Pierre Mejlak was today announced as one of this year's winners of the prestigious  EU Prize for Literature.

“I was surprised and delighted when I learnt I was one of the winning authors,” he told Times of Malta.

The EU Culture Commissioner announced the 13 winners at the opening of this year's Frankfurt Book Fair this morning.

Mr Mejlak won with his short story collection Dak li l-Lejl Iħallik Tgħid (What the Night Lets You Say).

His agent Chris Gruppetta of Merlin Publishers, said that to celebrate this huge achievement, he planned to publish the winning book in an English translation by early 2015.

Mr Mejlak has written books for children, adaptations, a novel for adolescents and two collections of short stories, winning numerous awards, including five National Book Awards, the Commonwealth Essay Writing Award and the Sea of Words European Short Story Award.

The government and both the Labour and Nationalist parties congratulated Mr Mejlak after he won the European Prize for Literature.

They said it was satisfying that a Maltese book had triumphed in this highest literary award for a second time. This was an honour for him and his country.

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