Essays, criticism and analysis on Albanian language, literature and culture.https://fjalaeshteart.al/enhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/national-library-of-albania-at-106/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/national-library-of-albania-at-106/Founded on 10 July 1920, the National Library of Albania holds over a million items. The 2017 fire and 2018 flood are reminders that a country's written memory does not preserve itself.Fri, 16 Oct 2026 07:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiHistoryhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/village-libraries-albania/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/village-libraries-albania/The National Library is often discussed, village shelves rarely. An essay on libraries disappearing along with their readers, and on the absence of data about them.Fri, 16 Oct 2026 04:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/at-zef-pllumi-prize-zija-cela-koka-mbi-katror/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/at-zef-pllumi-prize-zija-cela-koka-mbi-katror/In Lezhë, the prize named after the Franciscan who spent 26 years in the dictatorship's prisons went this spring to Zija Çela for his novel “Koka mbi katror”.Fri, 16 Oct 2026 01:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/eu-prize-for-literature-2026-kosovo-in-albania-out/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/eu-prize-for-literature-2026-kosovo-in-albania-out/Arben Idrizi represented Kosovo on the 14-author shortlist for the 2026 EU Prize for Literature. Albania was absent, not through neglect but through rotation. What does that tell us?Thu, 15 Oct 2026 22:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albania-diaspora-and-resident-population/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albania-diaspora-and-resident-population/A researcher argues that in January 2026 Albanians abroad outnumbered residents for the first time. What official figures and voter rolls show, and what remains unmeasured.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 19:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiSocietyhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/dokufest-25-prizren-quarter-century/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/dokufest-25-prizren-quarter-century/In August, DokuFest reached its 25th edition with 223 films in seven cinemas. How did a documentary festival change a small city, and what can the rest of Kosovo and Albania learn from it?Thu, 15 Oct 2026 16:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/dritero-agolli-at-95/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/dritero-agolli-at-95/13 October marked 95 years since Dritëro Agolli's birth. How does a generation that never knew socialism read the author of “The Splendour and Fall of Comrade Zylo”?Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiHistoryhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-fables/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-fables/From Santori’s manuscripts and Albanian versions of Aesop to Naim and Çajupi: the rich history of the fable in Albanian, and whether this old form still has a place today.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 10:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/gjirokaster-folk-festival-iso-polyphony-between-festivals/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/gjirokaster-folk-festival-iso-polyphony-between-festivals/The National Folk Festival is held, in principle, every five years in Gjirokastër Castle. But in the years between, who keeps alive the iso-polyphonic song that UNESCO declared a heritage of humanity?Thu, 15 Oct 2026 07:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/himara-language-identity-minority/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/himara-language-identity-minority/Himara is often discussed in Tirana and Athens but rarely heard in its own voice. A reading of its bilingualism, the property question, and the positions of the Albanian state, Greece and residents.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 04:13:02 GMTEnri ZhulatiOpinionhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/ismail-kadare-90th-anniversary-what-remains/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/ismail-kadare-90th-anniversary-what-remains/Nine months after Kadare's 90th birth anniversary, it remains to be seen whether the celebrations will turn into reading, scholarship and lasting institutions.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 04:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiOpinionhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/lea-ypi-indignity-grandmother-from-salonica/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/lea-ypi-indignity-grandmother-from-salonica/“Indignity”, Lea Ypi's second book, begins with a 1941 photograph posted by a stranger. A work about dignity, archives and the question of who owns a family's memory.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 01:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/kosovo-after-the-deadlock-cost-to-culture/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/kosovo-after-the-deadlock-cost-to-culture/Kosovo once again has a government and a president. But the deadlock that began in February 2025 left its mark on cinemas, festivals and culture funding. What was lost, and what must be shielded from politics.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 22:13:02 GMTEnri ZhulatiOpinionhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-emigre-literature-in-greece/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-emigre-literature-in-greece/Thirty-five years after the first border crossings, emigration to Greece has produced a literature written in two languages and addressed to two readerships.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 22:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-childrens-books/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-childrens-books/Albanian children’s literature has a long tradition, yet today’s market favours translations. What publishers, authors and illustrators say, and what is lost.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albania-italy-migration-deal-gjader-shengjin/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albania-italy-migration-deal-gjader-shengjin/Almost three years after it was signed, the protocol on Italian-run centres in Albania remains contested. The facts, the court rulings and where each side stands.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiSocietyhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/permet-and-grabove/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/permet-and-grabove/In the Vjosa valley, the names of villages outlive their inhabitants. An essay on Përmet, Grabovë and what literature keeps when the houses close.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 13:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiSocietyhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/press-freedom-albania-cultural-media/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/press-freedom-albania-cultural-media/Albania fell three places in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index. The debate focused on political news; this piece reads the ranking from the culture page and the space for literary criticism.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 10:13:02 GMTEnri ZhulatiOpinionhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/poet-laureate-new-institution-old-debate/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/poet-laureate-new-institution-old-debate/Five years and three appointments later, the title Albania's National Centre for Books and Reading created for poetry keeps reopening the same question: who judges, and by what measure?Wed, 14 Oct 2026 10:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiOpinionhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albania-eu-language-of-negotiation/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albania-eu-language-of-negotiation/Four chapters provisionally closed, education and culture among them. How the accession process is reshaping public Albanian, and what each side says.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 07:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiSocietyhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-in-the-diaspora-one-child-in-twenty/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-in-the-diaspora-one-child-in-twenty/According to the Centre for Diaspora Publications, only about 30,000 of 400,000 Albanian children abroad attend Albanian classes. The “Teachers for Greece” programme is a start, not an answer.Wed, 14 Oct 2026 04:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiSocietyhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/new-national-theatre-six-years-after-demolition/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/new-national-theatre-six-years-after-demolition/The National Theatre building was demolished on 17 May 2020. Deadlines for the new theatre have slipped from 2023 to 2025 and beyond. What, in the end, does a new building replace?Wed, 14 Oct 2026 01:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/tiff-2026-humanography-tirana-film-festival/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/tiff-2026-humanography-tirana-film-festival/The 24th Tirana International Film Festival, 21–27 September, put human stories at its centre, from Teona Strugar Mitevska's Mother Teresa film to a restored “Mimoza Llastica”.Tue, 13 Oct 2026 22:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/arberesh-heritage-moti-i-madh-and-unesco/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/arberesh-heritage-moti-i-madh-and-unesco/The UNESCO bid for Arbëresh spring rites and Tirana's promises of a museum and new cooperation raise a question: what does it mean to preserve a language that lives outside your state?Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:00:53 GMTEnri ZhulatiSocietyhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albania-vetting-ends-justice-reform/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albania-vetting-ends-justice-reform/In June 2026 the Special Appeal Chamber concluded the re-evaluation of judges and prosecutors within its constitutional mandate. What a decade of vetting left behind, in institutions and in everyday language.Tue, 13 Oct 2026 07:13:02 GMTEnri ZhulatiOpinionhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-diaspora-literature-identity-integration/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-diaspora-literature-identity-integration/The literature of the Albanian diaspora is a crossroads between nostalgia and integration—a space where identity is rewritten every day.Thu, 07 Mar 2024 08:04:00 GMTThe EditorsSocietyhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-iso-polyphony-collective-memory/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-iso-polyphony-collective-memory/A reflection on iso-polyphony as a living cultural heritage that speaks in one shared voice from the depths of Albanian history.Thu, 07 Mar 2024 08:03:00 GMTThe EditorsCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/is-the-albanian-language-dying-on-tiktok/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/is-the-albanian-language-dying-on-tiktok/A critical look at the role of AI in preserving and developing the Albanian language in an increasingly digital world.Thu, 07 Mar 2024 08:02:00 GMTThe EditorsCulturehttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-libraries-at-risk/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-libraries-at-risk/The critical state of Albania’s public libraries, and why investment matters for preserving the nation’s cultural memory.Wed, 06 Mar 2024 08:01:00 GMTThe EditorsOpinionhttps://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-architecture-a-nation-in-stone-and-wood/https://fjalaeshteart.al/en/albanian-architecture-a-nation-in-stone-and-wood/A journey through Albanian architecture as a mirror of national identity and history, from tradition to the challenges of modernization.Wed, 06 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMTThe EditorsCulture