IRMA KURTI

International

IRMA KURTI is an Albanian poet, writer, lyricist, journalist, and translator and has been writing since she was a child. She is a naturalized Italian and lives in Bergamo, Italy. She graduated from the English Department of the University of Tirana in 1988, and has since worked as a teacher of English and journalist for various newspapers. All her books are dedicated to the memory of her beloved parents, Hasan Kurti and Sherife Mezini, who have supported and encouraged every step of her literary path.

Kurti has also won numerous literary prizes and awards in Italy and Italian Switzerland. She was awarded the Universum Donna International Prize IX Edition 2013 for Literature and received a lifetime nomination as an Ambassador of Peace by the University of Peace, Italian Switzerland.

In 2020, she became the honorary president of WikiPoesia, the encyclopedia of poetry.

In 2021, she was awarded the title of Liria (Freedom) by the Italian-Albanian community in Italy. In 2022, she was also nominated as the Albanian ambassador to the International Academic Award of Contemporary Literature Seneca of the Academy of Philosophical Arts and Sciences, Bari. That same year, she was awarded the title of Mother Foundress and Lady of the Order of Dante Alighieri by the Republic of Poets. She received the Grazia Deledda medal and diploma of merit from the National Committee of WikiPoesia on the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian poet. In 2023 she was awarded a Career Award from the Universum Academy Switzerland. She also won the prestigious 2023 Naji Naaman's literary prize for complete work.

Irma Kurti has published 28 books in Albanian, 24 in Italian, 15 in English, and two in French. She has also translated 18 books by different authors, and all of her own books into Italian and English. Her books have been translated and published in 15 countries.