Making Literature Travel

Immanuel Mifsud was born in Malta in 1967. He started writing poetry and prose when he was 16, and also began working with experimental theatre groups, directing his own plays and later works by Chekhov, Dario Fo, Max Frisch, Federico Garcia Lorca, David Mamet, Harold Pinter and Alfred Buttigieg. Various works by Immanuel Mifsud have been translated an published in a number of European countries and the USA.

Mifsud’s prose immediately caught the attention of Maltese critics and won him the tag as the Maltese Generation-X writer. His 2005 short story collection Kimika (Chemistry) stirred a controversy for what was deemed as “pornographic literature” and the original publishers witheld the publication. The book went on sale later through a different publishing house. However reviews, including those from left leaning newspapers, kept censuring the book for its “filth”, and the conservative English speaking papers never ran a review. Ironically Kimika came second in the National Book Award for 2005.

Immanuel Mifsud writes also for children, having published a short story collection for children and a book of lullabies. He participated in a number of prestigious literature festivals and in 2002, his short story collection L-Istejjer Strambi ta’ Sara Sue Sammut (Sara Sue Sammut’s Strange Stories) was awarded the National Book Award. In 2011, Fl-Isem tal-Missier (u tal-Iben) (In the Name of the Father (and of the Son)) won the European Union Prize for Literature.

Mifsud is taking part in the 2013 Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival. His writing is available to read in English and German translation in the Malta issue of Transcript.