A brief snapshot of the Maltese literary scene

Though Malta is officially a bi-lingual country, with Maltese and English sharing the load, Maltese remains the country’s national language, a fact amply exemplified by its literary output. Malta’s National Book Council (NBC) has recorded upwards of 700 contemporary Maltese authors in its database, the majority of whom write in Maltese.

Within its remit as the primary public agency set up to assist and advocate for local writers, publishers and other related stakeholders — such as translators and book illustrators — the NBC is also perfectly poised to take the temperature of the country’s literary standards. It does this through the National Book Prize and the National Book Fund — the former issuing accolades to the best Maltese books and authors published in that year, with the latter offering key financial support to book-based projects of significant cultural value, which may not have a direct pathway to the commercial market.

The Book Prize is joined by its children-and-young-adults equivalent: the Terramaxka prize, also issued annually and rewarding exceptional works in this key readership category. In many ways, literature for younger readers is proving to be an interesting breeding ground for high-quality output which also seeks to broaden representation and challenge norms. Here one will find sensitive explorations of issues such as neurodivergence and same-sex parenthood, with local authors given the opportunity to collaborate with dynamic illustrators. Translated works, both from and out of Maltese, also thrive in this genre, a testament to the Book Fund’s own translation strand, as well as the economic advantage the genre enjoys in the literary ecosystem as a whole: Malta being a micro-state with its own particular economies of scale, accessibility to a receptive young audience — additionally boosted by the inclusion of such books in school curricula — is an important lifeline for local publishers.

But literature for adults is also developing along similar strands which are slowly embracing a more diverse outlook. Last year’s National Book Prize winner for Best Novel, Frammenti (‘Fragments’) by Tyrone Grima, weaves the author’s LGBTIQ perspective into a haunting dystopian narrative, while Loranne Vella’s Marta Marta — shortlisted in the same category in the subsequent year — is a boldly experimental work which viscerally (and playfully) confronts Malta’s Catholic heritage with the realities of diverse sexual orientations.

The Book Prize is also framed, in many ways, by its Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Best Emergent Author Prize. Taken together, these awards offer a historically cogent perspective on the field: paying homage to the greats while nudging along the up-and-coming literary stars. In 2020 the NBC handed the former prize to Trevor Zahra, a move arguably as unsurprising as it was necessary. The prolific and multi-talented author, playwright and former broadcaster writes for every age group and in nearly every genre, exuding a Roald Dahl-like hold on multiple generations of readers and remaining an active presence and reference point for the field. Last year, however, the award went to prominent historian Henry Frendo: a recognition of the author’s seminal appraisals of post-colonial Malta, but also a reminder of the island’s increasingly healthy non-fictional output — arguably an organic outgrowth of the archipelago’s unique historical position, which gives rise to exciting research year in year out, a lot of which also attracts international attention from researchers from all over the world. The author and artist Matthew Schembri took home the Best Emergent Writer award last year. Schembri’s work of young-adult fiction, Stessi (‘Selfies’) was strategically ‘erased’ to give way to his subsequent work, Ħassartek (‘I’ve Deleted You’): a series of writings made up of the gaps left by selectively removed passages from Schembri’s debut. It is this sense of experimentation, as well as Schembri’s dedication to improving his craft consistently, that made him a logical candidate for the prize.

Poetry also remains strongly represented in Malta, and the creation of the Poet Laureate accolade by the NBC seeks to validate Malta’s storied poetic tradition: which encompasses lyrical romantic verse, political rallying cries post-independence and, latterly, a crucial space for increased gender representation. Veteran bilingual poet Maria Grech Ganado — an inspiring rallying point for female Maltese writers in particular — notably holds the role, which has arrived in the wake of her 2023 anthology, The Bell.

Rocked by challenges both local and international — the paper shortage caused by the Ukraine war hit Maltese publishers particularly hard — Malta’s book industry remains resilient, accommodating both traditional, long-running outfits and newly-established boutique publishers offering a more intimate and immediate experience for both authors and their audiences. Meanwhile, the NBC is also hard at work to create opportunities for internationalisation, as it seeks to motivate its stakeholders to expand the reach of their product beyond the geographically constrained confines of Malta’s shores. Achieving gains in this area will be a marathon, not a sprint, but it is one of the ways in which the Maltese scene will continue to thrive in the coming years.