Lara Calleja

Lara Calleja (born 20 August 1988) is a Maltese novelist and playwright.

Early and personal life She was raised in the village of Marsaskala. She attended a Catholic secondary school and studied Near Eastern studies at university, She has congenital myasthenia gravis, which "causes weaknesses in her facial features and arms".

Writing career Calleja has cited Immanuel Mifsud as her "wake-up call" to Maltese literature, encountering his work when she was 17. Mifsud later met Calleja, and encouraged her to continue writing. The work is a coming-of-age novel following the titular Lucy. Miriam Calleja, for the Times of Malta, noted of the work, "Calleja has set out to write what some would consider unwritable: the dark, not-so-polite thoughts, the anonymous one-night-stands, and the downright awkwardness that might be distinctively Maltese".

Many of Calleja's stories contain political elements,

Calleja is also the founder and CEO of the speech-writing service Mil-Qalb.

Publications

Lucy min? (Merlin Publishers, 2016) Kissirtu Kullimkien (Merlin Publishers, 2020)

Awards

2017 National Book Award shortlist, for Lucy min? 2021 EU Prize for Literature, for Kissirtu Kullimkien 2021 National Book Prize for new writers, for Kissirtu Kullimkien