Mary Meilak was born on 9 August 1905 – 115 years and a day ago – in Victoria, Gozo.
In a time when the female voice was not the most heard in the country, Meilak was pretty much the only feminine voice in Maltese romantic poetry.
Working in government offices before becoming a teacher in 1942, Meilak began writing poetry when she was 25 years old in 1930.
It was not before 1945 however that she published her first collection of poems, titled titled Pleġġ il-Hena (A Pledge to Joy). She also published two volumes of essays titled Nirraġunaw u Nitbissmu (Let's Reason and Smile), three novels titled Nokkla Sewda (Black Locks), San Nikola tal-Venturi (St Nicolas of Venturi) and It-Tewmin tal-Birgu (The Twins of Vittoriosa), as well as two operas and some operettas.
For many years, Meilak was also a regular contributor to "Leħen is-Sewwa" (The Voice of Truth), a print publication established by the ecclesiastical authorities of Malta on September 1, 1928.
Many of the poems which Meilak contributed to this publication were of a religious nature, including a series of works related to the Passion of Christ, which were gathered into one volume under the title L-Istrumenti tal-Passjoni (Instruments of the Passion) by Frank L. Mercieca in 2005.
"Not only does Mary Meilak stand apart from the other poets in that she does not allude to the existential and historical angst of her time, but also because her form of expression is at its best when it throws a fantastical lens on the world around her", Professor Oliver Friggieri said of her in the Akkademja tal-Malti’s commemoration of Meilak.
Prof. Ġużè Aquilina and Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott have also observed that Meilak had a quick hand and a technical style which, perhaps unbeknownst to her, tended to employ the metric found in Arabic poetry rather than the Greek and Italian literary forms which influenced most of her contemporaries.
Meilak passed away on New Year’s Day in 1975, and on the centenary of her birth was commemorated with a memorial in Victoria, Gozo.