Gjergj Fishta

Gjergj Fishta (; 23 October 187130 December 1940) was an Albanian Franciscan friar, poet, educator, rilindas, politician, translator and writer. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century, particularly for his epic masterpiece ''Lahuta e Malcís'', and he was the editor of two of the most authoritative magazines after Albania's independence, ''Posta e Shypniës'' and ''Hylli i Dritës''.

Fishta was the chairman of the Congress of Manastir, which sanctioned the official Albanian alphabet, and he was part of the Albanian delegation to the Versailles Conference in 1919. In 1921, he was a member of the Albanian parliament and eventually became the deputy chairman. Later on, during the 1920s and the 1930s, he was among the most influential cultural and literary figures in Albania. After the Communist regime came to power, his literary oeuvre had been taken out of circulation up until the fall of communism in the early 1990s. In recognition of his vast contributions to Albanian literature, he is also known as the "''Albanian Homer''". Provided by Wikipedia