Bashkim Shehu


Bashkim Shehu is an Albanian writer who lives in Barcelona, Spain.

Biography

From 1975 to 1980, he studied Liberal Arts at the University of Tirana. Until 1981, he worked as a screenwriter at Kinostudio Shqipëria e Re. At that time his father, Mehmet Shehu, was Albania's Prime Minister and a leading candidate to replace Enver Hoxha. This connection allowed him access to literary works that were banned by the Communist regime. His exposure to those works prompted his decision to become a writer. His first work appeared in 1977 and, until 1981, he worked as a screenwriter at Kinostudio Shqipëria e Re.
That year, Hoxha accused his father of being a foreign agent. The elder Shehu was found dead in December and Bashkim was sentenced to ten years in prison for distributing subversive propaganda. In 1989, his sentence was reduced to eight years, but he was still kept under house arrest after his release from Spaç Prison. His freedom was restored when the Communist government fell in 1991. He returned to his position at the Kinostudio and remained there until 1993, when he went to Hungary to study sociology at the University of Budapest.
Upon returning to Tirana, he became a monitor for the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. In 1997, during the Albanian Civil War, he went into self-exile and settled in Barcelona, where he still resides. After ten years of being an advisor to the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, he became a freelance writer. He and his companion, Edlira Hoxholli, also translate English, Spanish and French works into Albanian.

Works