Bio

Iulia Enkelana (the pseudonym of Iulia-Maria Kyçyku) was born in Bucharest in 1999.

She is the author of a novel (Dacă există o voce / If there is a voice, Librarum Haemus, 2021) several plays (three of which were included in a book entitled DeMontat, Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2021), short stories (published in Romanian and Albanian cultural magazines: Neuma, Viața Românească, Haemus, Poeteka etc.), poems (published in The Bridge Magazine, Suprerpresent Magazine and A New Ulster Review) and essays.

Iulia made several short films (Hand Made Poetry, She blinks, I had to pawn the diamond, The absent city, de/mascat, The road home, perfection in inverted commas, Timeless etc.), some of which have been officially selected in international film festivals, such as Ridgefield Independent Film Festival, Tirana International Film Festival, Her Independent Film Festival, Lift-Off Global Network, Southeast Regional Film Festival, Retrospective of Jupiter, SIMULTAN Festival or Channel BUEIFF.

She published the online albums: do you remember your first loneliness (photographs, 2017) and Eyeland (drawings, 2016).

She participated in workshops, laboratories and masterclasses in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Chișinău and Lyon. She took part in several photography exhibitions (LoosenArt, ESPY 2019 Photography Awards at Elysium Gallery, Shame and Lost and found, Bucureşti – mon amour; Bucureștiul în alb și negru, Bucureşti – mon amour). Two of Iulia’s photographs were included in the #OurLakeOhrid album, Photo & Story Contest 2017, by UNESCO. In autumn 2019, she published her artist’s statement and a selection of photographs in The Bridge magazine. 

Iulia graduated theatre studies at the Faculty of Theatre and Film, University Babeș-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, writing a thesis that discusses the debate of canonical works and the relevance of Hamlet, A doll’s house and Six characters in search of an author in the present time.