The results of the Malta Book Fund 2021 are out

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Posted on August 16, 2021

The National Book Council is pleased to announce that the adjudication board of the Malta Book Fund 2021 has decided and agreed on the winning submissions for this year’s edition of the Fund. 

The Malta Book Fund aims at supporting culturally significant book projects that require funding in order to be published, and are not commercially viable. The winning projects have been chosen according to a set of pre-determined criteria, chief among which are the cultural value of the proposed publication and the financing needs due to the specialised and non-commercial nature of the project.

The Malta Book Fund 2021 Adjudication Board comprised of Ms Maria Giuliana Fenech, Prof. Yosanne Vella and Dr Toni Sant. 

There was an overall very high quality in the submissions for this edition of the Malta Book Fund across all three categories, as well as a variety of genres, particularly in the Publishing Grants strand. The judges examined each proposal and its completeness, the costing of each project, its viability and cultural value. After an attentive analysis of all aspects of each submitted application, they marked each proposal independently.

The submissions deadline was 30 June, and the three adjudicators worked independently on the same sets of applications till 26 July, when their first evaluative reactions were exchanged. During the first week of August the three independent marking sheets were consolidated into one, and on 9 August the final report and final list of beneficiaries were delivered to the NBC. The beneficiaries were allocated mainly full funds, so as to allow the publication of each funded project.

It is important to note that, in view of the fact that each category was capped (€50,000 for the Publishing Grants, €40,000 for the Translations from Maltese into other languages and €15,000 for Translations into Maltese) and that some proposals fared better than others in satisfying the regulations and guidelines, a few projects were only partially funded, ie. given less than the amount requested by the applicant. Considering that these projects still had considerable cultural value, the board of adjudicators decided to allocate partial funding so that that the beneficiary would still benefit from financial support towards the publication of the book.

It is important to note that failure to qualify for this Malta Book Fund edition does not bar the applicant from applying again during the next call for applications with the same project or a different one.

Following the selection process and the publication of the results, the NBC will be contacting the winning applicants for the signing of a beneficiary’s contract, transfer of funds, and setting of time frames and deadlines. From the date of signing the beneficiary’s contract, the applicant has 18 months to publish the book.

The list of the projects funded, alongside the beneficiary and the amount granted, can be viewed below:

Publishing Grants

Applikant // ApplicantIt-titlu tal-proġett // Project titleFond allokat // Funds allocated
Evelyn PullicinoBreaking the Law in Nineteenth-century Malta5000
Fabrizio EllulSarangu - A Maltese Folktale3300
Claudia GauciMax-Xatt tat-Tamarisk5000
Charles BriffaIl-Ġrajja Ssir Kelma: Ngħarrxu fl-Imgħoddi u l-Preżent4500
Alex Vella GregoryCodex Melitensis: Ġabra ta' Riflessjonijiet Poetiċi Miktuba Waqt il-Mixja tal-Camino de Santiago3310
Marlon ChircopFil-Ħajja li Jmiss u Drammi Oħra tat-Triq3093
Zvezdan ReljicMarta, Marta!5000
Rita SalibaMinn Wara l-Ħġieġ: Ġabra ta' Poeżiji3500
Albert MarshallTeatru, Teatrin, Buzzetti u Skizzi oħra Teatrali5000
Gordon PisaniThe Darmanin Artists - Thriving in a British Colony5000
Joseph MizziMdina Recollections - A Journey Through the Centuries3650
Joseph BugejaIl-Bijografija ta' Salvu Bugeja: Artist Nazzjonali, Skultur u Mużiċist3647

Translation Grants – Cat. 1 Translation of Maltese Books

Applikant // ApplicantIt-titlu tal-proġett // Project titleFond allokat // Funds allocated
Dejan Matić'L-Aqwa Żmien' / 'The best of times' by Immanuel Mifsud into Serbian using English as a bridge language4290
Arnold CassolaTraduzzjoni ta’ Suleyman the Magnificent and Malta 1565 għall-Franċiż3800
Maria Cecilia CastagnaAn Italian translation of 'Kissirtu Kullimkien' by Lara Calleja3250
Immanuel MifsudTraduzzjoni għall-Ingliż tal-ktieb 'Fid-dlam tal-lejl ħarisna'4800
Gezim TafaImmanuel Mifusd's 'L-Aqwa Żmien' translated into Albanian1980
Lara Calleja'Kissirtu Kullimkien' to be translated into English by Clare Vassallo and used as bridge3250
Julijana Velichkovska-Dimoska'Around Two and a Half Hours Away From Heaven' by Immanuel Mifsud into the Macedonian Language2640
Yana PsailaAntoloġija tan-Novella Moderna Maltija (traduzzjoni ta' 22 novella)4873.60
Charles Casha'A Book for Amy' - translation of the novel 'Ktieb Għal Amy' (KKM,1999)2500
Nestoras Poulakos'In the Name of the Father (and of the son)' translated into Greek5000
Hrant AleksanyanImmanuel Mifsud's 'Jutta Heim' translated into Armenian3616.40

Translation Grants – Cat. 2 Translations into Maltese

Applikant // ApplicantIt-titlu tal-proġett // Project titleFond allokat // Funds allocated
Joseph PulèPierre u Jean: It-traduzzjoni mill-Franċiż tar-rumanz 'Pierre et Jean' ta' Guy de Maupassant3725
Toni AquilinaIt-traduzzjoni ta' 'L'exil et le Royaume' ta' Albert Camus5000
Mark VellaTraduzzjoni mit-Taljan għall-Malti tar-rumanz ta' Irene Chias, 'Fiore d'agave, fiore di scimmia' (Laurana, 2020)4500
Kit AzzopardiIt-traduzzjoni ta' 'House in Limbo' ta' Mary Grima1760

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