Karl Schembri | Sunday, 04 January 2009

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In my book…

Sergio Grech takes me to task for having written an analysis and a couple of stories about this year’s National Book Awards, in contrast with the total absence by the other media about this one-and-only annual official literary event that recognizes Maltese authors.
In fact, it is sadly the number one indictment of this event that it elicits no interest beyond the immediate literary establishment as opposed to, say, the Booker Prize in the UK or the Pulitzer in the US.
Be that as it may, it is no wonder that some might believe I might have a personal interest for writing about the book awards, as opposed to the majority that believes this to be a non-event. However, that Mr Grech is not only one of those who believe I have a conflict of interest, but worse, that mine is a personal vendetta, comes as a bit of a surprise, given that he knows me personally and should know that I am above such nonsense. He also knows that both personally and journalistically I have always strived to contribute to, give informed coverage and, where warranted, promotion, to the book council’s activities.
He refers to my novel’s failure to win last year as the “clear reason” why I am leading this supposed vendetta. Yet I had dealt with that in an email I had sent to the book council’s chairman, not on the newspaper. In that email I expressed my outrage, not at not having won the award, but at the sheer hijacking of the award meant for literature by the clerical establishment in the form of judges, book entries, and awards. I did not write one word on this newspaper about that episode as I wanted to avoid any charges of conflict of interest. Was I unethical in doing that?
To further avoid any such charges, I made it a point this year to get as many people as possible to give their views. In fact, besides the choice of titles and the occasional adjective, I strictly limited myself to what other authors were saying, rather than to my exclusive judgement. Is that unethical?
Among the high-calibre people I quoted, whom Mr Grech seems to want to attribute hidden agendas and destructive criticism, I deliberately contacted people who worked closely with the book council. They include Mario Cassar, whom Mr Grech’s council chose to be on the evaluation jury. I spoke to Immanuel Mifsud, who was on the prose fiction jury. I also spoke to Clare Azzopardi – who won first prize for literature last year and who won again this year in another category; and to Chris Gruppetta, a leading publisher who wins practically every year. Even if, preposterous as it is, I were to be leading a personal vendetta, what can Mr Grech accuse these people of? That Ms Azzopardi – twice winner in two years – has some axe to grind? Or that all of a sudden, two members of the jury selected by the same council have become unreliable sources? And has Mr Grech realised that at one point Mr Gruppetta praised the council for its good work, or has my “vendetta” blinded him so much as to miss it?
I also sent questions to the book council chairman, Ġorġ Mallia, whose answers I reproduced in total, unedited, giving him alone the biggest chunk of the two pages reserved for the main article. Is that unethical?
Before writing, I asked Mr Grech for the list of judges. He told me he could not send it to me as he kept at arm’s length from this year’s book awards given that he was competing with his own book. I therefore resorted directly to Mr Mallia for the list, who then referred me to the book council’s secretary, from whom I finally got it. That is how public it was.
Mr Grech also attributes to me powers I didn’t know of. He claims I have done “massive, possibly irrevocable harm” to the book awards and to the “possibility of development … of book reading in Malta”. This is simply ridiculous and just leaves me lost for words.
But now that I am writing in my personal capacity, and having answered his outrageous charges as a journalist, I can give my views about the book awards which were in no way reflected in my articles, precisely because I did not want to use the newspaper to my ends.
As an author, I dream of one day having a council that is a reference point, that can help me in the practical difficulties related to publishing and book marketing, that is actively translating contemporary literature to showcase to our European counterparts, that commissions books and literary criticism and puts the author at the centre of its activity.
I have met authors from countries the size of our population, like Iceland, who are paid a salary to write their poems, novels and songs. I dream of having a book council that recognises the value of such a policy for an island whose language is only written by its authors.
I dream of having a national literary award dedicated solely to the yearly literary publications, long-listed and short-listed by a representative group of critics, journalists and involving also the readers, of having a detailed judges’ report that is made public and which gives its verdict on every entry. And for God’s sake, let’s keep the award to recognize authors who are still alive. Can you imagine the Booker going to Virginia Woolf? Were it not so obvious, I wouldn’t write this, but this year is a case in point.
As to translations, the book council should be supporting them, commissioning and funding them, rather than award them as an afterthought, and the same applies to collective anthologies and works published post-humously. They reserve their recognition, and much more financial help, by all means, but not at the expense of the awards that should be going to living authors.
As to the other categories now dumped into the book awards, I can imagine them held separately with the respective authorities and organisations. I can imagine the children’s literature award being held jointly with the children’s commissioner, the award for books on heritage with Heritage Malta and heritage NGOs, etc. That way you give the literary award its space and prestige while recognising the other areas of publishing that have nothing to do with literature. Why dump every item under the sun, from ganutell and virgin martyrs to Ġużè Bonnici and post-modern poetry under one event, under the generic but barbaric definition of ‘Melitensia’?
Far from wanting to destroy it, I dream of having a literary award and book fair of the prestige accorded to such events in every other civilised nation. That prestige does not come merely by holding a hodgepodge of awards in the prime minister’s office. Nor by shouting ‘vendetta’ at every critic who bothers. The next worse thing is total irrelevance, as the present council seems to prefer.

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