Shortlist For The 2025 National Book Prize Announced

The National Book Council (NBC) is announcing the shortlist for the 2025 National Book Prize and Terramaxka Prize, for books published in 2024. Running since 1971, the National Book Prize is the highest literary prize assigned to authors, editors, translators, publishers and illustrators of books published in Malta.

The winners in each category of the National Book Prize and the Terramaxka Prize will be announced during an award-giving ceremony on 26 September 2025. Winning books will enjoy an adequate period of promotion, and a suitable showcase at the upcoming edition of the Malta Book Festival 2025 on 5-9 November. 

The 23 finalists making the 2025 National Book Prize shortlist have been unanimously selected by an independent panel of adjudicators according to a set of established criteria; 14 books have been shortlisted across the six National Book Prize categories, and 9 books for children and young adults have been shortlisted in the Terramaxka Prize categories. The titles were published by 10 publishers and one self-published author, and authored by 28 different authors, translators and illustrators. Nine different illustrators contributed with their illustrations in books shortlisted in the Terramaxka Prize categories.

The eight categories of the National Book Prize for adults are Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Drama, Non-Fiction, Translation, Research, and Historiographic Research. The six categories of the Terramaxka Prize are – Picture books for children (ages 0–7), Children’s Literature (ages 8–12), Young Adult Literature, Picture Books in Translation (Ages 0-7), Children’s Literature in Translation (Ages 8-12) and Young Adult Literature in Translation – however, this year there were no submissions for this last category. 

The adjudication process for the 2025 National Book Prize was launched in 2 April 2025 with the publication of the longlist. By 3 March 2025, publishers and authors had submitted a total of 149 longlisted and eligible books to be considered for the current edition of the National Book Prize.

The adjudication panel for the National Book Prize has decided not to shortlist any titles in the Short Stories and Non-Fiction categories, while in the case of the Terramaxka Prize, no titles were shortlisted in the Picture Books in Translation categories (both for ages 0-7 and 8-12).

This choice ensures that the integrity of the prize is preserved by maintaining the necessary standards and showing that the adjudicators applied the necessary rigour and critical insight when shortlisting the titles.

While expressing full confidence in the final shortlist – praising the chosen books as innovative, refreshing and highly engaging works that enrich the Maltese literary corpus – the adjudication panel also expressed some key concerns. 

Chief of these was an “endemic” lack of a proper editorial process which applies across all categories. In literary works, adjudicators noted that certain works betrayed how the author was trying to juggle too many elements at once, resulting in a work of no clear cohesion or identity – a stylistic infelicity that, they felt, would have been addressed with the application of a more thorough editing process.

Similarly, adjudicators found that the the Research, Historiographic Research and Non-Fiction categories were compromised by a poor editorial approach, with certain books being dissertations or theses re-published wholesale, while other books fell short of the standard of the Prize because they were not subject to peer-review. In the Terramaxka categories, adjudicators often noted that otherwise worthwhile books were compromised by poor illustrations, with others marred by dated and repetitive narratives. 

The adjudicators therefore suggested that an infrastructure should be created to better support the editorial process for the local publishing industry. 

All of the National Book Prize shortlisted books are available in local bookstores and online shops, and will be available at the upcoming 2025 Malta Book Festival (5–9 November) to be held at the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre (MFCC), Ta’ Qali.

For further news about the 2025 National Book Prize and all other National Book Council initiatives, follow us on Facebook or visit www.ktieb.org.mt

National Book Prize 2025: Books 2024

Novels

Short Stories

No shortlisted titles

Poetry

Drama

Prose Fiction in Translation

Non-fiction

No shortlisted titles

Research

Historiographic Research

Picture Books for Children (Ages 0–7)

Children’s Literature (Ages 8-12)

Young Adult Literature

Picture Books in Translation (Ages 0-7)

No shortlisted titles

Children’s Literature in Translation (Ages 8-12)

No shortlisted titles

Young Adult Literature in Translation

No longlisted titles