Antoine Cassar, Malta

Born in London to Maltese parents in 1978, Antoine Cassar grew up between England, Malta and Spain, and worked and studied in Italy and France. In 2004, after a thirteen-year absence from the Maltese islands, he returned to the village of his family to re-learn a language he had long forgotten. He lives between Luxembourg and Madrid, working as a translator whilst completing a PhD on the origins of the Spanish sonnet. A writer of both Maltese and multilingual verse, in 2008 Cassar took part in the Puglia BJCEM, and recited his poetry with Nabil Salameh of the Italo-Palestinian musical duo Radiodervish. His book Muzajk, an exploration in multilingual verse (Skarta, 2008) was presented at the Leipzig Book Fair and at the poetry festivals of Copenhagen and Berlin. In September 2009, his work Merthba, a poem of hospitality was awarded the Grand Prize of the United Planet Writing Contest. Cassar's latest and most important poetic work, Passaport, printed in the form of an anti-passport for all peoples and all landscapes, has been published and presented in Maltese, Italian, French, English and Luxembourgish, with all profits donated to local associations providing legal and linguistic assistance to migrants and asylum seekers.

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