The Strange Story of the Essay in Malta, by Adrian Grima.

It is probably only in recent years that the personal essay has gained some visibility and traction as a literary genre. This is not to say that it did not exist before. The first attempts to graft the skin of the (English-language) “essay” onto the body of Maltese literature goes back to at least the 1930s when promoters of literature in Maltese tried to encourage its use through creative writing competitions. These attempts at jump-starting interest in the genre were followed by the sporadic publication of essays and collections of essays by well-known and lesser known figures, including Ġużè Aquilina’s series of books with the general title “Madwar il-Ħajja,” about life. Adrian Grima looks at the challenges of defining the nature of the essay in Maltese and possibly identifying its history by focussing on a collection of “short stories, sketches and essays” by Ġużè Cassar Pullicino written between 1940 and 1966. He then focusses on the new wave of essay writing, more in line with the tradition that goes all the way back to Montaigne, that appeared in the online literary journal in Maltese Aphroconfuso from May 2023 onwards. One of the more prolific essayists there is Omar N’Shea and Grima explores where N’Shea meets Cassar Pullicino, and where we changes course. In a way, it is as if the new wave of essay writing in Maltese begs for the construction of a past.

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