2024 Doreen Micallef National Poetry Contest Winners Announced

The winners of this year’s Doreen Micallef National Poetry Contest were announced at a ceremony held at the Malta Book Festival, presented by Antonella Axisa. This year, over 58 poems were submitted for the contest, proving that the contest remains an important reference point for a wide variety of Maltese poets. 

Carmel Scicluna’s ‘Ħniex’ has been awarded the first prize with an award of €1,000 by the jury made up of John P. Portelli, Rita Saliba u David Bezzina. 

A few years ago, in 2021, Carmel Scicluna won the National Book Prize for his poetry collection L-Ambjent Li Qeridna: Poeżiji (2017-2020) (Horizons), as well as the same National Poetry Contest of that year with his poem ‘Submersi Filii’.

The contest judges described Scicluna’s poetry as “Poetry within poetry, fresh and extended metaphors, but metaphors that are accessible. The emotions in this poem are almost ‘breathed’ into suffering lines; the language is refined, and the narrative element is very well executed, imbued with powerful emotions and a strong social critique.”

The poem ‘Stadji Minn Relazzjoni Fittizja’ by Louis Briffa took second place, praised for the innovative way it conveys the essence of the various emotions in relationships in all their complexity. Meanwhile, the poem ‘Dupless’ by Matteo Pullicino came in third, described by the judges as a very powerful poem that exceptionally employs the duplex poetry style.

During his speech at the ceremony, National Book Council Chairman Mark Camilleri expressed his optimism about the healthy number of applicants for this year’s contest. 

“The healthy uptake of the competition once again proves that the Doreen Micallef National Poetry Contest remains an important focal point for all those who write poetry in Maltese. Be they veteran authors or emerging voices, the Contest provides a space for challenge and recognition that helps foster a healthy creative environment for them to thrive,” Camilleri said.

The Doreen Micallef National Poetry Contest is held annually and is open to everyone. The poem submitted has to be original, in Maltese, unpublished, not longer than 36 lines, and through a pseudonym, making the evaluation anonymous. The National Book Council thanks all those all those who submitted poems and the members of the jury for their work. The next edition of this contest opens in June 2024.

During the ceremony, the shortlisted poets were invited on stage to read their works. They were also joined on stage by Leanne Ellul, who placed first in the competition last year with the poem ‘ix-xnigħat ta’ xmux u dwalijiet għammiexa’  

This year’s edition of the ceremony also hosted the culmination of a literary exchange between Maltese-Moroccan poet Murad Shubert and Emirati poet Ali AlShaali, who collaborated on translations of each other’s works and read the resultant poems during the event. 

The full results have been published here.