Clare Azzopardi (1977) writes for both adults and children. She lectures in Maltese Literature at the University of Malta Junior College and for the past several years has been an active member of Inizjamed, an NGO whose mission is to promote literature in Malta and abroad.
With Inizjamed, she has co-organized literary festivals and workshops, often in collaboration with Literature Across Frontiers (LAF). She has collaborated with Trevor Żahra on 6 textbooks called Stilel (Merlin Publishers, 2003-2006),and edited a series of twelve children’s books called Senduq Kuluri/Senduq Buffuri (Merlin Publishers, 2005-2007) and a series of four educational readers called Kalejdoskopju (Merlin Publishers, 2008-2009). Her first picture book Meta l-Milied ma Ġiex (2008, Merlin Publishers) and her novel Il-Każ(kważi) Kollu tal-Aħwa De Molizz (2009, Merlin Publishers) won the Maltese National Book Award for children’s fiction. Her poetry and short stories have been collected in anthologies such as Illejla Ismagħni Ftit (2001), Gżejjer (Inizjamed, 2000), F’Kull Belt Hemm Kantuniera (Inizjamed, 2003), Ktieb għall-Ħruq (Inizjamed, 2004), Storja Tinkiteb (Il-Kunsill tal-Ilsien Malti, 2005), Il-Malti (L-Akkademja tal-Malti, 2005, 2006, 2008), 45 (2009) and Spazji (MCCA, 2010). Several of her stories have been translated into English, German, Italian, Croatian, Latvian, Czech, Hungarian, Dutch and have been published in literary reviews and anthologies, including In Focus (Pen, Cyprus, 2005/2006), Cúirt 21 (Ireland, 2006), Transcript (LAF, 2007), Kulturas Forms (Latvia, 2007) and Skald (Wales, 2007). In 2009 she contributed to The European Constitution in Verse: http://themarkdesign.byethost13.com/grondwet/?q=en. Her work for adults includes Others, Across (Inizjamed and Midsea Books, 2005); Il-Linja l-Ħadra (‘The Green Line’; Merlin Publishers, 2006), which won the Maltese National Book Award for fiction. Her first dramatic work, L-Interdett taħt is-Sodda (‘The Interdict beneath my bed’; Merlin Publishers, 2010) a play in two monologues, has also been published in French (Éditions Théâtrales, 2008) and Arabic (I-Act, 2009).
