Alketa Gashi Gives Voice to the “Cries” of Children Maimed in the Kosovo War
By Angela Kosta
At the beginning of 2026, writer Alketa Gashi Fazliu presents her latest book, Klithma (The Cry), a collection of deeply unsettling literary testimonies. Remaining faithful to her long-standing engagement with the narratives of Kosovo War victims, Gashi once again brings forward powerful accounts that confront the legacy of violence, state-sponsored crimes, and the enduring trauma left by the war in Kosovo.
She first drew wide public attention with her earlier work dedicated to the mothers of Kosovo—women who continue to live with the irreversible loss of their sons and daughters in the struggle for freedom. That book, Ato gdhendin dhimbjen (They Carve Pain), became one of the most widely read and circulated literary testimonies in Albanian-speaking communities, particularly among the diaspora.
Klithma marks a distinctive literary moment. As the author notes in her introductory reflection, the book is not simply a compilation of stories, but a resolute stand against collective forgetting. The voices within do not appear as distant memories; they emerge as living cries of conscience—urgent, uncompromising, and demanding remembrance, justice, and historical responsibility.
Through Klithma, Gashi seeks to awaken collective moral awareness and to preserve the painful truth of war, transforming literature into an act of witnessing and ethical resistance.
The newly released work by the journalist, poet, and widely recognized writer—also a prominent cultural figure and long-time television presenter at Kosovo’s Public Broadcaster (RTK)—is accompanied by thoughtful reflections from academician Pellumb Xhufi; the celebrated poet, physician, and national heroine Dr. Flora Brovina; professor and writer Bajram Kosumi; and renowned journalist Ilva Tare.
Klithma brings together eight narratives told by individuals who are now adults, each recounting with stark authenticity the physical and emotional mutilation they suffered in childhood and early youth, caused by bombs and landmines during the war in Kosovo.
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Angela Kosta is Executive Director of the Magazines: MIRIADE, NUANCES ON THE PANORAMIC CANVAS, BRIDGES OF LITERATURE, journalist, poet, essayist, publisher, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter
