also awarded the First Prize at the International Festival of Literature which was held in Podujeva in 2012.

Shemsije Elshani was born in Theranda, in Kosovo. In 1979 Elshani joined one of the illegal political movement cells in Theranda. Due to her political activity, in 1981, after the demonstrations of March, she was sentenced to one and a half years’ in prison. After prison, she continued her studies in stomatology, but because of the political circumstances of the time, she had to migrate to Switzerland in 1996. Elshani graduated after 1999. She has written poems, prose and essays, some of which are published in daily newspapers and websites. Most of her articles are unpublished recollections. Shemsije Elshani lives in Bern and she is a social worker, helping young people, women who are victims of violence, and domestic violence, and working with the integration of migrants. She is also a translator of German-Albanian-Serbian.

Eli Krasniqi is a PhD candidate in History and Social Anthropology at Karl Franzens University of Graz, Austria. Her academic research interests as well as publications focus on topics of memory studies, family studies, feminism and social history. She is a member of the feminist institute ‘Alter Habitus – Institute for Studies in Society and Culture’ which she co-founded in 2009. In 2011, she received the second prize of the Kosovo National Theater Award ‘Katerina Josipi’ for the play ‘Citycide’. She lives in Graz, and apart from academic engagements, she writes poems and short stories. Recently her poems were published in Tirana cultural magazine ‘Poeteka’, no 35, 2015. Photo by: Ervina Halili

Myrvete Dreshaj Baliu was born in Vrellë inIstog, in Kosovo. She completed a masters and a doctorate at the Department of Albanian Literature and Language, in the Philological Faculty at the University of Prishtina. In 1984, as a secondary school pupil in Peja High School, she was sentenced to five years in prison for nationalist activity and for participating in founding the illegal group, “Ideal”. In 1989, she was imprisoned and sentenced to two months in prison for her part in the demonstration at the Student Centre in Prishtina. In 1990, she was one of the founders of the Movement for the Reconciliation of Blood Feuds (1990-1992). She has published essays, academic literary studies and monographs, including: ‘Context of Writing’(2004), ‘Importance of Communication’(2009), ‘The life and Works of Jusuf Gërvalla’(2010), ‘Encyclopaedia of Albanological Research’(2014). Myrvete Dreshaj Baliu is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Prishtina.

Sabine Kock has been General Manager of the Austrian Association of Independent Theater from 2003-2015 and at the same time member of the board of the Cultural Council Austria. She had been head of the Cultural Council Austria from 2005-2012. During that period she was one of seven board members of the study ‘Zursozialen Lage von Künstlerinnen und Künstlern in Österreich’ on the behalf of the Ministry of Culture Austria and worked in eight inter-ministry working groups around the status of the artists: funding, taxes, social affairs, labor law, women in art, amendment of the actors law, copyright. For more information please see the links below:

http://www.freietheater.at/
http://www.smart-at.org

Flutura Açka was born in 1966 in Elbasan, Albania. She studied economy and statistics at the University of Tirana. After her studies she worked as a journalist at one of the first free daily’s in Albania, after the fall of dictatorship. From 1992 until 2000 she worked as an editor in book publishing. In 2000 she established with her Dutch partner and publisher Richard van den Brink in Tirana an up market literary publishing house: Skanderbeg books. (See: http://www.albliterature.com) Flutura Açka is in Albania also known as a writer of poetry and fiction. She published several collections of poetry, and many of her poems are also published in French, Italian, Greek, Rumanian, German and Macedonian translation. For her poetry she received the important Prize of the Struga Festival. She published so far three novels. The first one has been translated into Bulgarian; a Bulgarian critic called her the ‘Albanian Marguerite Duras’. Greek and Dutch translations of her second and third novel are in preparation. In Albania she is looked upon as, if not the most important female writer, at least belonging to the top five of best Albanian writers ever (Top 100 Tirana Observer, August 2007). Flutura Açka lives both in Tirana (Albania) and Utrecht (the Netherlands) and has one son.

Ah Ahilej is a band formed in 1999. The band members are: Djordje Branković , Aleksandra Kovačević and Dragan Novković. Last album ”Kapetane, brate!” is based on poetry authors: Bertolt Brecht, Raymond Carver, Bora Ćosić, Alek Vukadinović, Miloš Živanović, Toma Marković, Milorad Mladenović, Predrag Trokicić. The album contains 14 songs, this time with two voices, piano and acoustic guitar. Album ”Kapetane, brate!” was debuted at the literary festival ”Writers in focus”, organized by the Foundation Danilo Kiš in Subotica on 18^th of December 2015. ‘With a subtle touch of humor and a mild cynicism, these anti- heroes are successfully battling the spin-off phenomena of contemporary society. From generational myths to turbo – capitalism dreams, reviewing some of the eternal human themes. Here, love and death walk hand in hand”.

Luljeta Lleshanaku was born in Elbasan, Albania. She is the author of eight poetry books in Albanian and seven other volumes published in foreign languages, such as: Haywire; New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, London, 2011), Fresco (New Directions, USA, 2002), Child of nature (New Directions, USA, 2010), Kinder der Natur (Edition Korrespondenzen, Austria, 2010), Dzieci natury ( Stowo / Terytoria Obraz, Poland, 2011), Antipastorale (LietoColle, Italy 2006), Lundo en sep Tago (Esperanto, Poland, 2013), Ponedjeljak u sedam dana (Versopolis edicija, Zagreb, 2015). She is the winner of the international award “Crystal Vilenice 2009”, “Silver Pen 2000” national award, “Author of the Year 2013” award from the Book Fair of Tirana, “Kult 2013” award, the winner of the Book Fair of Prishtina, 2013, etc. Since 2014, she runs the “SABBAT” annual series of workshops in creative writing in Tirana, supported by the Ministry of Culture of Albania.

FITZGERALD & RIMINI have been straddling the lines between literature, music and performance for years. The duo was founded in 2005 by author and spoken-word poet Ariane von Graffenried (Bern ist überall) and musician Robert Aeberhard (Trummer, dadaad. an open tuning) and since then they have performed on numerous stages, literature festivals and music clubs. In 2011 saw the release of their album Aristokratie und Wahnsinn (Aristocracy and Madness), followed by Grand Tour in 2015. Fitzgerald & Rimini are the recipients of the recognition award for literature of the Canton of Berne in 2015.

www.fitzgeraldrimini.ch

Martin Bieri, born in 1977, lives and works in Berne and other locations. Graduated from the University of Berne with a PhD thesis on contemporary theatre and landscape theory. Freelance author, dramaturg, theatre scholar and journalist. Various plays, scientific publications and prizes. Several years as a senior member of the independent theatre company Schauplatz International (Berne / Berlin). Writes on the arts and sports for various newspapers in Germany and Switzerland. Poetry published in anthologies, e.g. in Moderne Poesie in der Schweiz (Contemporary Swiss Poetry). Photo by: Adrian Moser.

www.martinbieri.net

Mehmet Yashin (Yaşın) (1958, Nicosia) is one of the unique poets of contemporary Turkish poetry. He is also one of the internationally best-known contemporary poets and authors from Cyprus. The different voice and sensibility that he brings to Turkish poetry is based on his hybrid literary sources, combining the Turkish, Greek and Levantine cultures of the Mediterranean, creating a dramatic and narrative lyricism, using Turkish in his writing by reference to historically and geographically variant forms of the language, as well as his poetic themes which give importance to personal experiences.

Vladimir Tabašević was born in 1986 in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He studied philosophy in Belgrade. He has published four books of poetry – Koagulum (2010), Tragus (2011), ) Kundak (2012) and Hrvatski kundak (2014) and one short novel – Tiho teče Misisipi (2015). He is an editor of online magazin Prezupc. His poems and prose are translated into French, Slovenian, Albanian, Macedonian and English.

Gëzim Aliu (1977) is a fiction writer, literary scholar, literary critic. He graduated in literature at the Faculty of Philology at the University of Prishtina in 2002, where he also gained his Master degree in 2006; now he is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Linguistics and Literature in Tirana. He is a researcher at the Institute of Albanology, Pristina. G. Aliu has published since now four books: The study “Diskurset e ideve në prozën e Ismail Kadaresë” (Discourses of ideas of Ismail Kadare’s prose) (2007), the novel “Në Klubin e të shëmtuarve” (At the ugly people’s club), which was awarded with the National Award as the Best Novel of year 2009 by the Ministry of Culture of Kosovo; a short story collection “Libri i fundit” (The Last Book) (2012) and in 2014 he has published the novel “Katedralja pa kryq” (The Cathedral without Cross). Gëzim Aliu is one of the co-founders of the Kosova Writers’ Club and is a member of PEN Center of Kosovo. He has participated in the program “Writer in Residence 2012” of KulturKontakt’s, in Vienna. Part of his literary creativity has been translated and published in Bosnian and Austrian literary magazines.

Jan Böttcher, born in 1973, in Lüneburg / former West Germany, is living as a freelance author and musician in Berlin since 1993. As a singer-songwriter he founded the band Herr Nilsson that published five albums from 1998-2006. Böttcher is co-founder of the Label KOOK that organizes readings, concerts and festivals for almost twenty years now. He debuted in literature in 2003 and has since then written four well received novels about political and/or contemporary items, such as terrorism in the sixties, life at the border between West- and East-Germany, the Gamification of school education. His fifth novel „Y“ came out this year: It takes place in Germany and Kosova and deals both with the past and the future of these countries. Photo by: Timm Kolln

Stefan Schletter was born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and spent his school years in Nairobi/Kenia and Mogadishu/Somalia. After graduating in political science, ethnology and African studies in Mainz he worked as a production assistant for the theater in Wiesbaden (Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden) and continued working there until august 2014. He directed several plays and in 2011 he became director of the youth theater in Wiesbaden. As a dramaturg he was involved in the international coproduction Peer Gynt from Kosovo, which was written by Jeton Neziraj. Since August 2014 Stefan Schletter is director of the youth theatre in Heilbronn.

Donika Dabishevci was born in 1980 in Prishtina. She finished her bachelor and masters in The University of Prishtina where she studied Albanian Literature. And in 2013 she finished her PhD in the University of Tirana, department of Literature. Donika is an editor in the Radio Television of Kosovo and a literature professor in one of the private universities in Prishtina. She published: “Krizantema te plasura” in 1996, “Imazhe te brishta” in 2004, “Proza e poetizuar – F. Konica, M. Frasheri, E. Koliqi, M. Camaj, M. Hanxhari” in 2015 and “Kam me ardh si deka” in 2015. Donika is a member of PEN of Kosovo and Writers Club of Kosovo. She presented her work in seminars and conferences of Albanology and Journalism.

Rumena Bužarovska (born 1981 in Skopje) is the author of three short story collections: Scribbles(Čkrtki, Ili-ili,2007), Wisdom Tooth (Osmica, Blesok, 2010) and My husband (Mojotmaž, Blesok, 2014; Ili-ili, 2015), as well as a study on humor in contemporary American and Macedonian short fiction (What’s Funny: Theories Of Humor Applied To The Short Story,Blesok, 2012). She is a literary translator from English into Macedonian, having translated authors such as Lewis Carroll, J.M. Coetzee, Truman Capote, Charles Bukowski and Richard Gwyn. She is assistant professor of American Literature at the State University of Skopje. Her stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies in English, German, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian and French translations, while her short story collections Wisdom Tooth and My Husband have been published in Croatia.

Bojan Babić was born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1977. He holds a degree in Serbian and World Literature. He has published 3 books of short prose and 4 novels till now. He was awarded the Borislav Pekić award – the only literary scholarship in Serbia – for his omnibus novel Girls, Be Good (in which this story originally appeared). His prose has been translated to Albanian, Swedish, English, German, Icelandic and Hungarian language and published in different magazines and anthologies.

Peter Ahorner was born in 1957 in Bregenz. After graduating as freelance copywriter Ahorner stayed in Russia and Armenia for the record company A&M. Satirical society columnist for magazines. He is a poet, lyricist, translator and Children’s book author. Ahorner works for Burgtheater, Volkstheater, Josefstadt Theater etc. he wrote lyrics for Die Strottern, Roland Neuwirth, Franz Wittenbrink u.a. cooperation and appearances with the Vienna Jazz Workshop, Katharina Schendl, Walther Soyka, Christian Qualtinger, Kollegium Kalksburg u.a. sowie Ignaz Kirchner, Jon Sass, Antonio Fian, Hannes Loschel, Bernd Satzinger, Mathias Koch, Christoph Bochdansky, Karl Ferdinand Kratzl u.a. “The poet Peter Ahorner mastered the rare arts to compose texts in Viennese dialect, which is already inherent in the music” (Christian Seiler, “Profil”)

Katrin Thomaneck (born in 1977 in Germany) studied classical music before becoming interested in translation studies. She holds an MA in literary translation from University Paris 8 (French, English, German), and works as freelance translator of literary texts and social science articles. She is also the editor of Finnegan’s List, a project of the European Society of Authors (www.seua.org) in which 10 eminent authors from different linguistic backgrounds recommend once a year under-translated or forgotten books. Within this project, she regularly organizes literary events in various European cities. From 2011-2013, Katrin Thomaneck worked as an editor for Transcript, an online review of international writing, published by Literature Across Frontiers.

Gjergj Anton Filipaj has an experience of 17 years as an active reporter editor, communicator, PR analyst and lecturer in Kosovo and Albania. Filipaj is current affairs editor at news TV channel RTK3 (from 2014) part of the public broadcaster – Radio Television of Kosovo. Filipaj has worked as Arts Editor at daily newspaper Zëri (2011). Gjergj Anton Filipaj is one of the co-founders of Prishtina based daily newspaper Gazeta EXPRESS (2004-2006) where he worked as editor of the national news section. He also worked as a reporter at newspaper KOHA Ditore covering mainly the education beat (2001-2004). By now he has written 10 short stories: Two of them («Five Letters» and «Luxurious Life») have been published by Haemus Plus – a literary magazine published in Bucharest – Romania. In 2007 he graduated at the Radio and TV Journalism Department – Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication (2005-2007). He graduated at the University of Tirana – Faculty of Philology and History – Journalism Department (1996-2000). Filipaj was born in Tivar –Montenegro and he is living in Prishtina since March 2001.

https://www.facebook.com/Gjergj.Filipaj

https://twitter.com/Gjergj

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Authors 2015

Edmond Tupja was born in Tirana in 1947, after completing his secondary education in 1965, he departs for Paris whereby he graduates in the University of Sorbonne for French Language and Literature, as well as for Comparative Languages on 1971, and 17 years later he will defend his Masters degree in translation. On returning to the fatherland he is named assistant professor in the Faculty of History and Philology at the University of Tirana, in the department of French. After five years he is sent as an ordinary teacher in the elementary school in Gramsh, a small town whereby he remains there until 1980. Afterwards he is back in the capital whereby he is named translator from Albanian to French in “8 Nentori” publishing house until the year 1991, whereas, after the fall of communist regime, he restarts working as a professor in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, whereby he lectures on theory and practice of written translation and likewise oral translation until he is retired in 2015. He has translated and published, in Albania and France, over 80 books of French authors ((Proust, Gracq, Sartre, Simon, Tournier etc.) et Albanian (Kongoli, Kadare, Shehu, Leka, Ahmetaj, Ahmeti etc.), prose and poetry, from French to Albanian and on the contrary. He is also a poet, novelist, translation specialist, lexicographer (author of the first erotics dictionary and a co-author of the first synonyms dictionary of Albanian language) as well as a publicist in the daily “Panorama”.

Ballsor Hoxha by profession is a Professor of English and American Literature and Language. For almost two decades he has been working in various international projects within Kosovo and Macedonia. Currently he is working as a journalist for world news at the Public Television of Kosovo. In addition he is one of the most engaged columnists on actualities, culture and arts, in major Albania’s, Macedonia’s (newspapers in Albanian) and Kosovo’s media. He is the author of a book of three collections of poems and of a collection of short stories. He has also been published individually in a leading Austrian Literary Review “keine Delicatessen!” Whereas, collectively he has been published in German, Slovenian, Serbian and Macedonian. However, in his opinion, being a citizen of Kosovo, publications are neither a proof of success nor of value. Kosovo is yet at its consolidation phase and does not have an/any established system/s of circulating neither literary nor arts matter. Thus he has at least five other completed books, entirely dependent on a dues ex machine to give literature a role, any, in this society. In His opinion publishing a book in Kosovo is rather a documentation of a person’s work, much more than a relation with readers.

Elke Schmitter was born in Krefeld, Germany. She studied philosophy in Munich and worked as an editor for the S.Fischer publishing house in Frankfurt. From 1989-94 she was arts editor and chief editor of the left-wing daily newspaper “taz”, from 1995-2001 she was writer for the “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” and “Die Zeit”. Since 2001 she has been working for the newsmagazine “Spiegel”. She published numerous books (also children’s books), essays and poetry. Her novel “Frau Sartoris” (2001) was published in 21 languages.

Miroslava Malešević (1956, Belgrade, SFRY), anthropologist, has been a long-time associate of the Institute of Ethnography in Belgrade. As a member of this Institute she has carried out numerous scientific projects and participated in both domestic and international conferences. She is especially interested in women’s issues and topics within the field of political anthropology. She is the author of the books: The Ritualization of Women’s Social Development (Ritualizacija socijalnog razvoja žene, 1986), Didara – The Life Story of a Woman from Prizren (Didara –životna priča jedne Prizrenke, 2004), Female (Žensko, 2007), Are There Nations on Planet Reebok – essays on identity politics (Ima li nacija na planeti Ribok – ogledi o politikama identiteta, 2011).
She is an associate and activist of the women’s feminist group Women in Black, Belgrade.

Fatos Kongoli, born in Elbasan, Albania, in 1944, has studied for Mathematics, partially in Beijing and partially in Tirana, whereby he has graduated in the year of 1967. He has worked for a long period of time as a literary journalist and an editor in the Publishing House “Naim Frasheri” He is an author of a series of books. Best known are his novels, acclaimed by the Albanian and the foreign reader. Kongoli’s books have been published in France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Great Britain, Spain, as well as in Esperanto language. He is a three times winner of the annual prize for the best novel provided by the Ministry of Culture (1995, 2000, 2002) as well as of the prize Velia (2000). He is the winner of the Academy’s prize Kult (2008) and of the prize “Rexhai Surroi”(Pristina, 2011). He is the winner of the international prize “Balkanika”-2002, given in Sofia Bulgaria. He is also the laureate of the highest literary prize in Albania “Penda e arte”(2004) The Association of Albanian Publishers has awarded him with the prize “The Writer of the Year” for 2006, whereas his novel “Dog’s skin”, translated in German, was proclaimed the book of the month June – 2006 in Germany. In the year 2010 he has been honored by the President of France with the highest given title in France “Knight of the Legion of Honor”. In the year 2012 he has been honored with the title “Mjeshter i Madh” (Great Master) by the President of Albania.

Vasko Raičević was born 1979. in Podgorica. Finished Faculty of Dramatic Art in Cetinje, Montenegro. Member of the Alternative Theatrical Active Company (ATAK). Play ’’Good Death’’ was performed in Montenegrin National Theatre. With the play ’’Kalina Process’’ won the contest for the best contemporary Montenegrin text 2012. He is the co-author of the play ’’Chapters 23 and 24’’, performed on the festival FIAT in Podgorica. He was also the member of jury in this festival in 2013. Play ’’House For Demolition’’ was performed within the framework of the project ’’19. December – The Day After’’ (produced by ATAK). His plays are translated into English, Russian, Slovenian and Polish languages. He publishes theoretical works and essays in the magazins Lingua Montenegrina and Ars. Short stories are published in the magazins Ars (Podgorica), Quorum (Zagreb), LudLiteratura (Ljubljana). He wrote theatrical reviews for newspaper Dnevne novine. Worked as the assistent for the course Dramaturgy on the Faculty Of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje. Now works as the assistent for the course Antiq Literature on the Faculty Of Montenegrin Language And Literature.

Veton Surroi is a writer. In 1990 he founded the independent weekly KOHA and later the daily KOHA Ditore (1997), still the leading Kosovo daily newspaper. In 2000 he founded KTV, the leading independent national TV broadcaster. He graduated at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1982. He has been a Senior Member of the Kosovo Negotiations Unity Team in the Vienna Negotiations (2005-2007) preceeding the independence of Kosovo. He was a Member of Parliament of Kosovo as president of the ORA Reformist party (2005-2008). He was a signatory of the Rambouillet accords for Kosovo at the negotiations in 1999. In 1990 he founded the independent weekly KOHA and later the daily KOHA Ditore (1997), still the leading Kosovo daily newspaper. In 2000 he founded KTV, the leading independent national TV broadcaster. In 1999 he was chosen as one of the Global Leaders of Tomorrow of the World Economic Forum in Davos. During the 1990’s he was a leading figure in civil society and politics in Kosovo. He graduated at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1982.

Vesa Qena was born in Mitrovica, Kosovo. She studied Dramaturgy at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Prishtina. Since 2010 she’s been working for SKENA UP FESTIVAL as programme coordinator. In June 2012 she wrote a play “Ata do të vijnë” which was performed in Multimedia Center and around Kosovo. In September 2012 her play “To hell with Tito” was performed in Banjaluka, collaboration between Nevid Teater (Banjaluka), Qendra Multimedia (Prishtina) and The Center for Drama Arts (Skopje). From 2011 she cofounded HAVEIT with three other girls, a collective group of four girls that perform/protest against injustice, moralistic rules, discrimination. Vesa is a writer focused mostly on playwriting, short stories and poems.

Tanja Šljivar was born in Banjaluka, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1988. She holds both BA and MA degree in dramaturgy at Faculty of drama arts in Belgrade, Serbia. She writes plays and also short stories, radio plays, screenplays for short films and theater-theory texts. She won several awards for her playwriting and her plays have been translated in English, German, Macedonian, Polish and French. She is currently attending MA course in applied theater science in Giessen, Germany. In July this year she will have a world premiere of her latest play Aber die Stadt hat uns geschutzt(But the city has protected us) in the theater Nau Iwanow in Barcelona, Spain.

Margret Kreidl was born in 1964 in Salzburg. She is a freelance writer since 1989 and author of plays, radio plays, prose and poetry. She has lived in Vienna since 1996. Her work is partly translated into English. She had residency scholarships in Germany, Switzerland, Serbia and USA. Last year she was chosen for the writers scholarship of the town of Vienna.

Elfriede Czurda was born in Wels (Austria) in 1946. She studied Art History and Archaeology in Salzburg and Paris. In 1980 she moved to Berlin and published her first book two years later. Numerous publications were following; also audiobooks, stage plays and photographical work (visual poetry). She had various lectureships in Japan, Germany, Austria and USA. In 2007 she returned to Austria and is living in Vienna currently. Last year she won the H.C. Artmann-Award of the city of Vienna.

Jurij Hudolin a writer, editor, columnist, screenwriter and translator. Jurij Hudolin, was born in 1973 in Ljubljana, where he lives currently. He has graduated in Ljubljana, whereby he has studied literature and Serbo-Croatian language. For seven years he has lived in Pavićin, a little village beside Pulja. His first collection of poems was published in his eighteenth year. His poems were translated in English language, Chezk, Hungarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Serbian, in about thirty other languages in various reviews. For poetry he has been awarded the prize Slavka Gruma, was nominated for Veronika i Jenkova prizes and was awarded for the best first published book of the year in the Slovenian book fair. He is an editor to around dozens of poetry anthologies form the cannon of world literature. He is a member of the Association of Slovenian writers, Association of Slovenian translators and Slovenian PEN Centre.

Stanislava Chrobáková Repar, PhD., (* 1960, Bratislava) is Slovak and Slovene literary scientist, publisher, translator and writer. She writes in both Slovak and Slovene languages. She has a degree in philosophy and aesthetics (Comenius University, Bratislava, 1984) and a doctorate in literary science (Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, 1995). From 2001 she lives in Slovenia, leaving Bratislava and Slovakia. In 2009 she was habilitated at the University of Nova Gorica. Repar is the author of three printed scientific monographs, the last one is: Úzkosť dokorán (Anxiety widely opened, 2012), as well as on-line published analyses made within research project “Gender Quality + Equality Policies” (QUING) supported by the EU commission, etc. Her research in Slovenia has been mostly focused on intercultural topics, feminist literary theory and comparative literary issues.

Ralph Hammerthaler, born in 1965 in Wasserburg (Bavaria), lives as a writer in Berlin. Some of the novels he wrote: „Alles bestens“ (2002), „Aber das ist ein anderes Kapitel“ (2007), „Der Sturz des Friedrich Voss“ (2010). His theatre plays and operas were shown in Düsseldorf, Osnabrück, Munich, Berlin, Omsk (Sibiria) and Mexico City, and finally in 2013 „ein Gott eine Frau ein Dollar“ („one God one Woman one Dollar“) in Munich. In 2006/07 he worked as a literary adviser at the Schaubühne Berlin. He was writer in residence in Prishtina (2013) and Split (2014). In 2014 „Këtu nuk është Amerikë“ („This is not America“) was published by Qendra Multimedia in Kosovo – his plays translated into Albanian by Arben Atashi. He is Socio Honorario (member of honour) of the Teatro Sombrero Azul in Mexico City. (Photo by: Holger Herschel).

Arian Leka (Durrës, 1966) is the author of 16 books, including poetry, short stories, novels, essays. Among his works are Anija e Gjumit (The Ship of Sleep, Best Poetry Book 2000, Albanian Writers Union), Strabizëm(Strabismus, Best Poetry Book 2004 Ministry of Culture) Libër deti (Sea Book, 2009), Ndreqje gabimesh (Correcting Mistakes, Best Poetry Book 2010, Ministry of Culture); the novels Veset e të Vdekurve (The Vice of Death, 1997) and Gjarpri i Shtëpsë (The Snake of the House, 2002); as well as the short story collections Ky vend i qetë ku s’ndodh asgjë (This Quiet Country When Nothing Happened, 1994) and Shpina e Burrit (The Back of Man, Winner of Europe – our common Fatherland, 2005); and essays Sakro&Profano (1997). Books and part of creative work of Arian Leka; poems, essay, short stories and a novel are translated into German, French, Italian, English, Spanish, Romanian, Bulgarian and Croatian language. His short story “Brothers of the Blade was selected and published in “Best European Fiction 2011”, edited by Aleksandar Hemon. (Dalkey Archive Press). Many of his essays and poems are also published at literary magazine and reviews as well as Lettre International(Germany), Lichtungen (Austria), Buchkultur (Austria), Asia Literary Review (internationally distributed), Poetry Review (GB), Evropski Glasnik (Croatia), Orient Express (GB), Nova Istria (Croatia) etc. Arian Leka is also a translator of Italian modernism, including E. Montale, S. Quasimodo, C.Pavese, F.T. Marinetti, P.P.Pasolini, D. Campana and editor of Literary review POETEKA.

Fjolla Hoxha is a playwright, critic of theater and drama, poet and musician. Studied Dramaturgy at University of Prishtina and Critics of Theater & Drama at İstanbul Üniversitesi (University of Istanbul/Faculty of Philology). Won the price for the best original play “Pritja” at SKENA UP Festival in 2004. Participated in class of British playwright Mark Ravenhill in New Plays from Europe in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 2010. Currently works with theater on stilts Merula, in cooperation with Die Stelzer theater in Munich. Writes frequently for KOSOVO 2.0 . Member of IETM international network for contemporary performing arts.

Ervina Halili a poet, essayist, literary researcher from Pristina born in 1986. She is a cultural activist with her researches and participations in several social-cultural public debates in a lot of international social-cultural events. Her first poem was published and translated when she was 11 year old “Crowd97”. Her individual publications includes three books of poetry. She appeared in a lot of local and international anthologies and she was guest of a lot of literature houses and theatres including Vienna(Milo Dor ),Sarajevo(Pen-center),), Belgrade (Krokodil), Leipzig(Bookfest), Graz ( Internationales Haus der Autoren). Actually she is a founder of Fragum-Center for Cultural Interaction in Pristina.

Marko Pogačar was born in 1984. in Split, Yugoslavia. He is an editor of Quorum, a literary magazine, and Zarez, a bi-weekly for cultural and social issues. His publications include four poetry collections, three books of essays and a short story collection. He was a fellow of, among others, Civitella Ranieri, Passa Porta, Milo Dor, Brandenburger Tor, Internationales Haus der Autoren Graz, Récollets-Paris, and Krokodil Beograd fellowships. He was awarded for poetry, prose, and essays, his texts appeared in about thirty languages.

Primož Repar has studied philosophy and history at the University in Ljubljana, where he acquired his postgraduate academic (Ph.D) degree in 2009. The subject of his doctoral thesis was philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. He is the author of 14 books and a dedicated translator of Kierkegaard’s works into Slovenian language. Primož Repar is co-founder of the Publishing house KUD Apokalipsa and has been the chief editor since its inception. At the same time, he coordinates the International Philosophic Symposium of Miklavž Ocepek and the international project »Review within Review«. As editor and publisher he was awarded at the International Publishers Meeting in Croatia (Put u središte Europe 2007) as te best editor/publisher of the year, as editor and poet also in Romania (Arad 2011), as editor and international colaborator in Bosnia and Hercegovina (Banja Luka 2013). He has received a special award of dean of Faculty of Arts Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia. In march of 2014 he received a medallion of St. Olaf College (Minnesota, USA) for excellent organisation of 4th International Philosophical Symposium od Miklavž Ocepek in honor of the bicentennial of the birth of Søren Kierkegaard that took place in 2013 in Slovenia.

Biljana Srbljanović, a playwright and associate professor at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade. Author of the series Open Doors which is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its existence. She has written dozen of plays, for which she has been prized in her country and abroad. Among others she is the winner of six Sterino prizes for the best play. In addition she is the winner of Ernst Toler, Slobodan Selenic, Joakim Vujic, Premio Europa, Osvajanje Slobode etc prizes. She is a beholder of decoration French Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature. She is an activist for the human rights and of the animal rights. She is a PHD candidate in the state University for Arts in the field of Film Studies, a guest professor in universities in Viena, Milano and New York. She publishes on internet.

Authors 2014

Andreas Flourakis (GR), Visar Zhiti (AL), Zuzana Finger (DE), Eli Krasniqi (RKS), Filip David (SRB), Hans-Joachim Lanksch (DE), Kim Komljanec (SI), Ardiana Shala Prishtina (RKS), Miraš Martinović (MNE), Adil Olluri (RKS), Arber Selmani (RKS), Saša Ilić (SRB), Tomislav Marković (SRB), Boris Postnikov (HR), Zlatko Paković (SRB), Hristo Boytchev (BG), Borka Pavićević (SRB), Shkëlzen Maliqi (RKS), Neda Nezhdana (UA), Anja Quickert (DE), Lisiana Demiraj (AL), Ulrike Syha (DE), Vladimir Arsenijević (SRB), Blerina Rogova Gaxha (RKS), Arian Leka (AL), Hana Dalipi (RKS/SRB), Smajl Smaka (RKS) …

Visar Zhiti

Visar Zhiti was born in 1952 in Durrës, Albania. After his studies at a teacher training college in Shkodra, he embarked upon a teaching career in the northern mountain town of Kukës. After years of uncertainty under the Damocles Sword of the Party, Visar Zhiti was arrested on 8 November 1979 in Kukës where he was still teaching. Visar Zhiti was released on 28 January 1987 and was then ‘permitted’ by the Party to work in a brick factory in his native Lushnja, where he kept a low profile until the end of the dictatorship. Visar Zhiti’s first volume of verse “Kujtesa e ajrit” (The memory of the air) was published in Tirana in 1993. Among others he published: “Hedh një kafkë te këmbët tuaja” (I cast a skull at your feet), “Mbjellja e vetëtimave” (Sowing lightning), published in Skopje in 1994; “Dyert e gjalla” (The living doors), published in Tirana in 1995; “Kohë e vrarë në sy” (Time murdered in the eye), published in Prishtina in 1997; and, most recently, “Si shkohet në Kosovë” (Where is the road to Kosova), printed in Tirana in 2000 etc. In addition to his poetry, Visar Zhiti is the author of numerous short stories which have been compiled in the volumes “Këmba e Davidit” (David’s leg), published in Tirana in 1996, “Valixhja e shqyer e përrallave” (The battered suitcase of folktales), published in Tirana in 1997 and “Shekull tjetër”(Next century) – Tirana 2008. Also books of essays: “Në emër të a(r)tit” (In the name of art – Skopje 2006 and “Panteoni i nëndheshëm” (Underground pantheon) – Tirana 2010. He is a member of the International Academy of Art “Alfonso Grassi” in Italy and the European Academy of Arts. And was also minister of culture in his country. Visar Zhiti is one of the best known writers in his country, strong voice of Albania. Photo by: Roland Tasho

Zuzana Finger

Zuzana Finger was born in 1959 in Šaľa, Czechoslovakia. She studied German, English and Slavic studies and Balkanology in Jena, Bratislava and Berlin. She works as a representative of Folk Culture for Sudeten Germans and translates from Albanian, Czech, Slovakian and Serbian language.

Hristo Boytchev

Hristo Boytchev was born in 1950 Northern Bulgaria. He is regarded as one of Bulgaria’s leading playwrights. Hristo Boytchev is the author of about 10 plays which were staged more than two hundred times in 40 countries throughout Europe, America, Asia and Australia. His latest plays are “The Colonel and The Birds” – a female version of “The Colonel Bird”, “The Titanic Orchestra” “District Hospital” and a the monodrama “Pfenomena” . He obtained a Copyright from Kazantzakis Publications to write a play „Zorba The Greek” based on the famous Niko Kazanzakis novel and “The Great Gatsby” as well. www.hristoboytchev.com

Eli Krasniqi

Eli Krasniqi is a PhD candidate in History and Social Anthropology at Karl Franzens University of Graz. She completed her MA studies in Sociology at The New School for Social Research in New York. Her academic research interests as well as publications in journals and newspapers focus on topics of memory studies, family studies, feminism and social history. For more then ten years she worked in NGO sector, where she conceptualized, developed and led projects mainly on gender issues. In 2009 she co-founded Alter Habitus Institute for Studies in Society and Culture, where she is a member now, and led the Institute until 2010, when she left to Graz to pursue her PhD studies. In 2011, she received the second prize of the Kosovo National Theater Award ‘Katerina Josipi’ for the drama ‘Citycide’. She ‘blames’ the ocean distance between her hometown Prishtina and New York, for bringing back to her the untold and forgotten stories that she suppressed for a long time. Now she lives mainly in Graz, in a struggle of reconciling her creative writing in one side and academic research life in the other, that pretty often sabotage one another. Photo by: Majlinda Hoxha

Boris Postnikov

Boris Postnikov (1979, Split) lives in Zagreb, Croatia. He publishes essays, literary reviews and political columns in various regional media. From 2009 until 2013 he was editor-in-chief of the cultural biweekly “Zarez” and as of 2013 he is the editor of radio program “Glossary of the post-Jugoslav literature“. He is also the author of two books: “Post-Jugoslav Literature” (2012) and “And Now for a Few Messages from Our Sponsors“ (2013).

Shkëlzen Maliqi

Shkëlzen Maliqi was born in Prizren, in 1947. He is actually political adviser of the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. Maliqi is a philosopher, political analyst and art critic. He is the publisher of seven authorial books and the editor of several philosophical, cultural and art periodicals (Fjala, Thema, MM journal, Arta etc.). Maliqi was one of the founders of the first opposition political organization in the former Yugoslavia (UJDI, 1989); founder and first president of the Social-Democratic Party of Kosova (1990-1993); founder and member of Kosovo Helsinki Committee, 1990-1997; among founders of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (1993-2000); founder and head of the Board of the Kosovo Civil Society Foundation (1999-2001) and so on. Maliqi is also a promoter and supporter of Kosovo’s alternative art scene, curator of several contemporary art exhibitions. He writes regular political analyses and commentaries for newspapers and journals in Kosovo and Albania.

Anja Quickert

Anja Quickert is a German dramaturg, journalist and lecturer. She studied Theatre, New German Literature and Philosophy in Mainz, Bologna (Italy), Warsaw (Poland) and Berlin. Since 1996 she lives in Berlin, and has worked there as a play writer for the independent scene of theatre as well as at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Besides theatre, she worked as a lecturer for different research projects and institutions. Since 2007 she writes regularly for the monthly special interest magazine “Theater heute” and other magazines. As of 2011 she serves as the executive secretary to the literary society “Internationale Heiner Müller Gesellschaft”. In March 2014 she took the post of a research assistant at the University Trier and is currently writing her doctoral thesis about the transformation process of the east-west German theatre at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (1987-2000).

Filip David

Filip David (1940, Kragujevac) is a writer and a longtime editor of the theater program at TV of Belgrade. He was dismissed from his workplace in 1991 for establishing the Independent Union of Workers of Radio Television of Belgrade. He co-founded the Independent Writers Association in 1989 in Sarajevo where some of the most important writers of former Yugoslavia lived, and founded the Belgrade Circle (1990), an association of independent intellectuals and writers. He wrote many TV plays and movie screenplays. Published three books of short stories Bunar u tamnoj šumi (A Well in the Dark Forest), Zapisi o stvarnom i nestvarnom (Records on the Real and the Unreal) and Princ vatre (Prince of Fire); the following novels Hodočasnici neba i zemlje (The Pilgrims of Heaven and Earth) and San o ljubavi i smrti (Dream on Love and Death); collection of essays Fragmenti iz mračnih vremena (Fragments from Dark Times) ,Jesmo li čudovišta (Are we Monsters) and Svetovi u haosu (Worlds in Chaos). Along with Mirko Kovač he published Knjigu pisama 1992-1995 (Book of Letters 1992-1995). His short stories and novels, among his other writings, have won many awards: award for the best young writer, award of the writer’s association Milan Rakic , BIGZ and the renowned literary award for best book of the year, the Andrićev Award. Since the beginning of the wars in former Yugoslavia, he wrote many engaged and critical essays published in “Naša borba” and “Feral Tribune” and many other newspapers and magazines in the country and abroad, and transmitted in French Radio (RFI). He is a member of Group 99, founded in Frankfurt’s book fair in 1999. His books have been translated in many languages (Hungarian, French, Albanian, Swedish, Italian, English, Polish, Macedonian and Esperanto) and his short stories can be found in some twenty anthologies in different world languages.

Arian Leka

Arian Leka (Durrës, 1966) is the author of 16 books, including poetry, short stories, novels, essays. Among his works are Anija e Gjumit (The Ship of Sleep, Best Poetry Book 2000, Albanian Writers Union), Strabizëm (Strabismus, Best Poetry Book 2004 Ministry of Culture) Libër deti (Sea Book, 2009), Ndreqje gabimesh (Correcting Mistakes, Best Poetry Book 2010, Ministry of Culture); the novels Veset e të Vdekurve (The Vice of Death, 1997) and Gjarpri i Shtëpsë (The Snake of the House, 2002); as well as the short story collections Ky vend i qetë ku s’ndodh asgjë (This Quiet Country When Nothing Happened, 1994) and Shpina e Burrit (The Back of Man, Winner of Europe – our common Fatherland, 2005); and essays Sakro&Profano (1997). Books and part of creative work of Arian Leka; poems, essay, short stories and a novel are translated into German, French, Italian, English, Spanish, Romanian, Bulgarian and Croatian language. His short story “Brothers of the Blade was selected and published in “Best European Fiction 2011”, edited by Aleksandar Hemon. (Dalkey Archive Press). Many of his essays and poems are also published at literary magazine and reviews as well as Lettre International (Germany), Lichtungen (Austria), Buchkultur (Austria), Asia Literary Review (internationally distributed), Poetry Review (GB), Evropski Glasnik (Croatia), Orient Express (GB), Nova Istria (Croatia) etc. Arian Leka is also a translator of Italian modernism, including E. Montale, S. Quasimodo, C.Pavese, F.T. Marinetti, P.P.Pasolini, D. Campana and editor of Literary review POETEKA.

Zlatko Paković

Zlatko Paković (1968) is a director, writer and journalist. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, majoring in theatre and radio directing. During the 1990s, he directed in theatres in Bulgaria and Cyprus and in the past several years at the Center for Cultural Decontamination. His best known play is “To Kill Zoran Đinđić”. He published two novels: “A Single Bedroom” and “Joint Ashes” (German edition, “Die Gemeinsame Asche”, Berlin, 2013). He is a member of editorial staff of the newspaper Danas, for which he writes a column on theatre. He is recipient of the Desimir Tošić award for best column in 2010.

Hans-Joachim Lanksch

Hans-Joachim Lanksch was born in 1943 in Braunschweig, Germany. He studied Slavic and Balkan philology, Ethnography and Albanology. He lives in Munich, where he works as a translator of Albanian, Slovenian and Serbo- Croatian language. From Albanian he translated books of these authors: Martin Camaj, Kasëm Trebeshina, Ridvan Dibra, Lindita Arapi, Azem Shkreli, Ali Podrimja, Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (Mother Theresa). His translation of poetries by Lasgush Poradeci, Mihal Hanxhari, Mimoza Ahmeti, Primo Shllaku, Jamarbër Marko, Luljeta Lleshanaku, Agron Tufa, Ledia Dushi, Kate Xukaro, Din Mehmeti, Fahredin Gunga, Rrahman Dedaj, Mirko Gashi, Eqrem Basha, Edi Shukriu, Flora Brovina etc. and prose by Elvira Dones, Ridvan Dibra and Anton Pashku were published in different magazines and anthologies. In 1999 he won the “Nikolaus Lenau” prize, while in 2002 he won the national prize of the Republic of Albania “Penda e argjendtë”.

Saša Ilić

Saša Ilić was born in 1972 in Jagodina. He graduated from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. Writer and journalis. He has the stories Predosećanje građanskog rata (The prevision of the civil war, 2000) and the novels Berlinsko okno (Berlin Window, 2005/2006) and Pad Kolumbije (Fall of Columbia, 2010) Saša Ilić has also edited Pseći vek (The century of the dog, 2000), a collection of stories from narrators born after 1970. He was one of the founders and editors (till October 2013) of the literary supplement Beton. In December 2013. with Alida Bremer he founded Beton International – newspaper for literature and society. His novel Pad Kolumbije has been translated into Albanian (Rënia e Kolumbisë, 2013).

Kim Komljanec

Kim Komljanec (1978) is a playwright and theatre director from Slovenia. She writes, adapts and directs plays and puppet plays for both young and adult audiences. As of 2006 she runs an independent theatre company called Zavod Zofka. She has a degree in French and Slovenian and holds an MA in playwriting and script development from Exeter University, UK. Crossing the Atlantic: Kim’s short play Incarceration inspired by Ibsen’s A Dolls’ House was produced at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter (UK) and her play Wash My Sin Away was produced by Theatre Terra Firma in Minnesota, USA in 2011. Passing it on: Kim devotes a lot of her time to teaching and running workshops for playwrights, actors, teachers and directors. Between 2009 and 2011 she ran a children’s drama club (Theatretrain) in the UK and also worked with community theatre directors and teachers of school drama clubs across Slovenia touring the country as a workshop facilitator and advisor. Now: Kim currently lives in Cambridge (UK) but remains active both in her home-country (Slovenia) and Britain, working with theatres of all shapes and sizes: from big repertory houses to small fringe theatres. She writes in both English and Slovenian languages and works as a dramaturge, translator, director and performer.
Photo by: David Modic

Neda Nezhdana

Neda Nezhdana is Ukrainian playwright, poet, screenwriter, culturologist, art critic and translator. She graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages of Kiev (French philology) and the Mohyla Academy of Kiev (culturology). She is the head the department of Drama projects at the National Centre of Theatrical Art Less Kourbass, one of the founders of the independent Kiev Theater “MIST” and lecturer of dramaturgy at Kiev National University Tarass Shevchenko. Most of her 25 plays were staged over 70 times. Her work (publications, performances, readings, awards, participation in festivals) has traveled in many cities in Ukraine and in other countries: Russia, Belarus, Poland, Serbia, Macedonia, Georgia, Armenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, France, Sweden, U.S., Australia, Cuba and Iraq. Neda Nezhdana also translated 16 plays from French, Russian and Byelorussian. She is the author of over 80 articles about drama, theatre and cinema. Neda Nezhdana is chairman of the Confederation of Playwrights of Ukraine, patron of Ukraine in the Biennale “New European Plays” (Wiesbaden) and chief of Ukrainian committee in MEO (Paris).

Ulrike Syha

Ulrike Syha was born in 1976 in Wiesbaden/Germany. She studied dramaturgy in Leipzig and worked as teaching assistant at the “Schauspiel Leipzig”. She is currently living and working as a freelance adviser and translator of theater literature in Hamburg. Ulrike Syha held academic scholarships of “Schloss Solitude” at “Literarisches Colloquium” in Berlin, of the German Academy Rome (“Casa Baldi”), of the JAK Budapest, of the “Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen” and of the “Hessischer Literaturrat” (residence in Lithuania). She won the “Kleist-Förderpreis” award for young dramatic advisers (“Autofahren in Deutschland”) and the “Hamburger Förderpreis für Literatur” award (“Herr Schuster kauft eine Straße”) and her plays were staged several times at the “Mülheimer Dramatikertage” (“Privatleben”, “Nomaden”). In 2009/2010 she was exclusively writing for the national theater Mannheim. Some of her plays have been translated into French, English, Spanish, Hungarian, Slovenian and Russian.

Ardiana Shala Prishtina

Ardiana Shala Prishtina was born in 1983 in Prishtina, Kosova. After getting a degree in Psychology from the Free University of Berlin, Ardiana returned to her hometown where she currently works as a youth and family counselor and psychotherapist. She is also involved in activities within the NGO sector as project coordinator for peace building through early childhood education. She writes poetry in Albanian and German language.

Miraš Martinović

Miraš Martinović is a renowned writer from Montenegro. He is known for the antique themes and the forgotten landscapes of Montenegro that he treats in his novels: Putevi Prevalise (Roads of Prevalise; published in Italy with the title Pitere di Montenegro and translated by Silvia Ferarria; also, some excerpts from this book have been translated into Hebrew by Dine Katon, and published in some prominent Israeli literary magazines), Otvaranje Agruviuma (The Opening of Agruvium), and the novel Teuta, which has been reprinted many times, and based on this novel a play with the same title has been staged by an international theatre, with actors from Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Italy and Croatia, directed by Slobodan Milatović. His novel Teuta was published in Albanian by the publishing house KOHA in 2010. The beginning of his literary endeavors began with a poetry collection titled Mit o Trešnji (Myth of a Cherry; 1974), for which he was awarded the literary prize “Lazar Vučković” (1974), and the second edition of this book was published in Belgrade in 2009. Nevidljivi ljetopis (The Unseen Yearbook; 2010) is the first of the four book collection titled Neotkrivena Zemlja (The Undiscovered Land), and the other three books are Govor kraljeva (The King’s Speech; 2009), Govor zemlje (The Earth’s Speech; 2013) and is currently working one the fourth book Govor vjekova (The Speech of the Ages). The novel Poslednji Eshilov dan (The Last Day of Aeschylus) will be published by the prominent publishing house ONUFRI from Tirana. He is a member of the Montengran PEN association, and Matice Crnogorske. Also, he is the winner of Okotobarske nagrade of Herceg Nov, the city where he resides.

Lisiana Demiraj

Lisiana Demiraj was born in 1987 in Albania. She studied Medicine at the University of Tirana. Her book “Xanax –when the pain didn’t stop” is a mixture of poetry and drama and was published in 2008 in Tirana. In 2012 she participated at the 8^th edition of the Poetry and Literature Festival “Poeteka” in Tirana. The 27^th edition of Poeteka magazine published in 2013 thirteen of her prose writings. She participated in 2014 at the 2^ndInternational Forum of Young Poetesses in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Tomislav Marković

Tomislav Marković was born in 1976. He is a poet, satirist, journalist and an anti-fascist. He lives in Belgrade. In collaboration with the editor board of set Beton, he has edited the books Srbija kao sprava (tr: Serbia as a device, 2007) and Antimemorandum-dum (V.B.Z., 2009). He has published two books with poetry, two with aphorisms and a book with satirical texts Vreme smrti i razonode (tr: Time of death and joy, V.B.Z., 2009). He was one of the editors of cultural propaganda at Beton and the deputy of Petar Likovic in the portal http://www.e-novine.com.

Adil Olluri

Adil Olluri (1984) is a writer and literary critic. He has published three books: “Many roads and a fall” (short stories, 2013), “The Albanian postmodern novel” (2011) and “The postmodern trilogy” (2011). His short story “The return of father” was translated in Czech language by Martin Surovcak and published in the cultural magazine “Porta Balkanica”. He is the co-founder of “Kosovo Writer’s Club” and editor of “Jeta e re”, the oldest literary magazine in Kosovo. In 2011 his book “The Albanian postmodern novel” was awarded the National Literary Award by the Ministry of Culture of Kosovo for the best book in literary criticism.

Hana Dalipi

Belgradian mixture of all European genes, which, like ebony and ivory, live together in perfect harmony. In her twenties,she studied, traveled, published. Won the award Miloš Crnjanski for the novel Weekend in Materina (Homo Sapeinsić i Sapiensići). Just before the local apocalyptic couple M&M came in power, exiled in Paris where she did hard labor (children, elderly people, American restaurants, Franco-German TV), but acquired new friendships and improved old languages. Complete literary works still in manuscripts. Working on mother’s biography 33 Years Long Calvary and currentlyin mourning for Francois Cavanna and Mirko Đorđević, the most incorruptible people she has ever met.

Borka Pavićević

Graduated and obtained master’s degree at Academy for Theater, Film, Radio and Television, Belgrade. Dramaturgist, Theater Atelier 212, and BITEF, Belgrade’s annual international festival of avant-garde theater (20 years), Dramaturgist in Zenica, Split, Skopje, Ljubljana, Subotica and Pristina. Founder, “New Sensibility” theatre. Participated in artistic movement KPGT, in ex Yugoslavia (1984-1991). Artistic director, Belgrade Drama Theater, removed after public and political statements (1993). A member of a Belgrade Circle, organization of independent intellectuals. Founder and director of Center for Cultural Decontamination, (1995). Regular columnist in “Susreti”, “Vreme” and currently in “Danas”. Published works include two collections of essays,” At X: Post-Dayton Fashion” (Novi Pazar, 1998) and “Fashion” (Belgrade, 1994); “Do you remember?” in “The Other Serbia” (Belgrade, 1992). Recipient of the Otto Rene Castillo Award for Political Theater, New York (2000); the Hiroshima Foundation Prize for Peace and Culture (2004); the Osvajanje slobode prize, awarded by the Maja Maršićević Tasić Foundation to a woman whose acts affirm the principles of human rights, rule of law, democracy and tolerance (2005); Routes Award given by ECF, Amsterdam (2009/2010), and from the Government of the Republic of France, the Legion d’Honneur (2001).

Vladimir Arsenijević

Vladimir Arsenijević was born in 1965 in Pula, Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. He is an awarded and internationally acclaimed Serbian writer, translator, editor and publicist. He won the 1994 NIN-award for his first novel In the Hold (U potpalublju) thus becoming the youngest ever recipient of this prestigious prize. This was the very first debut book ever rewarded with this prize. This anti-war book was soon translated into 20 languages and placed Arsenijević almost instantly among the most translated Serbian writers ever. Since then, Arsenijević published seven other novels, graphic novels and books of essays. He is a well known editor who formed and developed the RENDE publishing house, where he worked as its editor in chief from its foundation until 2007. From 2007 until 2011 he ran a Belgrade subsection of a distinguished Croatian publishing house VBZ. His essays and columns are published in both printed and online media all over the region of former Yugoslavia. He founded and regularly works at the Krokodil literary festival. He lives and works in Belgrade.

Andreas Flourakis

Andreas Flourakis is a Greek writer, born in 1969 in Athens. He has published four books of poetry (Body 1-4), two novels (The Soul Of The Days, Life On Other Planets), and several plays. He is considered one of the most innovative voices in the Greek theatre scene and part of a new generation of playwrights. Flourakis participated in the Royal Court International Residency in 2001, and has served as visiting professor in Playwriting at The University of Kansas as well as several institutions in Greece. Honors include a Writer in Residence Award at the Royal Court International Residency (UK), a Fulbright Artist Award (USA), a Diploma in Filmmaking (Greece) and an MA in Writing for the Stage and Broadcast Media at the Central School of Speech and Drama (UK). His first theater appearance was in 2001 with the collaborative play Faith (Theatre of the South). In 2003 he received a special recognition in the one-act play contest organized by the Theatre of Art, in 2006 his play ANTILOPES was chosen as one of the sixteen best plays in the JANUS Project for New Plays and New Playwriting across Europe, and in 2008 he was rewarded in the one-act play contest organized by the DI.PE.THE of Rhodes, and received 3rd prize in the International Monodrama Contest 2006-2008 of UNESCO-ITI. His plays were performed in distinguished Greek theatres during the last decade. His work has been translated into English, French, Italian, Turkish, Romanian, Polish and Finnish and performed or read at the Royal Court Theatre, the Gate Theatre, the West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Tristan Bates in Great Britain, the Oyun Yaz festival in Istanbul, at Helsinki Festival, the Comparative Drama Conference, the HotINK festival, the GI60 festival in the USA and elsewhere.www.andreasflourakis.com

Arber Selmani

Arber Selmani was born in 1991 in Pristina. He is an award-winning arts journalist and a freelancer for several Medias in Kosovo and abroad. He is a 3^rdyear student of Marketing and one of the co-founders of Culturist, a NGO supporting the cultural scene in Kosovo. At the age of 13 he started working in several radio stations, while then continued in Klan Kosova Television, “Zëri” Newspaper and Tribuna. He is a human rights activist and a researcher on multiculturalism, nationalism and LGBT issues. “Why the grandpa is sad” is the only book he has published so far, and now concentrating on a novel about a story happening in the streets of Vienna. His writings have no gender, he writes about the love for man and woman with the same divine feelings. He writes poetry and focuses on the journeys he has around Europe against the experiences and viewpoints of a young Kosovo guy.

Blerina Rogova Gaxha

Blerina Rogova Gaxha was born in Gjakova in 1982. She obtained her MA in the field of modern forms and literary theories at the University of Prishtina. With her poetry book “Gorgone” (2009), she won the price of Mitingu i Poezise for the book of the year. She worked as a journalist at Radio BBC. Since 2009, she wrote columns for the daily newspaper Zëri, where she is currently editor for arts and culture. Her work was published in different national and international literary magazines and antologies including Lichtungen and Wespenest. She participated at book fairs in Germany and won the scholar for writers in Split, Croatia 2013. In 2013 her latest work with poetry Kate was published by the publishing house PA.

Smajl Smaka

Smajl Smaka is a poet, journalist publicist and translator. He was born in 1952 in Bllagajë, Peja. First he was a journalist for Rilindja and then later the chief editor of the Television of Pristina. For a while he was a correspondent for the newspaper “Vjesnik” in Zagreb and associate of several weekly journals of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1999 he works for the Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK). He has published the collection with poems “Ëmblemë nate”, Rinlindja 1998. He has also published homage books, like “Shetitje me Azemin” (dedicated to Azem Shkrelit), Onufri ,Tiranë, 2010 and “Pavdekësia e poetit” (dedicated to the poet Ali Podrimja), SMS, Prishtinë 2012. Smaka translated the book with poetry of Abdullah Sidran (“Tabuti i Sarajevës”, Prishtinë, 2011) from Bosnian to Albanian language. From Croatian language he has translated the poem of the poet Andrija Kaciq Mioshiq (“Gjergj Kastrioti –Skënderebeu” Uegen, Tiranë, 2012). A year ago he translated the novel of the famous Serbian writer Filip David (“Ëndrra për dashurinë dhe vdekjen”, Rozafa, Prishtinë, 2013). Meanwhile from Albanian to Croatian language he has translated the collection of poetry of Visar Zhiti (“Izabrane pjesme”, 2010, Nova Gorica, Kroaci). Smaka is also the translator of Ismail Kadare’s novel “Darka e gabuar” into Montenegrin language in 2011, with the title “Pad kamenog grada”.

Hakan Silahsizoglu

Hakan Silahsizoglu is an actor trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England. He has been extensively working in London and Istanbul as an actor, play translator and cultural operator. Hakan took part in three BBC radio plays, performed in mostly modern plays and worked for TV commercials in Turkey. As a tutor he has given acting classes for performing arts students at Bilgi University in Istanbul.
Hakan runs theatre workshops between Istanbul and other countries & brings artists from abroad to Turkey for playwriting workshops as well as performances

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Authors 2013

Yolanda Castaño

Yolanda Castaño (1977) born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, has been writing poetry since she was 18. With a degree in Spanish Language and Literature and Media Studies, she works as an editor, columnist and a culture manager, and has worked for a Galician TV for many years (Galician Audiovisual Academy Award as ‘Best TV Communicator 2005’). She has published 5 poetry books in Galician and Spanish (the last one entitled Depth of Field), and a pair of compilations. Her poetry has been translated into more than fifteen languages. In 2011 she held two international fellowships as a writer-in-residence, in Rhodes (Greece) and Munich (Germany).

Beqë Cufaj

Beqë Cufaj, (born 1970 in Deçan, Kosovo), is a Kosovo Albanian writer who lives with his family in Stuttgart, Germany. He studied Language and Literature at the University of Prishtina. He writes for various newspapers in the Balkans and Western Europe (including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, NZZ and Courrier International) and has published several volumes of essays and prose. His works have been translated into different languages: German, French, English, and Italian etc. Some of his published works are: Balada Budallaqe, poems (Rilindja, 1994); 205, Stories (Dukagjini, 1996); Kosova, essay and reports from the war in Kosovo (Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna-Munich, 2000; in German) Shkëlqimi i Huaj, (Dukagjini, 2003); Der Glanz der Fremde, (Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna-Munich; 2005 in German). His last book titled project@party is his second novel.

Faruk Šehić

Faruk Šehić was born in 1970 in Bihac. He grew up in Bosanska Krupa, when it was still a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Šehić was studying Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb until the outbreak of war in 1992, when at age of 22, he voluntarily joined the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where as a lieutenant he led a unit of 130 men. After the war he studied literature and since 1998 has published his own literary works. The literary critics regard him as one of the most gifted young writers of former Yugoslavia, as a shining light of the so-called “knocked-over generation”. Some of his published work are: Pjesme u nastajanju (2000; tr: Acquired Poems), Pod pritiskom (2004; tr: Under Pressure), Knjiga o Uni (2011; tr: The Book of Una), etc.