Applications open for the National Book Prize and Terramaxka Prize

Applications are open for the 2021 edition of National Book Prize and Terramaxka Prize – the National Book Prize for children and adolescents. As always, only books published the preceding year (2020 for this year’s edition) are allowed to compete.

These local publications, in English or Maltese, must fall under one of the accepted categories of both the National Book Prize and the Terramaxka Prize.

New to this edition, the category for poetry, previously split into Maltese and English, now will comprise of works in either language. In addition, the Translation category, previously exclusive to works of fiction, has been broadened to include works of non-fiction, poetry and drama in Maltese translation. There is now a total of eight categories for the National Book Prize for adults: Novel, Short Story, Poetry in Maltese and English, Drama, Literary Non-Fiction, Translation, General Research, and Biographical and Historiographic Research.

The six categories for the Terramaxka Prize for children and adolescents include three categories for original works for children and adolescents (0-7, 8-12 and 13-16-year-olds) and another three categories for translated works for children and adolescents, again one per age group.

A prize may be selected from each and every category, and no more than one prize is to be allocated to each category. The prizes award the authors of those publications that are judged to have high literary and cultural or academic merit. The marks for the winning book in each category must exceed the 90% mark, which ensures that works not reaching this threshold do not get awarded if even slightly better than the rest. It is not excluded that no winner is chosen for a given category if the required standard is not achieved by any of the entries in that category. An independent board appointed specifically and solely for the purpose of adjudicating the prize, will evaluate the submissions according to a set of criteria. These criteria, along with the application form and regulations, can be downloaded from the National Book Prize page, ktieb.org.mt

The prize value allocated to all categories (including the special categories Best Emergent Writer, Lifetime Achievement award, Poet Laureate and Best Book Production) is €4,000, while the prize money is €2,000 for the translation categories of the Terramaxka Prize. The Poet Laureate award will be assigned to the writer who, being the recipient of the National Book Prize for poetry, has previously won the National Book Prize for Poetry. The prize sum will be paid in four equal instalments on a yearly basis on the condition that during that year the poet writes a substantial amount of poetry to be published, after or within four years, as a single collection.

Submissions are to reach the National Book Council by not later than Monday, 20 April at noon, together with the application form and four copies of the submitted book or books. It is important that the applicant indicates the right category for each submission.

Submissions should be addressed to: National Book Prize 2021, National Book Council

c/o Central Public Library, Professor Joseph J. Mangion Street, Floriana FRN 1800

A rapidly evolving business travel landscape has been the catalyst for awardwinning global travel management company FCM to transform its brand identity and take a fresh approach to developing a new tech platform.

With the global pandemic causing a seismic shift in the business travel industry, FCM has made it a priority to address customers’ pain points and their travel programmes by investing in new technology, rapid implementation, enhanced account management and sustainable and secure travel.

FCM’s bold new look is designed to showcase the brands’ distinctively flexible and unconventional approach to providing agile travel management services to its customers globally and locally. The end-to-end rebrand has been launched in 97 countries across all websites, customer communications and social media platforms.

A core component of the announcement is that FCM is forging ahead with development of a ground-breaking proprietary technology that directly targets customers’ pain points with current and legacy corporate travel technology. The in-house platform is an omnichannel offering that is being developed following extensive research globally among customers to understand the different concerns of their bookers, travellers and managers. Findings of this research revealed customers need an all-encompassing platform that is consistent across all markets, but also fully flexible with a positive user experience and simple user interface.

FCM’s Global chief Technology officer Adrian Lopez said the vision for the platform is based on addressing six key pillars: a globally consistent booking experience; always available travel assistance; traveller safety and wellbeing support; sustainability; AI powered reporting and savings and flexible integration capabilities.

“The development of FCM Platform’s core experience is already well advanced, including a new proprietary online booking solution planned for key markets and integration of AI-enhanced chatbot tool Sam as the digital ‘avatar’, providing live chat and real-time assistance across all of the platform’s channels,” said Lopez.

With powered-up features like AI-powered reporting, allowing a search experience similar to that of Google for actionability of data, customers in several regions around the globe have a lot to look forward to as they begin testing the FCM Platform prior to the first phase of onboarding later this year.

“Top 3 Travel are very excited to unveil FCM’s new brand and also to reveal that 2021 will be a landmark year with the launch of FCM’s ground-breaking proprietary technology platform,” said Edward Papps, director, FCM Malta and Libya.

Michal Gatt, director FCM Malta and Libya also added: “Our customers tell us that FCM is unlike any other TMC that we have a flexible approach and don’t box them into solutions. Our DNA is very different and we have always prided ourselves on having an alternative mindset. But that wasn’t historically reflected in our brand identity. It was time for FCM to stand out in the market as a true alternative to the traditional service offering of large global TMCs or the digital-only business travel offering of the tech disruptors.”