A Maltese author has been disqualified from taking part in this year's European union Prize for Literature because his book was published by a media house with a political affiliation, SKS said in a statement.
The prize will be awarded on 15 May to emerging writers from a number of EU countries, including Malta.
In a statement, SKS Publishers said they cannot but deplore and condemn the treatment accorded by the European Union Prize for Literature organization (EUPL) to Malta Book Prize winner with his publication Għall-Glorja tal-Patrija (2020), Aleks Farrugia. He was arbitrarily disqualified from the short list for the EUPL prize, to which he deservedly belonged, SKS said.
The EUPL have claimed that the prize they award is “apolitical”. They therefore had to disqualify Farrrugia because SKS Publishers, with which he has published his most recent work, are affiliated to a political party.
This condition features nowhere in the award regulations the EUPL publishes on its website. It has never been mentioned or invoked before, SKS said.
The award is intended for creative writers, not publishers. It would be totally unacceptable if the EUPL attempts to constrain the freedom of writers to choose what to say, how to say it and where to say it. That is not the European way, the publishing house said.
But it seems to have been the way chosen this time by the EUPL – and by its Maltese jury which has colluded with the EUPL arbitrary say-so – when disqualifying Farrugia. This has opened the way for other arbitrary exclusions in coming years under the cover of similar Big Brother reasons.
SKS Publishers confirm that they are affiliated to a political party (Partit Laburista), a fact that has never been concealed. They also declare that in the over forty years of their existence, they strove to achieve excellence in the publication of worthwhile texts in politics, economy, sociology, literature and history, and will continue to do so.
Books published by SKS have featured political tracts, histories and biographies, educational monographs, plays and novels, most in Maltese, some in English. Though obviously publications with a political content were left wing in scope, at no time did SKS seek to influence what its published writers wished to present, not just in creative fiction but across the board.
SKS are honoured that among their writers feature men and women who have been outstanding in promoting Malta’s cultural, artistic, literary, political and social heritage. Among them we count contributors ranging from modern and “traditional” writers like Frans Sammut, Mikiel Anton Vassalli, Manuel Dimech, Ġużѐ Bonnici, Ġużѐ Ellul Mercer, Juan Mamo, Anton Buttigieg, Anton Cassar, Mons Lawrenz Cachia, Karmenu Vassallo, Ġużѐ Chetcuti, Ġużѐ Cardona, Mark Camilleri, Yosanne Vella, Giorgio Peresso, Alfred Sant, all now considered as classics, to researchers, critics, and social commentators like Pauline Miceli, Adrian Grima, Mario Azzopardi, Mark Vella, Immanuel Mifsud andMark Montebello.
It has also published translations never seen before into the Maltese language of texts ranging from Lu Hsun, Cervantes to Nicholas Monsarrat.
Most of all today, SKS would like to express their appreciation and solidarity with Aleks Farrugia. He has been treated shabbily by the EUPL and in a way that contradicts the values of transparency and non-discrimination that the European Union proclaims it stands for, SKS said.