Branch of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at the United Nations (UN). Marinaj also holds the title of Nation's Ambassador for his native Albania. In addition to facilitating cultural ties between Albania and the United States, he has traveled extensively in support of literature and peace, with a particular emphasis on countries in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere in Europe's historical Eastern Bloc (Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Romania), as well as nations separated from the United States by ideological divides (Vietnam, China) or characterized by tensions in shaping their national, ethnic or pluralistic identities (South Korea, India, Mexico, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom). Marinaj has maintained inclusive professional collaborations with writers and cultural figures from these and other countries around the world, such as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Laos, Russia and Ethiopia. His particular global range is reflected in his publications, his translations, and the titles released by Mundus Artium Press. At the 2019 World Thinkers and Writers Peace Meet on Planetary Crisis and Human Liberation in Kolkata, India, the International Society for Intercultural Studies and Research honored Marinaj's quest for peace through literature, as well as his literary cultivation of universality and harmony. Current occupation Marinaj is the director of Mundus Artium Press, a non-profit independent world literature publisher founded in 1967 at Ohio University. The press currently has offices in the Erik Jonsson Academic Center at the University of Texas at Dallas, as well as in Clayton, Oklahoma. He is also the editor of Mundus Artium (a Journal of International Literature and the Arts). He also serves as a selection committee chair for the annual Gjenima Prize for Literature, which "recognizes the creator of an important body of literary work or a single major literary achievement that has played a part in current history," according to prize sponsor Mundus Artium Press. He has taught English, Communications and World Literature, among other courses, at Dallas College since 2001. As a professor, Dr. Marinaj oversees doctoral dissertations for multiple universities worldwide, and is currently actively serving at the National University of Uzbekistan. Published books Marinaj has published numerous books of poetry, journalism and literary criticism in many countries and languages. His poetry collections include (Do Not Depart From Me), (Infinite), and (Prayer on the Eighth Day of the Week), (Prisoner of Absence), (I Come to Leaf Out), (Translucent Hopes), (Bleeding Willows), (24 Hours of Love), (Page 46), (Sketches in Imagination),