Writing a Global Life in Greek: An Evening with Gazmend Kapllani

Join us at the National Hellenic Museum for an unforgettable evening of conversation, literature, and reflection with award-winning author, scholar, and journalist Gazmend Kapllani. Hosted by Dr. Katherine Kelaidis, NHM’s Director of Research and Content, this wide-ranging discussion will explore themes of identity, borders, migration, and the evolving nature of contemporary Hellenism through the lens of Kapllani’s extraordinary life and work. 

Forced to flee his native Albania, Kapllani found refuge in Greece, where he would spend 24 years becoming one of the most powerful literary voices on the immigrant experience. Writing in Greek—a language he learned as an adult—Kapllani’s novels, including the internationally acclaimed A Short Border Handbook, chronicle life on the margins of nations and languages. His work has been translated into over ten languages, adapted for the stage, and taught in universities around the world. 

The evening will feature a rich conversation between Professor Kapllani and Dr. Kelaidis, along with readings from his work in both Greek and English. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to engage with one of the most compelling voices in European literature today. 

GAZMEND KAPLLANI is an Albanian-American polyglot author, scholar, and journalist. He lived in Athens, Greece for over 20 years (1991–2012), studying philosophy and psychology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and receiving his Ph.D. in political science and history from Panteion University. He was one of the most outspoken journalists in the Greek press regarding migrants and minorities.

He is the author of two collections of poetry in Albanian and four published novels written in Greek and Albanian. His literary work centers on borders, totalitarianism, migration, identity, and how Balkan history has shaped private and public narratives and memories. His books are taught in prestigious universities in Europe, the United States, and Canada and have been the subject of theatrical adaptations and many scholarly essays.

Kapllani’s first best-selling novel, A Short Border Handbook (2006), has been translated and published into 10 languages so far. It has been adapted for the stage by Bornholm Theater in Denmark and The National Theater of the Deaf in Greece. It won the International Literary Prize of the City of Cassino in Italy in 2017. His three other novels, My Name is Europe, The Last Page, and Wrongland, have been published so far in French, Italian, Albanian, Greek, and English; The Last Page was short-listed for the French Cezam Prix Littéraire Inter CE 2016 and awarded the literary prize of the Salon du Livre des Balkans in Paris, France.

Wrongland was a 2025 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal Finalist, awarded to “the most thought-provoking books, that either illuminate, progress, or redirect thought.”; it was adapted for the stage by the Greek theater director Pantelis Flatsousis and performed in Athens, Greece, in 2022.

Since 2012 Kapllani has been living in the United States, where he was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and writer-in-residence at Brown University and Wellesley College. He taught creative writing and (Southeastern) European history at Emerson College in Boston, MA (2013–2018). Gazmend Kapllani lives in Chicago, IL, where he directs the Hidai “Eddie” Bregu Endowment in Albanian Studies at DePaul University and the DePaul Albanian and Southeastern European Studies Program.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

National Hellenic Museum, 333 South Halsted Street, Chicago, United States