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Essays, Manifestos, Statements, Speeches, Maxims, Epistles, Diaristic Jottings, Narratives, Natural histories, Poems, Plays, Performances, Ramblings, Revelations, and all such ephemera as may appear necessary to bring society into a slight tremolo of confusion and fright at least.

Blood of the Quill

Azem Shkreli

Translated from the Albanian with an Introduction by Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck

A Bilingual Edition

One of the greatest Kosova poets, Azem Shkreli was born in the village of Shkrel in Western Kosova in 1938. His mother died when he was only two years of age, and he was raised by his grandmother until her death when he was still a young boy. He attended secondary school in Prishtina, going on to study in the University of Prishtina, earning a degree in Albanian language and literature. From 1960 to 1975 he was the director of the People's Provincial Theater in Prishtina, and following that he became the director of the Kosova Film Studios, a position he held until he was expelled by the new Serb administration in 1991. During all these years Shkreli was highly involved in the well-being of Kosova and in the struggle for Kosova liberation.

During the 1990s he had to travel to Germany for some time because of his wife's illness, but he ultimately chose not to stay with his family and returned to Prishtina, living alone as he continued the battle for Kosova rights. He died at the Prishtina airport on May 25,1997 as he was returning to his homeland.

Author of fiction, drama, screenplays, essays, and a collection of letters, Shkreli was best known for his ten verse collections written from 1960 to 1997, including The Buds, The Street of Angels, I Know a Word of Stone, From the Bible of Silence, and The Call of the Owl. This volume, Blood of the Quill, contains substantial selections from six of those volumes in a bilingual edition.

Robert Elsie is a leading specialist in Albanian affairs, and h;is authored over forty books, primarily on Albanian culture; Janico Mathie-Heck is a teacher, poet, translator, and editor living In Canada.