Xhevdet Bajraj

Xhevdet Bajraj was an ethnic Albanian Kosovar poet and screenwriter who resided in Mexico. He was born in 1960 in the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, which was then part of Yugoslavia. He began writing poetry at an early age and published his first collection in 1982. He was awarded several prizes for his poetry, which was translated into many languages. He also wrote a screenplay for the film Aro Tolbukhin, en la mente del asesino, which was nominated for seven Goya Awards in 2003. In 1999, he fled the war in Kosovo and was granted residency in Mexico as a refugee thanks to the International Parliament of Writers. He settled in Mexico City with his wife, a physician, and his two sons. He taught creative writing at the Metropolitan Autonomous University and continued to write poetry in both Albanian and Spanish. He died on June 22, 2022, in Mexico City due to a brain tumor. He was remembered as a prolific and versatile writer who enriched both the Albanian and the Mexican literary scenes.