Leading Maltese poet Immanuel Mifsud received the European Homer medal, an award for outstanding creators in the literature world.

Established in Brussels in 2016, the Homer award has previously been bestowed upon the likes of  Nobel Literature Prize winners Mario Vargas Llosa and Wole Soyinka.

Other laureates include Antonio Gamoneda, Jaan Kaplinski, Reiner Kunze, Adonis, Ida Vitale and Jorie Graham.

Accepting the award, Prof. Mifsud said he was deeply honoured that his work is being recognised beyond Malta.

"I believe that every honour carries with it both an obligation and a responsibility. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my local publishers, Klabb Kotba Maltin/Midsea Books, to the various publishers abroad who have introduced my work to new audiences, and to the translators whose dedication has enabled my writing to cross linguistic and national boundaries,” he said.

Prof. Mifsud is one of Malta’s leading contemporary writers, whose work spans poetry, novels, memoirs, plays and literary critiques.

He previously won the EU Literature Prize in 2011 for Fl-Isem tal-Missier (u tal-Iben) along with several Maltese prizes for poetry and prose.

He was appointed a Member of the National Order of Merit in 2014 and became the first Maltese writer to be hosted by the Library of Congress in the United States.