Lou Drofenik
{{short description|Maltese-Australian novelist and academic|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
Lou Drofenik (born Lou Zammit, 1941) is a Maltese-Australian novelist and academic. She lives in Victoria, Australia.
Life
Drofenik was born in Birkirkara, Malta. Her father was a stonemason.{{Cite journal|last=Grima|first=Adrian|date=2009-11-24|title=Cultivating complexity: Maltese/Australian women in Lou Drofenik - DOI: 10.4025/actascilangcult.v32i1.5450|url=http://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciLangCult/article/view/5450|journal=Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culture|language=pt|volume=32|issue=1|pages=83–96|doi=10.4025/actascilangcult.v32i1.5450|issn=1983-4683|doi-access=free}} She completed her primary and secondary education in Malta, and taught at the Siġġiewi primary school before migrating to Australia in 1962 under the Single Women's Migrant Scheme.{{Cite news|url=https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110911/life-features/Maltese-women-writers-in-Australia.384301|title=Maltese women writers in Australia|last=Ltd|first=Allied Newspapers|work=Times of Malta|access-date=2018-03-10|language=en-GB}} She followed undergraduate and graduate degrees in education at La Trobe University, and pursued her doctoral studies at the same university, focusing on the effects of migration on the moral identity of Maltese migrant women in Australia.{{Cite web|url=http://eng.babelmed.net/article/6867-birds-of-passage/|title=Birds of Passage {{!}}|last=Grima|first=Adrian|website=eng.babelmed.net|language=fr-FR|access-date=2018-03-10}} Since then, she has worked as an educator in the Australian Catholic primary school system.
She is married, and has four children and eight grandchildren.
Awards and honours
She is the recipient of three Malta National Book Council Awards - in 2008 for In Search of Carmen Caruana in the category of Novel or Short Story in English,{{Cite news|url=http://ktieb.org.mt/the-history-of-the-national-book-prize/|title=The History of the National Book Prize|date=2016-08-05|work=Kunsill Nazzjonali tal Ktieb|access-date=2018-03-10|language=en-US}} in 2010 for Cast the Long Shadow in the category of Novel in Another Language, and in 2017 for The Confectioner's Daughter in the category of Novel in Maltese or English.{{Cite news|url=https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20171208/books/maltese-australian-wins-national-book-prize-for-novels.665162|title=Maltese-Australian wins National Book Prize for novels|last=Ltd|first=Allied Newspapers|work=Times of Malta|access-date=2018-03-10|language=en-GB}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/maltese/en/audiotrack/maltese-australian-author-lou-drofenik-wins-national-book-award-novels|title=Maltese-Australian author, Lou Drofenik wins the National Book Award for novels|work=SBS Your Language|access-date=2018-03-10|language=en}} Two of her novels - Of Cloves and Bitter Almonds and Beloved Convict - were also awarded the Australian North Central Literary Award.{{Cite news|url=https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/arts/books/83575/a_political_manifesto_on_the_liberation_of_women|title=A political manifesto on the liberation of women|work=MaltaToday.com.mt|access-date=2018-03-10|language=en}}
Work
Drofenik has published eight novels. Her fiction is founded on extensive historical research, and focuses on the migrant experience, specifically in a Maltese-Australian context. Her work is notable for its engagement with questions of Maltese and migrant identity, and has been praised for its engagement with female perspectives and experiences in distinction to the "predominantly patriarchal outlook" of much of the Maltese literary tradition.
= List of publications =
- Birds of Passage (self-published, 2005: {{ISBN|9780646434094}})
- In Search of Carmen Caruana (self-published, 2007: {{ISBN|9780646469461}})
- Of Cloves and Bitter Almonds (National Biographic, 2008: {{ISBN|9780980337624}})
- Cast the Long Shadow (National Biographic, 2010: {{ISBN|9780980632378}})
- Beloved Convict (Maltese Historical Society, 2011: {{ISBN|9780646568706}})
- Bushfire Summer (self-published, 2013: {{ISBN| 9780646913926}})
- The Confectioner's Daughter (Horizons, 2016: {{ISBN|978-99957-63-15-2}})
- Love in the Time of the Inquisition (Horizons, 2017)
References
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Category:Maltese women novelists
Category:21st-century Maltese novelists
Category:21st-century Maltese women writers
Category:21st-century Australian novelists