The young writer from Kicova, North Macedonia, Nurie Emrullai, was announced this year as the winner of the Kadare Literary Award for 2023, sources from the special jury announced.

“It is a surprise name, but fully deserved for this lady from our compatriots in North Macedonia, also to prove that good Albanian literature is written everywhere and not only in Tirana” said the head of the jury, the writer Natasha Lako.

Emrullai competed with the novel “It must be love” and was declared the winner among 27 prose manuscripts by 27 authors of this edition.

“The manuscript of the novel “It must be love” by the writer Nuria Emrullai from North Macedonia stood out for its stylistic findings and the talent to give its microcosm a spirit of universal literature” was the motivation of the winning work of this award chosen by the jury which seems to have had no doubts and voted unanimously.

The “Kadare” award was established in 2014 with the support of the European University of Tirana. Its mission is to “encourage the writing of Albanian literature, through the publication and promotion of the winning work, as well as the promotion of the debate on Albanian literature.

Nurie Emrullai, this year’s laureate, is a young writer. She has published several books, the most prominent of which are the poetry books “Underground ranges”, as well as “In the modern hour of the gods”. Emrullai is currently an assistant lecturer at the University of Tetovo and a doctoral student in Literature at the University of Skopje.

/a.s/