Yesterday evening, while attending an event organised by the Ghaqda Poeti Maltin, I was informed by one of the members that at that very moment the Literary Prize Awards Ceremony was in full swing at the Auberge de Castille. I was highly surprised and downright angry, and for several reasons:
In` 2012 I published three books: Sponde Amanti, a collection of poems in Italian in collaboration with poet Mario Attard, a colleague of mine, self-published, of course! All’Attacco! a workbook, also in Italian, for students who sit for their Italian SEC and MATSEC, a Faraxa publication, and Tommy u s-Sabih tal-Qari, a collection of short stories for children, also by Faraxa. Adhering to the rules, four copies of these three publications were entered to participate in the National Literary Prize Awards 2012. Both Mr Attard and myself were duly informed that the books had arrived safely at their destination. In spite of this, as late as the 27th of the month, Mr Attard and myself had not yet been notified about the ceremony, nor invited to attend.
ii. Up to last year (2012), the Book Council used to send the salient information to all those concerned, with a full list of books, authors, publishers and what have you, according to the category of participation. This procedure wasn’t followed this year. So much for transparency!
iii. I have also noted that, to date, the Book Council site www.ktieb.org.mt is unavailable, meaning that it was not functioning during the annual Book Fair, from the 12 to 17 November, and also during the Book Awards Ceremony.
iv. Thus, this very important event was published nowhere and up to yesterday nobody knew anything about books, authors, publishers etc. Another blow to transparency!
v. I have also been told that participants were informed of things just by an e-mail, which Mr Attard and myself never received!
vi. Furthermore, the event was not published anywhere, and Mr Attard and myself were thus kept in the dark.
vii. Nor was the event published in the Cultural Calendar by the Akkademja tal-Malti and the Ghaqdiet tal-Malti. Only two events were announced: The prize award ceremony of the National Poetry Competition (2013) organised by the Ghaqda Poeti Maltin, and the Karmen Mikallef Buhagar conference on Dun Karm at the University of Malta.
I would like to draw the attention of the authorities, particularly that of the Minister of Education, to first of all let them know what’s going on here. The information by a mere e-mail is unacceptable, particularly when up to last year invitations were issued to the participants to attend the event. Thus all of these are notified properly and ethically.
The Minister concerned should also be made aware of the conflict of interest in the Literary Awards scheme. It is unacceptable that members of the Book Council be allowed to compete in the Awards, and eventually win prizes year after year to the chagrin of all those who hopefully compete to someday win a prize!
The way prizes are distributed in this event has always raised suspicions, and the same people constantly winning is indeed irksome. Furthermore, the lack of basic contacts and information not only intensifies the suspicions but also generates the anger, mistrust and disgust of the well-meaning.
Such serious shortcomings have to be seen to immediately, for the sake of all authors, publishers and literature itself. Otherwise, this event had better pack up and go!
Patrick Sammut
MOSTA