Mihal HANXHARI
BIOGRAPHY
Mihal Hanxhari (1930-1999) was born in Kentucky in the United
States where his father had emigrated in 1907. In 1931, the family
returned to Albania and settled in Tirana. Mihal began writing
and publishing short stories at secondary school. He studied
history and geography in Budapest and, after graduation in 1954,
returned to Albania to teach secondary school in Korça
and Tirana. In 1960, he was appointed director of the Library
of the University of Tirana, a job which gave him rare access
to the world of literature and literary culture. He was fired
from this job for political reasons in 1975, being denounced
as a liberal and a spreader of bourgeois culture, and was transferred
to a modest post at a local library branch where he worked in
1990. In 1993-1995, he taught Albanian at the Ecole des Langues
Orientales in Paris and died on 3 June 1999.
It is only since his death that Mihal Hanxhari has been discovered
as a writer. His poetic world, now greatly admired, is unusual
for Albanian literature. We find in him the reminiscence of Cavafy
and poignant glimpses of nature not unlike Japanese haiku. He
would seem to have been entirely uninfluenced by the heavy-handed
doctrine of socialist realism which held sway in Albania until
1990. Hanxhari published nothing during his lifetime. Among his
posthumous collections of verse are: Se sytë e mi kështu
e shohin botën, Tirana 2000 (For thus my eyes see the
world); Na ishte njëherë, Tirana 2000 (Once
upon a time); Ti vdekja ime mbushur me jetë, Tirana
2001 (You my death filled with life); and Gdhend një
statujë, Tirana 2005 (Carve a statue). |
Albanian Literature in Translation
Modern
Authors from Albania (late 20th - 21st centuries)
