National Book Prize and Terramaxka Prize long list announced

The National Book Council has published the list of titles that were submitted to participate in the National Book Prize and Terramaxka Prize 2022 for books published in 2021.

The National Book Prize is the highest literary prize in Malta assigned to authors, editors, translators, publishers and illustrators for books published with a local ISBN during the preceding year.

The eight categories of the National Book Prize for adults are Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Drama, Literary Non-Fiction, Translation, General Research, and Biographical and Historiographic Research.

The six categories in the Terramaxka Prize are Original Works for Children ages 0–7, 8–12 and Young Adult Literature, books in Translation for Children ages 0–7 and 8–12, and Young Adult Literature in Translation.

All books have been screened for eligibility by an independent adjudication board and were vetted for inclusion in the correct Prize categories.

This year, the council said that the National Book Prize has drawn a record number of submissions with 199 total eligible titles now forming part of its longlist: 107 titles across the eight categories of the National Book Prize for adults, and 92 titles across six categories of the Terramaxka Prize.

In the coming months, the members of the adjudication board will be reading the submissions in order to select the titles for the National Book Prize and Terramaxka shortlist, which will be released next July.

This year, the winners of the National Book Prize for adults and the Terramaxka Prize for children and young adults will be announced during a joint award-giving ceremony on 4 November 2022.

The full list can be accessed at ktieb.org.mt.