Biography
Bilal Xhaferri grew up in Albania and published his first pieces of poetry and short stories in various journals in 1962-1963. His first book publication was Njerëz të rinj, tokë e lashtë ('Young people, ancient land'), published in 1967. A novel, Krastakraus, was written in 1967 but only published posthumously in 1993. In 1968 he was prohibited from further publishing by the communist censorship, and in 1969 he emigrated to Greece and a year later to the USA. In 1974 he founded the emigrant Albanian magazine Krahu i shqiponjës ('The Eagle's Wing'), which published literary and anti-communist political material.
After the end of the communist regime in Albania, he was posthumously honored by the President of the Albanian Republic with the title Martyr of Democracy in 1995, "for his dedication as publicist and dissident politician in the fight against communism and dictatorship, for his deep national and democratic aspiration". His remains were returned to Albania and buried in his hometown Saranda.
1995, 6 May, the writer Shefki Hysa, chairman of the Cultural Association “Bilal Xhaferri”, in cooperation with Albanian government initiated and organized the ceremony of carcass return in homeland of the outstanding dissident poet, novelist, Bilal Xhaferri who rests now in his hometown, Saranda.
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