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By:
Sinan Berisha
- November 5, 2025 11:00
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Renowned voices of Albanian literature have given shape to an evening that presents the written word as a living experience. At the fiction festival “Fiction Fest”, prose is heard differently, not as a closed text, but as a spirit that mediates the author with the readers. In the form of a conversation with each other, the writers, in addition to readings of parts of their works, have also revealed their experiences of writing, what drives them to create, as well as their relationship with the readers.
Verses and their interpretation became a literary event on Tuesday night, as part of the “Fiction Fest” literary festival, which is organizing its fifth edition this year. In a restaurant in the center of Prishtina, the sounds of conversations and readings mixed with the sound of plates and glasses from the nearby kitchen. The Center for Culture and Education “Sheshi” has once again gathered well-known voices of Albanian literature to give shape to an evening that presents the written word as a living experience.
Prose, in these two nights that mark the festival, is heard differently, not as a closed text, but as a spirit that mediates the author with the readers. The first evening brought before the public authors who have built their literary universe on reflection, experience and experiment: Rita Petro, Mark Pashku, Bardhyl Zaimi, Suad Arilla and Shpresa Qeriqi. Each of them has brought a special way of narrating, making the “stage” resemble a workshop of language and imagination.
The communication was not in the form of a panel. More of a conversation with each other. It was moderated by Jehona Gashi, who one by one invited the five participants of the first night for a short conversation before each of them read a section from their writings.
The first to speak was Rita Petro, one of the most renowned names in contemporary Albanian literature, a poet and prose writer who has been provocative for three decades with bold images and taboo-breaking themes. The author of the novel “Born Backwards”, nominated for the European Prize for Literature (EUPL) in 2024, brought an open reflection on the way her literature is read and how the figure of the writer is perceived in the public space.
"It's the first time I've seen more men than women at a literary event," she said in a candid tone, recalling the period when readers were eager for world literature and less for Albanian literature.
For Petro, the creative process is strongly linked to the spontaneity and symbolism of words. She has also spoken about how the titles of her works are born, often linked to the provocative ideas that have made her famous.
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"Readers have created in their heads that Rita only writes provocative literature, they ask 'What's your title?' They are always interested in my titles. I let them come to me spontaneously, just like the book 'Born Backwards' was. It's the first time I've written a book where the title comes first and the title precedes the entire novel," she said as she continued to read a piece of this novel.
After her, Mark Lucgjonaj, known to readers as Mark Pashku, has brought a philosophical approach to the meaning of literature and the role of the reader. The author of the novels “The Law of Masks” and “Loss” – the latter also a winner of the “Rexhai Surroi” award, translated into several languages – sees literature as a process that cannot be defined by critical systems or institutions.
"There is no bad literature, the reader defines it, someone inflates it, someone pushes the writer and the publishing houses forward. The best case is communism, which inflated the writers and today no one knows who they are. So, even the literature of Montenegro is beautiful in its own way, in its own trends," he said, emphasizing that the biggest obstacles to the development of literature are not creative, but political. He continued to read some of his writings.
Bardhyl Zaimi from North Macedonia brought to “Fiction Fest” the reflection of an author who has spent his life between cultural journalism and literary creation. Known for his books of essays and stories, from “Fuga e hlaševe” to “Avlëmendi i prijetës”, he explained that after the 90s, a new literary paradigm began in Macedonia that is closely linked to Pristina.
"In Macedonia, we have another openness to a different literary paradigm, mainly from young people, who again make a connection with Pristina," said Zaimi, recalling that in the past it was literary magazines that kept cultural life alive, a space that has today been replaced by the internet. He read two short pieces of his writings for the audience present.
Another voice that brought new sensitivity to this evening was Suad Arilla, a prose writer from Shkodra, author of the novels “The Book of Memories and Forgetting” and “Genesis”. He spoke about his experience during his stay as a resident writer in Pristina, where he began writing “The Resistance Diary”.
"During this time, I took some notes, which I conceived as a diary in the form of reflections, thoughts, memories and titled them 'Diary of Resistance'. Pristina itself will be like a dream for me, because it is at the level of what is difficult to return, not only the name, but also the time I have spent there. I know that a vibrant life begins, so it will remain at a high level," said Arilla, describing the city as a space that will remain a memory and inspiration for him, as he also read an excerpt from his novel "Genesis".
Shpresa Qeriqi, who debuted at "Fiction Fest" in 2020, is back with an inside story about her beginnings in literature and the reasons that push a writer, and her personally, to write, before reading a part of her own work like her predecessors.
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"It comes from the great love that we create from our childhood when we are in lessons, the great passion for literature and the desire to create those parallel lives and a bigger world for ourselves, to embellish our own lives a little and to give them a little more color. This has remained only as a desire for me, to create other lives. I have anxiety that I experienced the war in Kosovo and the anxiety that has returned with all of it, has become an anxiety that has made it impossible for me to suppress and has pushed me to write about the war and suffering," she said, mentioning that literature for her is a form of spiritual survival.
The second and final night of this fifth edition brings on Wednesday a series of five writers: Besnik Mustafaj, Sali Bashota, Bardh Frangu, Shpëtim Selman and Dhurata Hoti, who will participate in the conversation and bring excerpts from their writings to read to the audience.
