In Malta, English is a joint official language, alongside Maltese. Both countries drive on the left. Malta is unique in Europe as being the only other country other than the UK to use type G power sockets, and both nations have a love of literature and promoting aspiring writers.
Kat Storace and Jen Calleja are the founding editors of Praspar Press, which is a newly-formed small press dedicated to publishing Maltese literature in English and English translation. It was established in 2020 to address the lack of Maltese literature in the UK. They will publish their first two books on Saturday, November 6: “Scintillas”, an anthology of new Maltese writing, and “what will it take for me to leave”, a collection of short stories by Loranne Vella translated from the Maltese by Kat Storace.
Their talk was a discussion about the joys and challenges of publishing Maltese literature and why it has been so necessary to set up a publisher dedicated to publishing Maltese writers. This was interspersed with short readings from their first two publications with authors Joe Gatt and Loranne Vella. Scintillas is an anthology of sixteen short stories, poems and essays by established and emerging Maltese writers.
The post-war years saw the emergence of Moviment Qawmiem Lettrarju (literary revival movement). Maltese writers have won many prestigious awards and Praspar Press intends to encourage and promote more writers from Malta and to expose them to a wider world-wide audience.
Paul Goring, Rye’s town crier, introduced the event in his own inimitable style. His bell rang loud and clear and his voice echoed through the streets of Rye beyond the walls of the Methodist’s church where the event took place.
Image Credits: Kt Bruce .
I wish the three writers all success as one who has known and loved Malta and her wonderful people for some fifty years. I just hope that they do not share the fate of Daphne Carruna Galicia, blown up by thugs with links to shady businessmen and politicians in Malta. Jacqui and I chose not to attend or sponsor their event when we heard that it was in part funded by the current Government of Malta which their own judiciary concluded still has serious questions to answer in relation to Daphne’s death. Peter Jones CBE