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About the Author

P.I. Kapllani (Përparim Kapllani) is an Albanian-Canadian author, playwright, and journalist based in Toronto, Ontario. Born in Elbasan, Albania, he immigrated to Canada in November 2000. Despite Albanian being his native language, he made a conscious choice to transition into writing his creative works in English, establishing himself as a notable indie voice within contemporary Canadian diaspora literature.

Featured Excerpt

Perparim Kapllani is an Albanian-Canadian author, playwright, journalist, and translator whose literary work bridges Albanian and English-language traditions. Born in Elbasan, Albania, Kapllani has developed a distinctive voice shaped by history, migration, memory, identity, and the human consequences of political and social upheaval. Equally comfortable writing in English and Albanian, he brings to his work a perspective rooted in Albanian culture while deeply informed by his life as an immigrant in Canada.

Kapllani is the author of several novels, short-story collections, and dramatic works. His novel The Last Will, published by IOWI in 2013, explores the painful and often overlooked history surrounding the Çamëria tragedy, weaving personal memory and historical trauma into a compelling literary narrative. His collection of short stories, Beyond the Edge, was published in 2010, while his play Queen Teuta of Illyria appeared in English in 2008 and was later published in Albanian in 2014. In 2018, his novel The Thin Line, published by Mawenzi House, further established his reputation as a writer capable of moving between intimate human stories and larger historical and social questions.

His writing has appeared in a number of literary anthologies, including Canadian Voices, The Literary Connection, and The Courtneypark Connection. He has also published his work in Albanian, contributing to the literary dialogue between Albanian-speaking communities and the broader Canadian multicultural experience.

Before devoting himself more fully to literary work in Canada, Kapllani worked extensively as a journalist in Albania. His journalism has appeared in publications including Ushtria, the Albanian Army newspaper, Shekulli, and Spekter magazine. His experience as a journalist has influenced his literary approach, giving his fiction a strong sense of observation, social awareness, and attention to the details of ordinary lives.

Kapllani's educational background is equally diverse. He graduated as an Anti-Aircraft Artillery Officer from the Skanderbeg Military Academy in Tirana in 1990 and later earned a degree in Literature and Albanian Language from the University of Tirana, completing his studies in 1998. The combination of military experience, literary education, journalism, and immigration has given his writing an unusual breadth of perspective.

After moving to Toronto in 2000, Kapllani continued to write while building a new life in Canada. His work reflects the experience of living between cultures—of carrying one homeland within another, preserving memory while adapting to change, and exploring the invisible connections between individual lives and history.

Across his fiction, poetry, journalism, and drama, Kapllani returns to questions of belonging, displacement, memory, human resilience, and the search for meaning. His work is ultimately concerned with people: their stories, their losses, their contradictions, and their ability to endure. As an Albanian-Canadian writer, he continues to contribute to Canada's multicultural literary landscape while bringing Albanian history, experience, and imagination to an international readership.

Featured Work

Books in English and Albanian

P.I. (Përparim) Kapllani has authored a diverse collection of English and Albanian works spanning historical drama, novels on displacement, and stories for younger readers.

THE LAST WILL

GRIMCAT

Queen Teuta of Illyria

The Last Will (2013): A novel centered on the historical Çamëria genocide. It follows an Albanian Cham man on his deathbed who asks his son to return to Greece to recover hidden land deeds, uncovering an wartime ethnic cleansing cover-up. Digital eBook: You can download the Kindle edition on Amazon, which is also available to read for free if you have an active Kindle Unlimited subscription. [1, 2, 3]

  • Physical Print (Paperback / Hardcover):

About the book: Unlike Grimcat, this 188-page novel is written in English. It tells the dramatic story of an exiled Albanian Cham man who returns to his historic homeland in Greece on a dangerous mission to retrieve hidden family land deeds, uncovering a massive historical cover-up along the way. [1, 2]

  • Amazon.com

    P.I. Kapllani: books, biography, latest update - Amazon.com

    Follow P.I. Kapllani and explore their bibliography from Amazon's P.I. Kapllani Author Page. ... The Last Will. Kindle Edition. Ki...

  • Surprise Castle

    The Last Will | Surprise Castle

Grimcat is a contemporary Albanian-language novel by P.I. Kapllani that examines heavy existential themes through the mourning and grief of a young boy named Çimi following his father's death. The narrative explores the child's internal confrontation with mortality, isolation, and the mystery of the afterlife within a traditional backdrop. For more details,

Physical Paperback: You can order the paperback edition online directly from major book stores like Indigo or browse listings on Amazon.

  • Digital eBook: The digital version is available to purchase and download on the Kobo Store for $6.99 CAD.

  • Alternative Retailers: It can also be found through specialty indie book sites such as Surprise Castle. [1, 2, 3]

Queen Teuta of Illyria is a celebrated historical drama and play written by the Canadian-Albanian author Perparim Kapllani (also published under P.I. Kapllani). The narrative brings to life the legendary 3rd-century BCE Illyrian queen regent who famously defied the Roman Empire and commanded a powerful kingdom of pirate merchants. [1, 2, 3]