Flutura Açka (1966) was born in Elbasan and graduated in economics in 1988 from the University of Tirana. She worked for a number of years as a journalist in Elbasan and for the Onufri publishing company, before founding her own publishing company, Skanderbeg Books (www.albliterature.com). As a poet, Flutura Açka first gained wide recognition when she received the “Lyre of Struga” award at the 1997 International  Nights of Poetry festival held in Struga, Macedonia. Among her major publications are the poetry volumes: Tri vjeshta larg (Three Autumns Away), Elbasan 1993; Mure vetmie (Walls of Solitude), Elbasan 1995; Festë me ankthin (Feast with Anguish), Elbasan 1997; Kënga e Aretuzës (The Song of Arethusa), Prishtina 1998; Kurth’ i diellit (The Sun Trap), Tirana 2003; and the short novel Vetmi gruaje (A Woman’s Solitude), Tirana 2001. A volume of her poetry has been translated into Macedonian.