ANI GJIKA
Ani Gjika is an Albanian-born writer, educator, author and translator of eight poetry books and chapbooks including Bread on Running Waters (Fenway Press, 2013), a finalist for the 2011 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize and 2011 May Sarton New Hampshire Book Prize. Gjika moved to the U.S. when she was 18, earning an M.A. in English at Simmons College and an M.F.A. in poetry at Boston University. Her translation from the Albanian of Negative Space by Luljeta Lleshanaku was published in 2018 by Bloodaxe Books in the UK where it was Poetry Book Society's Recommended Translation and shortlisted for the International Griffin Poetry Prize. It was published in the same year by New Directions in the U.S. where it was a finalist for a PEN Award and Best Translated Book Award. Gjika’s honors include awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, English PEN, and the Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship among others. She teaches writing and literary translation at Grub Street, Framingham State University, and Massachusetts International Academy.