Lara Calleja

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Lara Calleja
Born (1988-08-20) August 20, 1988 (age 36)
Notable awards2021 EU Prize for Literature

Lara Calleja (born 20 August 1988) is a Maltese novelist and playwright. [1]

Contents

Early and personal life

She was raised in the village of Marsaskala. [2] She attended a Catholic secondary school [3] and studied Near Eastern studies at university, [2] graduating with honors in 2010. [4] After graduating, Calleja worked part-time as a librarian for six years. [4] In 2020, she quit a career in tourism to become a freelance writer and translator. [4]

Calleja has been involved in political activism since she was 16. [2] She has joined the activist organization Moviment Graffitti. [5] She has congenital myasthenia gravis, which "causes weaknesses in her facial features and arms". [6]

Writing career

Calleja has cited Immanuel Mifsud as her "wake-up call" to Maltese literature, encountering his work when she was 17. Mifsud later met Calleja, and encouraged her to continue writing. [5]

Her debut novel, Lucy Min?, was published in 2016 and was nominated for the Maltese National Book Prize. [7] The work is a coming-of-age novel following the titular Lucy. [8] Miriam Calleja, for the Times of Malta , noted of the work, "Calleja has set out to write what some would consider unwritable: the dark, not-so-polite thoughts, the anonymous one-night-stands, and the downright awkwardness that might be distinctively Maltese". [8]

She began writing her second book, the short story anthology Kissirtu Kullimkien (You Have Destroyed Everything), in 2016; it was published in 2020. [3] The work won the National Book Prize for new writers. [2] The book also won the 2021 EU Prize for Literature, making her the first Maltese women to win the award. [9]

Many of Calleja's stories contain political elements, [1] as in her anthology, where many of the stories deal with over-construction, [5] and one which centers a "traumatised migrant". [10] [3]

Calleja is also a playwright; her debut play Taralalla was staged at the Spazju Kreattiv venue in Valletta in late 2021. [3] [4] [11]

Calleja is also the founder and CEO of the speech-writing service Mil-Qalb. [12]

Publications

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 Tanti, Noel. "Lara Calleja". HELA. Retrieved 2025-04-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Lara Calleja". IP Why Not. Retrieved 2025-04-01.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Reljic, Teodor (2020-05-13). "Singing through the wreckage | Lara Calleja". Malta Today .
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Lara Calleja". EU Prize for Literature.
  5. 1 2 3 Delia, Mark (2020-04-28). "'Kissirtu kullimkien' – tackling the construction frenzy". The Malta Independent . Retrieved 2025-04-01.
  6. ↑ Farrugia, Claire (2022-07-08). "'I can now consider having children': writer Lara Calleja on embryo testing". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2025-04-01.
  7. ↑ "National Book Prize 2017 shortlist". Times of Malta. 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2025-04-01.
  8. 1 2 Calleja, Miriam (2016-04-24). "Getting to know Lucy". Times of Malta . Retrieved 2025-04-01.
  9. ↑ "Lara Calleja is Malta's 2021 EUPL winner". European Commission . Retrieved 2025-04-01.
  10. ↑ Azzopardi, Jean Paul (2021-05-18). "Lara Calleja Is The First Maltese Woman To Win European Literature Prize". Lovin Malta. Retrieved 2025-04-01.
  11. ↑ Kreattiv, Spazju; Calleja, Lara; Abela, Lee-N. (2021-10-30), Taralalla (Theater program) (in Maltese)
  12. ↑ Abela, Benjamin (2021-08-09). "'A condition is part of a person, but it does not define that person' – Mill-Qalb Founder". MaltaCEOs.mt. Retrieved 2025-04-01.
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