Gjekë Marinaj is an Albanian–American poet, writer, translator and literary critic who is also known as the founder of a form of arts criticism known as Protonism Theory. Currently living in the United States, he was the first president of the Society of Albanian-American Writers, established in 2001 and has published several books of poetry, prose and literary criticism. In 2008, Marinaj was awarded the Pjetër Arbnori Prize for literature by QNK, part of the Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports of Albania. In 2021, he was the recipient of South Korea's Changwon KC International Literary Prize His writing and peacemaking work have received acclaim and many other honors in Albania and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in the U.S. and Asia.
Early life and career
Born in 1965 in the Malësi e Madhe District of northern Albania, Marinaj started his writing career as a restricted correspondent publishing in a number of Albanian media outlets, first in local newspapers in Shkodër, then in a series of Albanian national publications including Zëri i Rinisë (The Voice of Youth), Luftëtari (The Fighter), Vullnetari (The Volunteer), and Drita (The Light). In August 1990, Marinaj published an anti-communist satiric poem entitled "Horses" (original ). Aware of his imminent arrest by the communist regime, on September 12, 1990, Marinaj escaped authorities by illegally crossing the Albanian-Yugoslavian border. After fleeing to Yugoslavia, he received asylum in the United States. He arrived in San Diego in July 1991, then went to Richardson, Texas. In 2001, Marinaj founded the Albanian-American Writers Association, for which he served as president until 2009. In 2019, Marinaj was appointed Nation's Ambassador for his native Albania. He serves as the director for world literature publisher Mundus Artium Press.
Interviews
While pursuing his new life in America, Marinaj continued working as a freelance journalist for the Albanian media; his freelance work included interviews with President George Herbert Walker Bush, the ninth and then-current President of the State of Israel Shimon Peres, and world-renowned soccer player Pelé. Marinaj's collection (The Other Side of the Mirror) contains many of these interviews.
Horses
Marinaj initially published his poem "Horses" in the Albanian newspaper of record, Drita. What at first glance read like a simple poem about farm animals was actually a satirical social and political commentary about the Albanian people being herded and corralled by an oppressive communist regime. "Horses" appeared in Drita on August 19, 1990, and the response was immediate and overwhelming. The sheer audacity of publishing such a clearly subversive poem in a national publication amazed the Albanians (and soon after the international community as well). Within hours, copies of Drita sold out across the country, so people took to scrawling the poem on scraps of paper and passing it to one another in the subways and on the streets. Months later, protesters chanted the poem through megaphones during anti-government demonstrations. Seen from this point of view, "Marinaj's words inspired freedom [and] helped defeat communism in Albania." Nevertheless, "having seen other poets hanged in the city's center for voicing similar notions of freedom and liberty, Marinaj knew that he had to leave the country immediately; he packed a few of his favorite books, told his friends and family that he was going on vacation, and set off on an eight-hour hike over the mountains and into Yugoslavia."
Education in America
After his education in Albania, Marinaj earned an associate degree in science from Brookhaven College, in 2001. He continued his education at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a bachelor's in literary studies, followed by a master's degree in the same subject in 2008. Three years later, he received a certificate in Holocaust Studies from the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies.
Doctor of Philosophy
The University of Texas at Dallas awarded Marinaj a PhD in 2012. His dissertation, which focus on the history and philosophy of oral poetry in the Balkans and on translation theory, is titled "Oral Poetry in Albanian and Other Balkan Cultures: Translating the Labyrinths of Untranslatability."
Protonism Theory
According to The Dallas Morning News, Marinaj's "Protonism Theory" seeks to "promote peace and positive thinking" through literary criticism. In 2011, Marinaj's first book-length articulation of Protonism Theory, in Protonism: Theory Into Practice, received the Albanian BookerMan Prize for Literature from the National Media Group of Tirana, Albania.