TIRANA, Nov. 19 – During its last day, Tirana’s Book Fair crowned its 5-day activities by awarding the best creators, scholars and translators who participated prizes by the Association of Albanian Publishers. 2017’s best literary work was awarded to Betim Muà§o’s novel, ‘Yjet janà« fare pranà«’ (“The Stars are Really Close” ).
Betim Muà§o, who passed away almost 3 years ago in Maryland, was a renowned poet and novel-writer living in the USA since 2001. ‘Yjet janà« fare pranà«’ was Muà§o’s last novel, with some of its final pages still unwritten when the writer died, at the age of 68.
Betim Muà§o published numerous poetry and prose volumes, the sensitive and honest style of which won him several national awards in Albania. His poems have been translated into several languages ”‹”‹of the world, and he was also known as an Albanian translator of many authors Alice Munro, James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov.
The Association of Albanian Publishers announced the work ‘Faik Konica’ by Agron Alibali, winner in the field of scholar studies. Author Persida Asllani was awarded the prize of original children’s artistic literature for the book ‘Unà« quhem Musine Kokalari’ (My Name is Musine Kokalari). Carmina V.’s “Waiting for Happiness” was rated as the best translation of 2017, brought by Diana Culi. Lastly, Adrion Ltd. was rated as Tirana’s best bookstore.
The 20th book fair brought together Albanian, Kosovar, Macedonian and other Albanian publishers in the region, who brought a variety of Albanian and foreign language publications.
