« Faik Konica » brings the full work of Azem Shkreli, on the 28th anniversary of the separation from life

By Albert Vataj

A return to eternity and a lively poetic testament in words

On the 28th anniversary of his death, Azem Shkreli is not only an honorable memory, but a presence that extends and climbs higher in the pantheon of Albanian culture. He has returned to the lives of worshipers, to the eternity of reading and aesthetic, more alive than ever, because his word knows no death.

Pristina’s Faik Konica Publishing House, with the care of renowned scholar Anton Nika Berisha and the support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, has concluded one of the most comprehensive and dedicated editorial initiatives of Albanian literature: publishing Azem Shkreli’s full work, in seven volumes, summarizing all his creative opus- Publicity, essays, interviews and both versions of the novel « White Caravan ».

This publication is not just a cultural event – it is a memory act and a solemn return of Shkreli to the center of our spiritual and literary life. It is an homage of institutional dimensions and an invitation to the contemporary reader to face deep, philosophical and dramatic poetry that belongs to all time.

Azem Shkreli, born in 1938 in Rugova and separated from his life in 1997, is one of the central figures of modern Albanian literature. He was not only a poet of the vigorous and inflamed speech, but also an important cultural leader – Director of Provincial Theater in Pristina (1970–1973) and later the founder and director of « Kosovafilm » (1975–1990), the institution that laid the foundations of Kosovar cinematography. His poetic work has been permeated by the tension between pain and sublimity, by historical consciousness, and the expression of existence. His poetry is a constant act of spirituality, a battle with himself and with the national tragic.

He taught us, and continues to teach us:
« Don’t be a poet if you can’t give birth/with every verse, give birth to every word … »

Today, more than ever, these verses sound like a creative credo, as a moral commandment of a soul that sought not only to write but to burn in every syllable of the word. Azem Shkreli is one of those poets who cannot be read simply; They should be felt, heard, held in blood and breath. His words are heavy stones of an identity that is raised above resistance, painful love and thirst for light.

The novel « The White Caravan », which is included in two versions in this new edition, is evidence of its narrative force, an eternal metaphor for the journey of the nation, the burden of history, and a hope that travels under the troubled sky of Kosovo. This novel is one of the few that manages to combine the poetic symbolism with the historical story, standing as a peak point in Albanian resistance literature.

This complete work of Azem Shkreli is not only an archive of literary memory, but also a spiritual testament to the generations to come, a call not to forget and not give up on the word, the beautiful, from what gives meaning to man in the face of violence and forgetfulness.

And so, on this anniversary, it is not Shkreli who comes to us, but we who climb to him, rereading not for nostalgia, but for life, per capita, for lighting.