Gazmend Kapllani

GAZMEND KAPLLANI is an Albanian-born polyglot author, journalist, and scholar. For over 20 years, he lived in Athens, Greece and was one of the most outspoken journalists in the Greek press regarding migrants and minorities.

He is the autho of two collections of poetry in Albanian and four published novels (written in Greek and Albanian). His literary work centers on borders, totalitarianism, migration, identity, and how Balkan history has shaped private and public narratives and memories.

Kapllani's first best-selling novel, A Short Border Handbook (2006), has been translated into and published in 10 languages so far. It has been adapted for the stage by Bornholm Theater in Denmark and The National Theater of the Deaf in Greece. It won the International Literary Prize of the City of Cassino in Italy in 2017. His three other novels, My Name is Europe, The Last Page, and Wrongland, have been published so far in French, Italian, Albanian, Greek, and English; The Last Page was short-listed for the French Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE 2016 and awarded the literary prize of the Salon du Livre des Balkans in Paris, France. Wrongland was adapted for the stage by the Greek theater director Pantelis Flatsousis and performed in Athens, Greece, in 2022.