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 // Applicant | It-titlu tal-proġett // Project title | Fond allokat // Funds allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Evelyn Pullicino | Breaking the Law in Nineteenth-century Malta | 5000 |
| Fabrizio Ellul | Sarangu - A Maltese Folktale | 3300 |
| Claudia Gauci | Max-Xatt tat-Tamarisk | 5000 |
| Charles Briffa | Il-Ġrajja Ssir Kelma: Ngħarrxu fl-Imgħoddi u l-Preżent | 4500 |
| Alex Vella Gregory | Codex Melitensis: Ġabra ta' Riflessjonijiet Poetiċi Miktuba Waqt il-Mixja tal-Camino de Santiago | 3310 |
| Marlon Chircop | Fil-Ħajja li Jmiss u Drammi Oħra tat-Triq | 3093 |
| Zvezdan Reljic | Marta, Marta! | 5000 |
| Rita Saliba | Minn Wara l-Ħġieġ: Ġabra ta' Poeżiji | 3500 |
| Albert Marshall | Teatru, Teatrin, Buzzetti u Skizzi oħra Teatrali | 5000 |
| Gordon Pisani | The Darmanin Artists - Thriving in a British Colony | 5000 |
| Joseph Mizzi | Mdina Recollections - A Journey Through the Centuries | 3650 |
| Joseph Bugeja | Il-Bijografija ta' Salvu Bugeja: Artist Nazzjonali, Skultur u Mużiċist | 3647 |
Translation Grants – Cat. 1 Translation of Maltese Books
| Applikant // Applicant | It-titlu tal-proġett // Project title | Fond allokat // Funds allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Dejan Matić | 'L-Aqwa Żmien' / 'The best of times' by Immanuel Mifsud into Serbian using English as a bridge language | 4290 |
| Arnold Cassola | Traduzzjoni ta’ Suleyman the Magnificent and Malta 1565 għall-Franċiż | 3800 |
| Maria Cecilia Castagna | An Italian translation of 'Kissirtu Kullimkien' by Lara Calleja | 3250 |
| Immanuel Mifsud | Traduzzjoni għall-Ingliż tal-ktieb 'Fid-dlam tal-lejl ħarisna' | 4800 |
| Gezim Tafa | Immanuel Mifusd's 'L-Aqwa Żmien' translated into Albanian | 1980 |
| Lara Calleja | 'Kissirtu Kullimkien' to be translated into English by Clare Vassallo and used as bridge | 3250 |
| Julijana Velichkovska-Dimoska | 'Around Two and a Half Hours Away From Heaven' by Immanuel Mifsud into the Macedonian Language | 2640 |
| Yana Psaila | Antoloġija 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 Greek | 5000 |
| Hrant Aleksanyan | Immanuel Mifsud's 'Jutta Heim' translated into Armenian | 3616.40 |
Translation Grants – Cat. 2 Translations into Maltese
| Applikant // Applicant | It-titlu tal-proġett // Project title | Fond allokat // Funds allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Joseph Pulè | Pierre u Jean: It-traduzzjoni mill-Franċiż tar-rumanz 'Pierre et Jean' ta' Guy de Maupassant | 3725 |
| Toni Aquilina | It-traduzzjoni ta' 'L'exil et le Royaume' ta' Albert Camus | 5000 |
| Mark Vella | Traduzzjoni mit-Taljan għall-Malti tar-rumanz ta' Irene Chias, 'Fiore d'agave, fiore di scimmia' (Laurana, 2020) | 4500 |
| Kit Azzopardi | It-traduzzjoni ta' 'House in Limbo' ta' Mary Grima | 1760 |
