NadiaMifsud

1.

Biography

For poet, novelist and translator Nadia Mifsud, literature represents an entryway into another world, securing passage across varied geographical and emotional trajectories. Perhaps this is an even less surprising trajectory for Mifsud, born in Bormla in 1976 and now living in France and engaged as a freelance translator.

Jump to bibliography

The international dimension of Mifsud’s work is further bolstered by her taking charge of the translation workshop which forms part of the annual Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival, during which an international array of visiting writers translate each others’ work before presenting it on stage during the festival nights.

And so, with a life now defined by the language of literature and firmly embedded among the coterie of local writing colleagues, a younger Mifsud was in fact shocked to discover that most of her peers did not, in fact, write poetry as a matter of course. She began to experiment with the genre to console a sick cousin, penning a poem while the relative was ill with appendicitis.

But poetry was to take a back seat during Mifsud’s university days, during which time she dedicated her energies to pursuing her dream of permanently relocating to France, so that mastering the French language became top priority. “It took me a while to come back to poetry,” she said in retrospect. “It is actually poetry that came back to me.”

Mifsud has three poetry collections, a novel, Ir-rota daret dawra (kważi) sħiħa (Going (almost) full circle, Merlin Publishers, 2017), and a book of short stories, Żifna f'xifer irdum (Merlin Publishers, 2021), all of which bear out her recurring focus on the experience of womanhood, expressed in eloquent, but visceral, honesty.

But the act of journeying across words is never too far from Mifsud’s sphere of preoccupation, which is very much borne out in her second poetry collection, Kantuniera ’l Bogħod (Edizzjoni Skarta, 2015), which follows her 2009 debut, żugraga (Spinning Top). Indeed, the very title – translating into Just Around the Corner – is an intimately potent collation of Mifsud’s desire to explore the ambiguities of distance and proximity, of the familiar and the unfamiliar. Of how easily, in her own words, “our perspectives can shift”.

Written by Teodor Reljić

2.

Bibliography

"Il-plural ta' jiena mhux dejjem aħna"

"The plural of 'I' is not always 'we'"
Poetry
Maltese
Author
Publisher
International Human Rights Art Movement

"your fingers are again seized"

Poetry
English
Author
Translator
Luke Galea
Editor
Khairani Barokka
Publisher
Modern Poetry in Translation

"rainshower"

Poetry
English
Author
Translator
Miriam Calleja
Editor
Khairani Barokka
Publisher
Modern Poetry in Translation

Żifna f’xifer irdum

Prose
Maltese
Author
Publisher
Merlin Publishers

Varjazzjonijiet tas-Skiet

Poetry
Maltese
Author
Artist
Glen Calleja
Photographer
Kenneth Scicluna
Publisher
Ede Books, Malta

Żifna f'xifer irdum

Prose
Maltese
Author
Publisher
Merlin Publishers, Malta

"Stoarm"

"Storm"
Poetry
Dutch
Author
Publisher
Ensafh, Netherlands

20 poeżija / 20 poems

in “Transkrit: 08”
Poetry
Author
Translator
Nadia Mifsud
Publisher
Centre Culturel Kulturfabrik, Luxembourg

Ir-rota daret dawra (kważi) sħiħa

Prose
Maltese
Author
Publisher
Merlin Publishers, Malta

Kantuniera ’l bogħod

Poetry
Maltese
Author
Publisher
Edizzjoni Skarta, Malta; Winner of the Malta National Book Prize

"Larinġa"

Poetry
French
Author
Translator
Nadia Mifsud
Publisher
Voix Vives, France

“Storm” & “Exil/Asile”

in “Transcript 38”
Poetry
English
Author
Translator
Maria Grech Ganado
Publisher
Transcript, Wales

Bateau Noir

Poetry
Maltese
French
Author
Translator
Nadia MifsudCatherine Camilleri
Publisher
Edizzjonijiet Emma Delezio, Malta

żugraga

Poetry
Maltese
Author
Publisher
The Author
Supported by

Arts Council Malta

Creative Industries Platform

Project co-ordinator: Clare Azzopardi

With the help of: Kirsty Azzopardi, Leanne Ellul and Albert Gatt

Proofreader: Dwayne Ellul

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