New poetry book “Times Without Soul” launched in Gjilan

GJILAN — The city library in Gjilan was the venue where, over the weekend, the poetry book “Times Without Soul” was launched. The hall filled with readers, teachers and secondary-school pupils, while the author read several poems from the book and answered questions from those present.

The work addresses themes of modern loneliness, relationships with technology and the loss of warmth in everyday communication. Reviewers who took the floor at the launch described the book as an honest voice, one that does not aim to be spectacular but rather to open a quiet conversation with the reader.

Gjilan’s library has long had a tradition of organising book launches and meetings with authors, and is one of the institutions trying to keep the literary scene alive outside Pristina.

Literature in mid-sized cities

According to participants, such events are particularly important for Kosovo’s mid-sized cities, where the cultural offer remains more limited than in the capital. The Gjilan library has announced that in the coming months it will also organise readings for pupils and meetings with authors from Tirana.

The final part of the gathering was dedicated to an open conversation with the author, in which young people asked about his creative process, the readings that shaped him and why he had chosen the title “Times Without Soul.” He explained that the title came as a reaction to a widespread feeling that technology is cooling down human sensitivity.

The author said the book is not a judgement on the times we live in but an attempt to describe them honestly, through small details that, in his view, often slip past the eye in the course of the day.

The book has been published by a local publishing house and is available at public libraries in Gjilan, Pristina and Peja. Its next launch has been announced for next week in Prizren.

Source: Botasot (Culture), with editorial adaptation by DPT.