Luljeta Lleshanaku

Luljeta Lleshanaku is an award-winning Albanian poet. She is the author of nine books of poems and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including Silver PEN 2000, PEN Albania in 2016. Her books have been translated into over ten languages. She studied Albanian Philology & Literature at the University of Tirana and later she graduated with a MFA from Warren Wilson College, USA. and has worked as journalist, TV author, university lecturer and researcher. She is the laureate of “European Poet of Freedom 2022” in Gdansk. Poems presented here in the Poetry Markaz are from her translated collection Negative Space, which won the “English PEN” award, and was a finalist for GRIFFIN International Poetry Prize and PEN America in 2019. It was translated by Ani Gjika.