Writer from Tirana, living in Vancouver
Writes Poetry- & Short Story-Books, in Albanian & English
Armenida Qyqja
About Me
I write to fulfill a hunger for self-expression – one that I have felt since a child growing up in Tirana.
Now as a writer with multiple poetry and short story collections, I see poetry as touching the essence of being human.
A Writer’s Journey
I was born in Tirana, Albania 1977. I started my very first experimenting when I was 14 years old, then more seriously when I was 15, when I started to write side-by-side poetry and short stories. Immigrating to Canada in 1995, at age 17, pushed aside my aspirations for literature and writing, as the primary goal was survival and integrating into a whole new environment.
It took me sometime to find myself again, the writer, until finally I published my first poetry book, "Beyond the rails of rain" in 2018, in Tirana, Albania, the place where my journey as a writer had set its very first steps.
"A bunch of poems instead of flowers" published on Amazon in 2022, was my first attemp to present my poetry to english readers, marking also the start of another path.
From Verse to Prose - A New Path
While poetry had proven to know its way out me, with five poetry books published in albanian and one collection of poems published in english, prose was also getting ready to finally start its journey.
In November 2022, "The Dead Who Laughs" got released, a book of short stories in albanian. It gave me the chance to say what can not be fitted in the tight space between the verses of poetry.
A Bridge Between Two Worlds
As the journey continues between the merdians that set my two worlds appart, writing seems to be the secret path that joins them.
The path where I have a voice to speak not just for me,
but for millions like me.