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Agron Tufa c_Elvana Zaimi
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Agron Tufa (born in 1967 in Sohodoll, Dibra, Albania) is a poet and writer and one of the best-known members of the Albanian literary scene. He started his working life as a coal miner. In 1989 he won a nationwide literary contest with a poem cycle that was published in the newspaper Voice of Youth. Following the collapse of Communism in Albania he was a village schoolteacher for a year until being accepted as a student by the Philology Faculty at the University of Tirana in 1991 on the recommendation of the Albanian Association of Writers and Artists. While there he founded with other young poets the group E për7shme. He was also editor-in-chief of Voice of Youth from 1992 to 1994. After graduating he studied translation at the University of Moscow.
As well as his writing and academic work, Agron Tufa also works as a translator, mainly of Russian poets, prose authors, philosophers and philologists. Agron Tufa is not only well-regarded by literary critics, but is also sponsored by Albania’s most important writer Ismail Kadare. He has received many prizes and awards for his work at home and abroad, including in 2009 the Great National Prize for Literature of the Republic of Albania, his country’s most important award for literature. He now teaches at the University of Tirana and edits a literary magazine. He is also the director of the Institute for Studies of Communist Crimes in Tirana.
Publications (a selection):
Mistika e origjinalit. Studim mbi artin e përkthimit (The mystique of the original. Study of the art of translation). Tirana 2011
Kuja e Mnemozinës (The lament of the Mnemosyne, studies). Tirana 2011
Gjurma në rrjedhë (Flowing traces). Tetova: Ditët e Naimit 2010
Tenxherja (The Pot) novel, Tirana: Toena 2009
Fryma mbi ujëra (The Ghost Over the Water) poems, Fjala 2007
Avangardë engjëjsh (Advance guard of the angels), poems, Ideart 2005
Rrethinat e Atlantidës (In the area around Atlantis), poems, Aleph 2002
Aty te portat Skee (There at the gates of Skee), poems, Onufri 1996
Prizes (a selection):
Great National Prize for Literature of the Republic of Albania 2010
Serembe Prize for the best translation 2006
National Silver Feather Prize of the Republic of Albania for the novel Fabula Rasa 2005
Oeneum Prize of the Ditët e Naimit International Poetry Festival in Tetova, Macedonia 2004
First Prize at the XX NOSSIDE Poetry Festival of the Reggio Calabria 2004