WPjetër Filip Arbnori was an Albanian gulag survivor. He was dubbed "the Mandela of the Balkans" by Albanian statesmen because of the length of his 28-year internment. He was born in Durrës, on the Adriatic coast. President Topi bestowed the Nation's Honor Order upon Pjetër Arbnori.
WFlora Brovina is a Kosovar Albanian poet, pediatrician and women's rights activist. She was born in the town of Skenderaj in the Drenica Valley of Kosovo, and was raised in Prishtina, where she went to school and began studying medicine. After finishing her university studies in Zagreb, where she specialized in pediatrics, she returned to Kosovo and worked for a time as a journalist for the Albanian-language daily newspaper Rilindja. Soon thereafter, she returned to the health care profession and worked for many years in the Pediatrics Ward of the Pristina General Hospital.
WKlara Buda is a French Albanian journalist and writer. She is the former head of the Albanian Department of Radio France Internationale (RFI), which she left in 2010. Buda has also worked for UNESCO and the BBC. She is of French nationality and Albanian ethnicity. Buda writes prose, poetry, fiction and TV plays.
WAleksandër Stavre Drenova, commonly known by the pen name Asdreni, was an Albanian poet, rilindas, translator, writer and the author of the poem which later became the national anthem of Albania. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century and composed most of his Albanian Renaissance-inspired known works during that period.
WLola Gjoka or Lola Aleksi was an Albanian pianist.
WSabri Godo was an Albanian writer, conservative politician and screenwriter. He came from a culture-loving family with deep rooted patriotic traditions. Being brought up in the Totaj family from his mother's side, Godo spent his youth in a literary and patriotic environment.
WGregory IV, was a Greek or Albanian scholar and cleric who became Metropolitan of Athens in 1827–1828.
WIlir Ikonomi is an Albanian-American journalist and author who has written several books on the history of Albania. Ikonomi's work, "Pavarësia - Udhëtimi i paharruar i Ismail Qemalit", was included in the year-long celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania as a literary accomplishment.
WDora d'Istria, pen-name of duchess Helena Koltsova-Massalskaya, born Elena Ghica (Gjika/Xhika), was a Romanian and Albanian Romantic writer and feminist, most notable for having emblematized the Albanian national cause of the 19th century.
WJolanda Kodra (1910–1963) was an Albanian writer and translator, one of the first woman writers in the Albanian language, as well as a translator into the Italian language of the works of Albanian writers, such as Ndre Mjeda, Migjeni, Petro Marko, and Sterjo Spasse.
WKostandin Nelko, known as Kostandin Kristoforidhi, was an Albanian translator and scholar. He is mostly known for having translated the New Testament into Albanian for the first time in the Gheg Albanian dialect in 1872. He also provided a translation in Tosk Albanian in 1879 thereby improving the 1823 tosk version of Vangjel Meksi. By providing translation in both dialects, he has the merit of founding the basis of the unification of both dialects into a national language.
WMirela Kumbaro Furxhi, is an Albanian politician. In 2013 she was nominated Minister of Culture of Albania.
WLuljeta Lleshanaku is an Albanian poet who is the recipient of the 2009 Crystal Vilenica award for European poets. She was educated in literature at the University of Tirana and was editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Zëri i rinisë. She then worked for the literary newspaper Drita (Light). In 1996, she received the best book of the year award from the Eurorilindja Publishing House. In 1999, she took part in the International Writers Program at the University of Iowa. She is the author of four poetry collections, one volume of which has been translated into English: Fresco, available from New Directions. The writer, critic and editor Peter Constantine, in his introduction to Fresco, sums up her style in this way:Luljeta Lleshanaku is a pioneer of Albanian poetry. She speaks with a completely original voice, her imagery and language always unexpected and innovative. Her poetry has little connection to poetic styles past or present in America, Europe, or the rest of the world. And it is not connected to anything in Albanian poetry either. We have in Lleshanaku a completely original poet."
WSkënder Luarasi (1900-1982) was an Albanian scholar, writer and anti-fascist activist.
WMasiela Lusha is an Albanian-American actress, author, producer and humanitarian. Lusha gained recognition for playing Carmen Lopez on the globally syndicated ABC sitcom George Lopez, a role which earned her two consecutive Young Artist Awards for Leading Young Actress in a Comedy or Drama. After transitioning into film, she starred in Sony Pictures’ Blood: The Last Vampire. Lusha also starred alongside David Hasselhoff and Ian Ziering in SyFy's television movie Sharknado: The 4th Awakens.
WHil Mosi (1885-1933) was an Albanian politician and poet.
WBesnik Bajram Mustafaj is an Albanian writer and diplomat.
WMillosh Gjergj Nikolla, commonly known by the acronym pen name Migjeni, was an Albanian poet and writer, considered as one of the most important of the 20th century. After his death, he was recognized as one of the influential writers of interwar Albanian literature.
WLlazar Sotir Gusho, commonly known by the pen name Lasgush Poradeci, was an Albanian philologist, poet, translator, writer and pioneer of modern Albanian literature. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century whose works are directly connected with Romanticism and Realism.
WPandeli Sotiri (1842–1892) was an Albanian activist that acted as director of the first Albanian school of modern times in Korçë. Sotiri was one of the most important Rilindas figures that contributed in the propagation of the Albanian language. He also worked on one of the versions of the Albanian alphabet. The Congress of Monastir based Albanian's alphabet mostly on Sotiri's precedent work.
WHaki Stërmilli (1895–1953) was an Albanian writer and journalist. His works dealt mostly with issues related to the rights of Albanian communities outside Albania, republicanism, the emancipation of women and feminism. His best-known work is the novel Sikur të isha djalë.
WHoxhë Hasan Tahsini or simply Hoxha Tahsin was an Albanian alim, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher. He was the first rector of Istanbul University and one of the founders of the Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights. Tahsini is regarded as one of the most prominent scholars of the Ottoman Empire of the 19th century.
WJani Vreto was an Albanian writer, publisher and important figure of the Albanian National Awakening.