Albanian Authors

Elvira DONES

Elvira Dones (b. 1960) was born in the ancient port city of Durrës. She studied at the University of Tirana and worked for a time for the television and film industry there. In 1988 she managed to flee the country, which was then still under Stalinist rule, and took up residence in Switzerland. She also works as a documentary filmmaker, based in Washington, D.C. Her first novel Dashuri e huaj (A Foreign Love, Tirana 1997), was followed by Kardigan (Cardigan, Tirana 1998), the short story collection Lule të gabuara (Mistaken Flowers, Tirana 1999), and by the explosive novel Yjet nuk vishen kështu (Stars Don't Dress Up Like That, Elbasan 2000), which has been translated into French and Italian. Much of her writing, not without autobiographical elements, deals with the theme of women as emigrants. Website: www.elviradones.com