Kadare, Blushi to represent Albania in Balkanika

TIRANA, Nov. 25 – Ismail Kadare and Ben Blushi have been selected as Albania’s two representative writers in the 12th edition of the Balkan literary prize (the Balkanika) which this year will be held in Albania.
A jury headed by academic Jorgo Bulo selected last week Ben Blushi’s “T롪etosh n롩shull” (Living on an Island) as the best novel for 2008 and Kadare’s (E Penguara) as the best literary work for 2009. Both novels, selected out of eight other candidate writers to represent Albania, have been proposed to the international jury.
The competition’s organizers, the Toena publishing house, has announced the prize award ceremony for the best Balkan novel published in 2009 and 2010 will be held in the southern city of Vlora .
The winner will be announced on November 28 in Vlora, where Albania declared its independence exactly 98 years ago.
The Balkanika prize was founded by seven publishers from Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Romania and Turkey with the aim of bringing Balkan writers and publishers together. Every year, the winning book is translated into the languages of all the participating countries.