Lou Drofenik (born Lou Zammit, 1941) is a Maltese-Australian novelist and academic. She lives in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, Australia.

Life

Drofenik was born in

Birkirkara Birkirkara (abbreviated as B'Kara or BKR) is a city in the Eastern Region, Malta, Eastern Region of Malta. It is the second most populous on the Malta (island), island, with 24,356 inhabitants as of 2020. The town consists of five autonomous pari ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. Her father was a stonemason. She completed her primary and secondary education in Malta, and taught at the

Siġġiewi Siġġiewi ( ), also called by its title Città Ferdinand, is a city and a local council in the Western Region of Malta. It is the third largest council in Malta by surface area, after Rabat and Mellieħa. Siġġiewi is situated on a plateau ...

primary school before migrating to Australia in 1962 under the Single Women's Migrant Scheme. She followed undergraduate and graduate degrees in education at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

, 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. 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, 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. Two of her novels - ''Of Cloves and Bitter Almonds'' and ''Beloved Convict'' - were also awarded the Australian North Central Literary Award.

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: ) * ''In Search of Carmen Caruana'' (self-published, 2007: ) * ''Of Cloves and Bitter Almonds'' (National Biographic, 2008: ) * ''Cast the Long Shadow'' (National Biographic, 2010: ) * ''Beloved Convict'' (Maltese Historical Society, 2011: ) * ''Bushfire Summer'' (self-published, 2013: ) * ''The Confectioner's Daughter'' (Horizons, 2016: ) * ''Love in the Time of the Inquisition'' (Horizons, 2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drofenik, Lou 1941 births Living people Maltese women novelists 21st-century Maltese novelists 21st-century Maltese women writers 21st-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian women writers English-language writers from Malta