TIRANA, May 26- In its book policy the Ministry of Culture has opened a fund for literary creativity and translation for several years. But this year is accompanied by delays in the call for which the ministry needs to make on these funds. A year ago the fund for translating Albanian literature into a foreign language, the ministry call for applications was March 1. But so far in this year, the ministry has made no open proclamations neither for the fund nor for literary composition.
Found under these circumstances, the writers said that it is not fair that the Ministry of Culture does not report on policies that are being developed to support creativity and translation. Writer Pandeli Koà§i said that it is unknown so far with what program will the Ministry of Culture support authors this year. He said that if the call for funding will not open then there will be no programs for various artistic and literary projects. This would affect both the translation and the authors in their creativity processes. He wonders how will the ministry promote the artistic-cultural activities, and why it hasn’t state the reasons for terminating the program if it has decided so, or why there have been no calls for funds this far.
“What other means will the ministry use to encourage this activity that is vital to Albanian culture? The ministry needs to clarify why there is no funding is available so far, and the secondly, what it plans to fund this practice,” said Koà§i.
Even for another author Vasil Premà§i the Ministry of Culture has shown a lack of transparency. He said the writers are excluded from the ministry. Premà§i said that issues with splitting the funds have always occurred, because they weren’t distributed with a fair estimate, but rather how the ministry has desired.
Writer Xhahid Bushati on the other hand said he has the impression that the Ministry of Culture is showing more attention to tourism.He said that previously funds for creative writing composition and translation would be called on March, however it seems to him that the Ministry is focusing too much on cultural tourism. This has led the attention to divert from the problematics Albanian literature is facing and children’s literature in particular. He said this has damaged Albanian literature because it does not give impulse, thus getting to low readership.
Regarding this problem, official sources at the Ministry of Culture suggest that book projects are still under review and delays are related to some changes in the ministry’s structures. The Ministry of Culture has said it will soon come out with an official announcement about this matter. However, these funds are seen as a help to the authors or the translators, although different authors or publishers have claimed that there should be more transparency and fairer estimates of the applications being made.
