Photo: Serena Marinelli
Immanuel Mifsud (b. 1967) is one of Malta’s most prominent and innovative contemporary writers, active as a poet, fiction writer, and academic. His literary work is distinguished by its linguistic precision and its exploration of themes such as memory, identity, and personal history.
Mifsud’s writings have been translated into numerous languages, including English, French, Romanian, Serbian, Macedonian, Arabic, and Slovenian. His presence in Slovenia has been particularly significant: several of his works have appeared in Slovene translation, contributing to a growing cultural exchange between Maltese and Slovenian literary circles. His poetry collection A Handful of Leaves was published in Slovenia as Prgišče listja (translated by Peter Semolič and Vera Pejović; IRIU Institute, Ljubljana). His prose work Jutta Heim was translated and published by Cankarjeva Založba, while his poetry collection Ħuta appeared in Slovenian under the title Riba (translated by Peter Semolič and Vera Pejović; Hiša Poezije). Additionally, his work features prominently in the anthology Wara Settembru. Anthology of Contemporary Maltese Literature, co-edited by Mifsud and Peter Semolič, which introduced a wide range of Maltese writing to Slovenian readers.
Among his other major international publications are the poetry collection Penelope Waits (Arc Publications, UK, 2013) and the award-winning book Fl-Isem tal-Missier (u tal-Iben) (In the Name of the Father (and of the Son)), which earned him the European Union Prize for Literature in 2011 and has since been translated into twelve languages.
