Old Neno's Stories Is Now Available

Old Neno's Stories Is Now Available

Albanika Press is pleased to announce the publication of Old Neno's Stories by Musine Kokalari — the first English-language translation of her prose, and the inaugural title of the Mesagjeritë Shqiptare imprint.

Kokalari (1917–1983) is widely recognized as the first woman in Albania to publish literary prose. Her early stories, written between 1939 and 1940, portray everyday life in the historic southern Albanian city of Gjirokastër through the voice of Old Neno — an elderly woman whose observations, complaints, blessings, and judgments carry the full weight of a community speaking from within its own moral universe. The stories are funny, sharp, and deeply human. They have waited a long time to reach English-language readers.

That wait is now over.

Old Neno's Stories gathers selected works from Kokalari's first two prose collections, presented in a new English translation by Enit Lulushi, with an introduction and original illustrations by Albert Lulushi. The illustrated edition is published under the Mesagjeritë Shqiptare imprint — a name chosen with intention. Mesagjeritë Shqiptare was the original publishing house founded in 1943 by Kokalari and her brothers, Mumtaz and Vesim. That press was silenced, along with Kokalari herself, under Albania's communist regime. Reviving the name is an act of remembrance as much as publishing.

The book is available now in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats through major online retailers.

"Here, where I was born and raised — in this mud I want to turn to dust."

In the weeks and months ahead, this blog will explore the stories and the world behind them — the life and legacy of Musine Kokalari, the history of the press that first published her, the challenges and rewards of translating her distinctive oral voice, and the city of Gjirokastër that shaped everything she wrote. We hope you will read along.

Old Neno's Stories is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook.

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