Musicians play or sing – painters, sculptors, ceramists etc. make art out of matter, dancers move, etc. etc. – their language is international and does not need to be translated into a different form or medium (this is true also of installations or even of librettos).
Writers are faced with totally different problems. Not only is a language limited to those who write, speak or understand it, but may lose its connotations even in conversation, let alone translation. Perhaps this is one of the reasons (apart from the language problems engendered by our history) why literature in Maltese, spoken by so few, is not given the attention awarded to the other Arts. One cannot go abroad to develop one’s skills in the Maltese language and, unfortunately, it is to artists who stand out abroad that the Maltese people are ready to offer not only homage, but also recognition.
This became glaringly apparent in the changes some Maltese newspapers made to a press release about the online publication of The Drunken Boat, a magazine edited by Rebecca Seiferle. The reference to the editor’s having won the Pushcart Prize, as also having been nominated for the Pulitzer were, very significantly, left out. Now, it is bad enough that Malta has no culture critics as such, and that its literature is the Cinderella of the Arts, but to strike out the status of this unknown Rebecca Seiferle implies that the status of the Pushcart and Pulitzer prizes is unknown as well, despite their being the most esteemed in the US.
At this stage, I think the time has come for Maltese Literature to blow a few trumpets and it seems we writers are left with no option but to blow our own, if only to attract those with talent away from frustration and its potential consequences. Although I am the physical age of the Sixties poets, I include myself among the young contemporary writers because I came to Maltese poetry late. I will concentrate exclusively, therefore on the international activities of five writers, including mine, who have found more respect for their work among foreigners than they do among their own countrymen.
Adrian Grima
• A collection of his poems translated into English was published in 2005 (Inizjamed and Midsea Books)
• Publication of a collection in German: Dieser verwundete Frühling - Dir-Rebbiegha Midruba (Skarta, 2007)
• Poems translated into Arabic, Corsican, Czech, Dutch, French, English, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian and Ukrainian.
• Publication in literary magazines, anthologies or newspapers in 13 countries: Italy, Germany, Cyprus, The Netherlands, Israel, Austria, France, Corsica, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Canada, the Ukraine, the USA. These include special features like Malta Generosa e Altre Poesie in the prestigious literary journal Lo Straniero (Rome 2007), an interview and poems in the Ukrainian magazine of world literature VSESVIT (2007), and another interview and long poem in the Hungarian literary journal Ex Symposion.
Readings at the following International Festivals and Literary Events
• Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani (Tivoli, 2000)
• Europa Mediterranea, VII Incontro (Rome, 2001)
• Convegno Internazionale (Tivoli 2001)
• Literair Paspoort (The Hague, 2004)
• Voci del Mediterraneo (Catania, 2004)
• Poetry Reading (Nicosia, 2004)
• Maghar International Poetry Festival (Israel, 2005)
• Between the Lines Literary Festival (Belfast, 2005)
• Dialoghi Mediterranei (Rome, 2006)
• ArezzoStoria – Incontri e Conflitti Mediterranei (Arezzo, 2006)
• All’Ombra del Mediterraneo (Perugia, 2006)
• Buchhändlerkeller and New National Museum (Berlin, 2007)
• Leipzig Book Festival and Grassi Museum (Leipzig, 2007)
• Mediterranean Reading (London, 2008)
In 2006 Adrian was invited to Derry in Northern Ireland for a writer’s residency at the Verbal Arts Centre supported mainly by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. This is an ongoing project. In 2000 he placed second in the Premio Tivoli Europa Giovani with his book of poetry, It-Trumbettier.
Immanuel Mifsud
Apart from the poetry and prose books which have been published in Maltese and the awards won in Malta, Immanuel has been translated into the seven languages of the literary events he has been invited to, or the foreign publications his work has appeared in as follows:
• 2001: Paris, France – a Reading at the Maison des Ecrivains
• 2003: Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca – Festival of Mediterranean Poetry
• 2004: Parma, Italy – Book launch of Racconti senza Dogana
• 2004: Bratislava, Slovak Republic
• 2005: Cork, Eire – Book Launch of Confidential Reports, translated by Maurice Riordan
• 2005: Medana, Slovenia – Festival of Poetry and Wine
• 2006: Warsaw, Poland
• 2007: Lodz, Lublin, Warsaw, Poland – Literary Tour
• 2008: Ljubljana, Slovenia: Trnovski Terceti Poetry Festival
• 2008: Bari
His foreign publications include:
• 2001: “I’d Thought the Flowers had all died” in Al Buio, Italy (translated into Italian)
• 2001: “Ruby” and some poems, in Le Jardins d’Essais, Paris (translated into French)
• 2004: Letterism in Maltese Poetry: Beletrina, Slovenia (translated into Slovene)
• 2004: Article about the Fat Lady of the Hypogeum, in Courrier International, Paris (translated into French)
• 2004: “Mara Morbi”, in Racconti senza Dogana, Rome, (translated into Italian)
• 2004: “Mara Morbi” in Vammentes Elbeleszelek, Budapest (translated into Hungarian)
• 2005: Some poems in “Our Generation” USA
• 2005: Some poems in an EU publication, Brussels
• 2007: Paper on the future of publishing, in Creative Nonfiction, USA
• 2008: Slovenia
Clare Azzopardi’s name is already familiar in European Short Story circles and should be better known in Malta as the winner (with Il-Linja l-Hadra) of the best prose work in November 2007’s KNK’s national competition, the results of which, if I am not mistaken, weren’t even reported by the media. The quality of the story which gave the collection its name, The Green Line (in Albert Gatt’s translation), was selected as one of the notable short stories on the web in 2006. Here is the rest:
• Translations of her short stories have been published in literary reviews including In Focus (Pen Cyprus, 2005/2006), West 47, Cúirt 21 (Ireland, 2006) Lettre (Hungary, 2006), Kulturas Forms (Latvia, 2006), Skaald (Wales, 2007) and Transcript (LAF, 2007)
• In 2003 Clare was a member of the Maltese group representing Inizjamed at the Biennial of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean held in Athens
• In 2006 she was a writer-in-residence for one month in Riga
• In 2007 she was a guest of the Short Story Festival in Croatia
• In 2007 she attended a seminar on contemporary literature in Cambridge
• In 2007 she was invited to a literary festival in Riga, Latvia
• In 2008 she will be reading in Frankfurt. She has also been invited to Bari and the University of Iowa
Simone Inguanez
• In 2004, Simone participated in the seventh edition of the Voix de la Méditerranée held annually in Lodève, courtesy of the French Embassy in Malta
• In 2005, she attended the XII BJCEM biennale dei giovani artisti dell’europa e del mediterraneo – Un anno di passione
• In 2007 she was Malta’s writer-in-residence for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, courtesy of the US Embassy in Malta
• She also represented Malta in the Recital dei Poeti del Mediterraneo held annually in Lecce, Italy
• In 2008, she will be reading in Hungary
Maria Grech Ganado
• As for me, since I write in both Maltese and English, I have been translated from Maltese into English, French, Italian, German, Lithuanian, Finnish and Czech and from English into Catalan, Spanish, French, Finnish, Greek, Czech and Lithuanian
• My work has been published in literary magazines or anthologies in England (Orbis, Envoi), France Souffle, Le Jardin d’Essai, Les Citadelles), Italy (Da Qui), Spain (Hermeneus), Brussels (May Day), Cyprus (In Focus), Ireland (The Stone House – Marita Conlon MacKenna), South Africa (Whispering Hope), Finland (Tuly & Savu), Lithuania (Poetic Fall Anthology), Australia (Imago) and has in 2008 already appeared again in French and Cypriot magazines for which it was commissioned, as well as in the Cinnamon Press winners’ anthology, Mint Sauce. It will appear in the Czech Domino later this year
• I have also won First Prize in the Freelance Marketing News (1996), as also in the First Writer (2004) competitions in England, and fourth prize in South Africa’s Whispering Hope, as also in a Lithuanian translation in Druskininkai, Lithuania
• I have been invited to literary events in Cyprus, Wales, Leipzig and Berlin in Germany, Italy, Lithuania and the Czech Republic and have been invited to Majorca, to the Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts for six weeks and to a festival in Tokyo in 2008.
All of us are indebted in some way or other to the St James Cavalier Creative Centre, to the British Council, the Italian Cultural Centre, the Ministries of Education and that of Culture, as well as to the American Embassy. We are, however, very pressed for funds, translators (who in the rest of the world enjoy a creative status equal to that of original writers) as also for local recognition, since all of us contribute to Maltese culture also in other ways.
Moreover, many international events, for example, translation workshops, festivals, other projects are held in Malta on an annual basis since the partnership between Inizjamed and the LAF continues to prosper, after the very successful symposium held here in 2005. Interaction and links are vital not only for stimulation, but also for Maltese literature to make waves beyond our shores. It is also imperative to realise that, just as with book publication, there are varying degrees of quality in on-line publishing, which is why it is so important to cite the qualifications of an editor like Rebecca Seiferle. Laura Hird (one of Scotland’s best writers and short-listed for the Whitbread Prize) was the first online editor to publish Maltese writing. Rebecca Seiferle is the first to publish a whole feature and give it such widespread and prestigious exposure. It is important that editors like these should carry their credentials along with their names.
