Miriam Calleja

Miriam Calleja is the bilingual author of poetry collections Pomegranate Heart (EDE Books, 2015) and Inside Skin (a two-book series in collaboration with a lith photographer, EDE Books 2016).

She has been published in a number of journals and poetry anthologies worldwide, and her work has been translated into Slovene, Greek, Romanian, French, Norwegian, and Frisian.

Her work has been published in translation in the collection Wara Settembru (2018, Slovene Writers Association) and in the collection Anthology of Young Maltese Poets (Vakxikon, 2019).

She lives in Malta where she regularly facilitates creative writing workshops, literary salons, and poetry performances. She has read at events in Malta, Berlin, UK, Italy, San Francisco, and New York.

In 2018 her poem was longlisted for the Troubadour International Prize.

In 2018 she received an honourable mention for the national poetry competition Mons. Amante Buontempo.

In 2015 she was shortlisted for a literary excellence award for her poem ‘Burying the Dark’, which has been published in an anthology by Magic Oxygen in the UK.

In 2017 she was recognised by the Network of Young Women Leaders as a leading female artist in Malta.

Miriam is also a medical writer and has written the book COVID19 and the Virus that Shook the World (Oppian Press, 2020).

Miriam believes that poetry and prose are tools for storytelling that encourage unity. She has great faith in collaboration as a key to communication.

Upcoming: In 2020 she will be a guest poet at the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival and the Shamrock Festival for women poets in Munich.

Medical Writing

Several Health-related articles: Portfolio
COVID19 and the Virus that Shook the World (Oppian Press, 2020).

Poetry Collections

Pomegranate Heart (EDE Books, 2015)
Inside (as part of Inside Skin; EDE Books, 2016)

Anthologies

Blue Nib (Edition no. 41, 2020)
Chaos (Poetry on the Wall Press, 2019)
Leħen il-Malti (Għaqda tal-Malti; għadd nru 38, 2019)
Magic (The Gloucestershire Poetry Society, 2019)
The Black Rose (EDE Books, Editor David Pisani, 2019)
Paġna Mmarkata nru. 2 (editor Paul Grech, 2019)
Blue Nib (Edition no. 37, 2019)
For the Silent (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2019)
Tales from Prickly End (Hedgehog Poetry Press; issue 2, 2018)
Persona Non Grata (Fly on the Wall Poetry Press, 2018)
Leħen il-Malti (Għaqda tal-Malti; għadd nru 37, 2018)
Wara Settembru (11 poems translated from English to Slovene)
Poetic Potatoes (1 poem translated from Maltese to English and Frisian)
Please Hear What I’m Not Saying (the poem ‘I once loved something dark’)
Magic Oxygen Literature Prize 2016 (the poem ‘Burying the dark’)

Online / In Print Magazines

‘A familiar map’ published in The Writer’s cafe Magazine (Issue 16 ‘Landscapes and Maps’, 2019)
‘Narċis’ is recorded for the Poetry Sound Library
‘Pomegranate Heart and other poems’ published in The Poethead
‘Lost in the Zoo’ was published in Sentinel Quarterly
‘You are my island’ (short version) published in The Fringe Magazine
Several poems from Inside Skin published on The Sunday Times of Malta
‘We become strangers’ published on The Bleeding Typewriter
‘8.04pm’ published by Candlestick Press as a Highly Commended poem in the Cloud poem competition