Miriam Calleja is an award-winning Pushcart-prize nominee poet, writer, editor, workshop leader, and translator. Her poetry collections and chapbooks are Pomegranate Heart (EDE Books, 2015), Inside Skin (a two-book series in collaboration with a lith photographer, EDE Books 2016), Remember (Stamparija Reljic, 2020), Luftmeer (self-published in collaboration, Maastrich Holland, 2021), Stranger Intimacy (Stamparija Reljic, 2020), and Come Closer, I Don’t Mind the Silence (BottleCap Press, 2023).
She is a poetry editor and 2024 judge of Brick Road Press.
Calleja is a Pushcart Prize nominee for poetry published in 2024, for her poem Instruction Manual: Sheets of Desire (International Human Rights Arts Movement, The Feminine Voice of Malta, 2024). Her translation comma has won the 2025 table//FEAST literary prize.
She has been published in Humana Obscura, plume, Dandelion Scribes, Modern Poetry in Translation, LEON literary press, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into Italian, Arabic, Slovene, Greek, Romanian, French, German, Norwegian, and Frisian, among others. Her work has been published in translation in the collection Correnti Incrociate 2 (Mosaique Press, 2022), Il-Ħsad Tal-Peprin (Horizons, 2024), Anthology of Young Maltese Poets (Vakxikon, 2019), Wara Settembru (2018, Slovene Writers Association), and elsewhere .
She is from Malta but currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she regularly facilitates creative writing workshops. She has read at events in Malta, Berlin, UK, Italy, Germany, San Francisco, Alabama, and New York.
In 2022, two of her poems placed 1st in competitions in Alabama State – Alabama State Poetry Society and Alabama Writers Cooperative.
In 2024 she was a featured guest during the Magic City Poetry Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2021 she was a featured poet at the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival after featuring in the online version in 2020. In 2021 she represented Malta in the hybrid festival Transpoesie. In 2020, she was also a guest at the Shamrock Festival for women poets (Munich) and online at Versopolis Festival of Hope – here and here.
Miriam is a co-founder and the Vice President of the voluntary organisation PEN Malta, a centre for freedom of expression and promotion of literature.
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 2017, the Network of Young Women Leaders recognised her as a leading female artist in Malta.
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.
She hosts regular creative writing workshops at the O’Neal Library in Mountain Brook, Birmingham, AL.
Miriam is also a medical writer who wrote 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.
Image credit: Zvezdan Reljic
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)
Remember (Stamparija Reljic, 2020)
Stranger Intimacy (Stamparija Reljic, 2020)
Come Closer, I Don’t Mind the Silence (BottleCap Press, 2023)
Anthologies
an incantation for dream-fulfilment in World Poetry Day 2024 by Moonstone Press
Il-Ħsad tal-Peprin (Horizons, 2024)
Call the Sea a Poet: Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT, UK, August 2023)
Xtaqt li kont merkurju (Inizjamed, 2022)
Awarded Writers’ Collection (Alabama Writers’ Cooperative, 2022. Ed. T.K. Thorne)
Incontri Incrociate (Mosaique Press, 2022)
Cross-Currents Curente La Rascruce (Mosaique Press, 2022)
Leħen il-Malti (Għaqda tal-Malti; għadd nru 40, 2021)
Leħen il-Malti (Għaqda tal-Malti; għadd nru 39, 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’)
Collaborations
Feral Women of the Deep South, Birmingham, August 2023 – with photographer Charity Rachelle
Online / In Print Magazines
Three poems on Dandelion Scribes
Review Essay on Tupelo Quarterly
backbone (tr.) Highly Commended by the Stephen Spender Trust
One poem on Dandelion Scribes
Three poems in SquawkBack
Translations of three poems by Nadia Mifsud on Plume
End of summer nocturne on LEON literary press
Three poems on platform review
Poetry selection here and here in Mediterranean Poetry
Disaster in Celebrating Change.
‘I hide’ was published in Poets Katze edition 1, with a translation in German by Karin Fellner.
‘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
Check my portfolio with writing samples. Medical and health writing, content writing, ghost writing, collaboration with artists, theatre/film directors or businesses.
Hire me to guide your team through a creativity-boosting team-building session, either online (anywhere in the US or Europe) or in person in Birmingham, AL. Individuals can join my mailing list for in-person & online workshops.
Hire me to write your story or elevate your poetry/prose with an attentive, sensitive, and-if needed-whimsical eye!
I’ve written and edited poetry, plays, white papers, memoirs, assignments, essays … you name it. Wondering if I can help you? Drop me a line through the contact form!
Hire me to perform your text in English or Maltese, to read poetry between courses, to present awards or lectures, and to host your open mics or events.
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