Ag Apolloni

Ag Apolloni (Albanian pronunciation: [ag apo'ɫoni]; born 13 June 1982) is an Albanian writer, poet, playwright, scholar, and essay writer. He is a professor at the University of Prishtina, Kosovo. His literary works are widely acclaimed for their dramatic dimension, philosophical treatment, and critical attitude towards history, politics, and society.

Ag Apolloni
Apolloni in 2019
Born	(1982-06-13) 13 June 1982 (age 43) Kaçanik, Kosovo
Occupation	Novelist poet essayist playwright
Nationality	Kosovar; Albanian
Citizenship	Kosovo; Albania
Alma mater	University of Pristina
Period	2003–present
Notable works	The Howl of the Wolf (2013) Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups (2022)

Early life

Ag Apolloni was born on 13 June 1982 in Kaçanik, Kosovo. He attended both elementary school and gymnasium in his hometown, finishing in 2001. In 2005, he successfully concluded his studies in Dramaturgy and Literature at the University of Prishtina. However, due to financial constraints, he made the decision to abandon his philosophy studies in 2006.

In the following years, Ag Apolloni devoted a significant amount of his time to caring for his unwell father, who died in 2007. Despite these challenges, Apolloni persisted in his academic pursuits and by 2008, he had attained the title of Master of Philological Sciences, demonstrating his dedication to scholarly achievements. In 2012, he further solidified his academic credentials by earning the title of Doctor of Philological Sciences.

Since 2008, Ag Apolloni has been a professor at the University of Pristina.^[1]

In 2020 he was granted citizenship of Albania.

Career

Journalism

Apolloni has worked as a journalist, editor, and editor-in-chief for several daily newspapers as well as literary and cultural magazines based in Pristina. In 2010, he reactivated Jeta e Re (New Life), the oldest literary magazine in Kosovo, originally founded in 1949 and discontinued in 2006. He directed the magazine for three years.^[2]

In 2013, Apolloni founded the cultural journal Symbol, through which he conducted interviews with prominent intellectuals, writers, and artists. His guests included Linda Hutcheon, Jonathan Culler, Rita Dove,^[3] Gottfried Helnwein, Andreas Huyssen, DM Thomas, Javier Cercas,^[4] Ann Jefferson, Peter Singer, Stephen Greenblatt, Stanley Fish, and David Damrosch. He directed the journal for ten years (2013–2023) and also collaborated with numerous newspapers and literary journals. In addition, he founded and led two publishing houses: OM (2012–2019) and Bard Books (2019–2024).

Writing career

Ag Apolloni began writing regularly in 2003, when he started a poetic journal titled Zomb and wrote the monodrama The Story of an Eyes Collector. The play was first published in literary journals in Kosovo in 2006 and 2009, then included in a 2010 volume alongside three of his other plays, and later featured in the Austrian literary magazine 'Lichtungen'.^[5] During his studies, he maintained 'Zomb' as a poetic diary, which he published in 2009.

n 2013, Apolloni began writing novels, debuting with The Howl of the Wolf (Ulurima e ujkut), a work that explores personal and existential themes through a postmodern narrative structure. The novel addresses topics such as family, society, faith, and the self. His second novel, Zazen, was written as a tribute to a friend who, after completing a degree in philosophy and facing unemployment, took his own life.

Apolloni's literary works include plays, poetry, prose, and academic studies. His plays have been noted for their exploration of psychological and existential themes, while his poetry often draws on personal experience. His academic publications include Postmodern Parable (2010) and The Paradigm of Proteus (2012), both of which engage with contemporary literary theory.

His works have been translated into several languages, including English, French, Dutch, German, Czech, Romanian, Slovenian, Macedonian, and Montenegrin. He has received multiple national and international awards for both his literary and scholarly contributions.

Literary works

Novels

Apolloni’s first novel, The Howl of the Wolf (2013), explores a wide range of themes, including the relationship between the living and the dead. The novel blends elements of despair and fury with moments of humor, and incorporates references to music, painting, film, and theatre. The narrative unfolds across multiple countries, including Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Italy and Austria, where the novel was completed. It has been translated into Macedonian,^[6] Czech^[7][8][9] and Montenegrin.^[10]

His second novel, Zazen (2014), is based on the real-life experience of a young Kosovar—reportedly a friend of the author—who returns home after completing a philosophy degree abroad and faces a series of personal and societal rejections. The protagonist, Zen Zabel, is portrayed as a figure caught between idealism and social alienation. The novel addresses social, philosophical, political, national, and religious issues, and was written in Skopje.

In 2020, Apolloni published his third novel, Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame, a documentary-style narrative centered on two women from Gjakova, Kosovo, affected by the aftermath of the 1999 war. One woman continues to wait for her missing husband and four sons, while the other committed self-immolation after receiving the remains of her sons. The novel examines the consequences of war and the pain of peace, drawing on classical tragic elements to explore themes of motherhood, loss, and memory. In 2022, it was translated into Dutch.^[11] Dutch literary theorist Mieke Bal described the novel as "a literary masterpiece worth being turned into a film."^[12] It was presented in The Hague on the fifteenth anniversary of Kosovo’s independence.^[13]

Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups (2022) is a semi-documentary novel^[14] that reimagines the tale of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. It combines prose, poetry, and drama, and employs elements from cartoons, theatre, film, and music, as well as documentary material. The book is primarily set in Kosovo, with additional scenes in other European countries. It was written in Debrecen, Hungary—where one chapter is set—and was published simultaneously in Albania and Kosovo.^[15]

Apolloni’s fifth novel, If I Were a Devil is an autofiction centered on a love story and the author’s emotional connection to Vienna, where the author wrote his first novel and started to write the fifth. The novel draws intertextual references to Plautus’ Menaechmi, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Goethe’s Faust, and blues music as well. It was written between 2023-2024 in Vienna and Bucharest. 

Plays

Apolloni's dramatic work The Story of an Eyes Collector, Halloween, Judith, Mat (2010) is a collection of three tragedies that draw inspiration from ancient Greek drama and classical theatre. He began writing the plays at the age of 21, referring to the work as "an elegy for the last decade of the last century, namely a reminder of the crimes that shocked the world."

Hamlet according to Horatio is a psychoanalytic tragedy that incorporates Sigmund Freud’s theories to propose an alternative narrative to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play explores themes such as incest and betrayal and is structured as a pastiche or dramatic hypertext based on Shakespeare’s original work and Freud’s interpretation of Hamlet as an incomplete Oedipus figure. Thematically, the play echoes elements from Oresteia, Oedipus Rex, and Hamlet. The drama was called My Hamlet as a working title, and was the winner of the annual "Katarina Josipi" Drama Award.^[16]

Scanderbeg: Marlowe's Manuscript is a postmodern drama based on the fictional discovery of a lost Elizabethan play, The True History of George Scanderbeg, attributed to Christopher Marlowe. The play is written according to the postmodern principle of the manuscript-as-text, blending historical speculation with literary reconstruction.^[17]

Poetry

In 2009, Apolloni published Zomb, a collection described as an "anthropology" of 100 of his poems. The book opens with a dedication titled "My Friend's Wife," which includes two epigraphs from English poet John Milton. It is divided into six sections: Overture, Edenic Waltz, Dionysian Sonata, Siren Symphony, Requiem Eros, and Coda. Zomb explores erotic themes and draws on a wide range of influences, including medieval madrigals, Western musical traditions, world cinema, literature from antiquity to the contemporary period, and various religious systems such as Buddhism, Totemism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The Sandals of Seneca (2020) is a poetry collection written following the author’s travels to historical and cultural sites in Greece, Italy, France, Austria, and Germany. The opening poem reflects on the death of the Roman philosopher Seneca, drawing parallels between ancient political corruption and contemporary politics in Kosovo.

The Rhetoric of Silence (2021) is a chapbook composed of eighteen poems centered on the theme of love.

Notes from the Cave (2023) is a collection of poems addressing themes such as politics, ethics, the meaning of life, and love. The opening poem, "The Heresy of Heraclites," connects the despair of the ancient Greek philosopher with the existential concerns of a modern Kosovar intellectual.

Non-fiction

My Middle Ages (2019) is a collection of autobiographical essays by Apolloni, described as a narrative-essayist autobiography.^[18][19] The book comprises ten essays, each titled in Latin: Obscura, Vulgus, Doctrina, Pelegrin, Allegoria, Persona, Schisma, Templarius, Inquisitio, and Memento. The essays reflect on the author's personal experiences while also addressing contemporary social and cultural issues in Kosovo.^[20]

Critical books

In addition to his fiction, Apolloni has written several works of literary criticism and theory.^[21] He has published two monographs: Postmodern Parable (2010), based on his master’s thesis, is a study of Rexhep Qosja, considered the first postmodern Albanian writer; and The Paradigm of Proteus (2012), based on his doctoral dissertation, is a study of Ismail Kadare’s The General of the Dead Army, the most widely translated Albanian novel.

In 2016, he published Konitza’s Suitcase, a collection of essays addressing various aspects of Albanian literature, including language, literary value, major authors, and key works. In 2019, he released Commentum, a multi-volume critical project.

In 2024, Apolloni was invited by Charles University in Prague to deliver a series of ten lectures on world literature. These lectures were later published as a book under the title The Prague Lessons (2025).

Bibliography

Novels

• The Howl of the Wolf (Ulurima e ujkut), (2013)
• Zazen (2014)
• Glimmer of hope, glimmer of flame (Një fije shprese, një fije shkrepëse), (2020)
• Red Riding Hood: Fairytale for Grown Ups (Kësulëkuqja: përrallë për të rritur), (2022)
• If I Were a Devil (Sikur t’isha djall), (2024)

Poetry

• Zomb (2009)
• The Sandals of Seneca (Sandalet e Senekës), (2020)
• The Rhetoric of Silence (Retorika e heshtjes), (2021)
• Notes from the Cave (Shënime nga shpella), (2023)

Plays

• The Story of An Eyes Collector, Halloween, Judith, Mat, (2010)
• Hamlet according to Horatio (Hamleti simbas Horacit), (2017)
• Skanderbeg: Manuscript of Marlowe (Skenderbeu, manuskripti i Marlout), (2018)

Studies, essays

• The Postmodern Parable (Parabola postmoderne), (2010)
• The Paradigm of Proteus (Paradigma e Proteut), (2012)
• Konitza's Suitcase (Koferi i Konicës), (2016)
• Commentum (2019)
• The Prague Lessons (Predikimet e Pragës), (2025)

Autobiography

• My Middle Age(s) (Mesjeta ime), (2019)