Rita Petro (b. 1962), also known as Rita Filipi, was born in Tirana and studied Albanian language and literature at the University there from 1980-1984. She thereafter worked in the publishing industry in Tirana. In 1993 she did post-graduate studies at the University of Athens.

Petro's verse, some of which was daringly erotic for post-Stalinist Albania, has appeared in three collections (published under her former married name Filipi): Vargje të përfolura (Defamed Verse), Tirana 1994; Shija e instinktit (The Taste of Instinct), Tirana 1998, and Këtu poshtë këndohet live (They're Singing Live Down Here), Tirana 2002.

Translator Robert Elsie (Vancouver, Canada, 1950) is a leading specialist in Albanian affairs. He is the author of thirty-five books on Albania and its culture, including literary translations from Albanian, and of many articles and research papers. Elsie studied at the University of British Columbia, graduating in 1972 with a degree in classical studies and linguistics. In the following years, he did postgraduate research at the Free University of Berlin, the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and the University of Paris IV in Paris, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland and the University of Bonn, where he finished his doctorate in 1978 at the Linguistics Institute. From 1982 to 1987, he was employed by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bonn. Since that time he has worked as a freelance writer and conference interpreter, primarily for Albanian and German. He lives in the Eifel Mountains of Germany, not far from the Belgian border.

Weblinks:   www.elsie.de and www.albanianliterature.com