One size fits all? The impact of literary prizes on a small nation

Abstract

This paper looks into the role that book prizes play in the small literary field of Malta. Literary prized have long been a matter of contention. These prizes tend to single out writers whose work has reached a perceived level of excellence, and in turn, are deemed worthy of translations. Therefore, by its very nature, a price is exclusionary. In the case of Malta, with just about no full-time writers of fiction, with a limited number of works of fiction published each year by our three leading publishers, with almost no bookshops, and one National Book Prize, a prestigious price such as the European Union Literature Prize is held in high regard. Henceforth, what are the implications of the parameters set out for all European countries? How can all countries get measured by the same rule? How can writers from a small country benefit justly from a prize given every three years to works published in the last year and a half? Furthermore, in this paper, I set out to address these questions and compare the Maltese literacy landscape with that of other European countries, especially that of other small nations like Iceland, while suggesting what works for Malta and what doesn't.