Poets

Olimbi Velaj (1971) was born in Albania. She has studied in Tirana and Sofia and earned PhD in Literary Studies during 2012. She is author of three lyric volumes: Çastet vdesin nën akrepa orësh (Moments perish under the hands of clocks), “Eurorilindja”,Tirana, 1998; Qenia pasdite (Being in afternoon), bilingual volume (Albanian-English), “Aleph”, Tirana, 2003;  Lumturia e të tjerëve (The others happiness), bilingual volume (Albanian-English), “Aleph”, Tirana, 2022; and (Albanian –Italian) La felicita’ degli altri, 2022, Pettirosso Editore, Sardegna, Italy.

Her poetry is published in 18 languages in some of literature magazines and anthology. She has been participant in a number of poetry festivals. She has nominations and awards: in Albania (1993, “Migjeni”, prize for debuting poet); Kosova (2002, Prize from Association of Writers and Artists of Kosova for the best poetry of woman poets in Albanian language); Romania (2005, nomination for the Balkan Prize of Poetry, International Festival Curtea de Arges); Lebanon (Naji Naaman’s Literary Prizes 2014); Albania, (Europian Academy of Art, Poetry Prize 2014); Prize Menada for the special poetic creativity,  International Festival “Days of Naim”, Tetovo, North Macedonia, 2020; the National Award for the best poetic volume of 2022, given by Ministry of Culture of Albania and the National Book and Reading Center.

Velaj translates poetry mainly from Bulgarian language and from English. She has been  journalist for two decades. Actually she is lecturer in Literature Department, Faculty of Education, University of Durrës, Albania. Last years she has worked at AAB College in Prishtina, Kosova and in Serbia, lecturer for Albanian Language, Literature and Culture, University of Belgrade.