The results of the Malta Book Fund 2021 are out

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

Translation Grants – Cat. 1 Translation of Maltese Books

Translation Grants – Cat. 2 Translations into Maltese