Lindita Arapi

Lindita Arapi (born 30 June 1972) is an Albanian writer and journalist. She is cited as a noteworthy example of a generation of female Albanian writers. Together with her contemporaries, Ervin Hatibi, Agron Tufa, and Rudian Zekthi, Arapi is one of Albania's present-day literary avant-garde writers. was awarded a Book of the Year prize in Albania.

Biography Born in Lushnjë, Albania, with family roots from Arapaj a village in Durrës, which explains the surname. Arapi studied the Albanian language and literature at the University of Tirana from 1990 to 1994. In 1993, Arapi published her first book of poems. Three years later, she moved to Germany, where she studied German in Cologne. It was followed by a doctorate in journalism (another source states Cultural Studies) at the University of Vienna. In 2010, she published her first novel, and also translated some German-language texts into Albanian, including poems by Günter Grass, Joseph Roth, Elias Canetti and Felicitas Hoppe. As a journalist, Arapi has worked as a freelance radio editor for the Albanian program of Deutsche Welle, serving as a correspondent in Vienna. She was one of 19 authors featured at the Berlin International Literature Festival in 2012.

Arapi resides in Bonn. She is married and has two daughters.

Selected works Kufomë lulesh (1993) (poetry) Ndodhi në shpirt (1995) (poetry) Melodi te heshtjes (1998) (poetry) Wie Albanien albanisch wurde. Rekonstruktion eines Albanienbildes. Vienna, 2001; Buchpublikation: Marburg 2005, (essay) Shenjat e dorës (2006) (poetry) Am Meer, nachts (2007) (poetry) Vajzat me çelës (2010), dt. Schlüsselmädchen. Berlin 2012, (novel)