Kadare wins “Lerici Pea” poetry prize

TIRANA, September 22 – Renowned Albanian writer Ismail Kadare has won the “Lerici Pea” poetry prize in Italy in the competition’s 57th edition.
Organizers said this week the prize was awarded to Kadare for his poems which have served as instrument of freedom to all people around the world who are denied fundamental freedoms.
The Poetry Prize Lerici Pea has now become an annual event of absolute reference for Italian and international poetry, exchanged ideas for the whole cultural world. The promotion of poetry, particularly of young poets, experimenting with new poetic language and recognition of the great poets of the twentieth century are the objectives of Lerici Pea Prize, an award which today represents one of the most important poetry awards in Italy.
Last year, Kadare won Spain’s Prince of Asturias literary Prize. He has been a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature. His novels and essays have been translated into more than 40 languages.