Two candidates from Malta have been selected to take part in the 2022/2023 Ulysses' Shelter 3 residency programme.

Jake Buttigieg is a Master of Advocacy student at the University of Malta. In 2022 he graduated with a Bachelor's in Law with the Dissertation “A Semiotic Analysis of Maltese Tort Law.” He was an executive member of the student organisation ‘Junior Chamber of Advocates’ for three years, wherein he served in an administrative role as Treasurer (2020-2021) and President (2021-2022). Jake has been published in Leħen il-Malti Volumes 39 and 40, with the works "B'subgħajh mkemmxa faqqa' l-iswiċċ tad-dawl" (2020) and a translation of Boris Ryzhy’s “Воt Чёрное” under the name “Hawn hu l-iswed” (2021). He was a participant in the Taħżiż Programme, which resulted in the publication of his first piece "Tlift xogħli llum, qed nibża', mort nixtri u niġbor lil Greg mill-mużew" in Taħżiż 6 (2019). Jake is currently interested in the research and translation of literature with themes of Time and Memory, among other projects. 

Matthew Schembri (b. 1993) is an artist, writer and poet based in Malta. He earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Digital Arts in 2017 and a Diploma in Maltese Literature in 2020. In 2016 he was invited as an artist-resident at the Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts (VCCA). Schembri won ‘Divergent Thinkers 04’ (2015), ‘Shifting Contexts’ (2019) and was named ‘The Young Artist of the Year’ in 2017 by the Arts Council Malta. In addition to Malta, some of his artwork has been showcased in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and the United States. His debut novel, ‘Stessi’ (2018) won ‘The Literary Contest of Novels for Youth 2016’, and his first poetry collection, ‘Ħassartek’ (2021) is a finalist for the National Book Prize 2022.

The candidates chosen by the partner organisations are: 

Culture Reset, Prague: Jan Škrob, Marek Torčík

Krokodil, Belgrade: Ivana Maksić, Ognjen Aksentijević

Literature Across Frontiers, Caernarforn: Esyllt Angharad Lewis, Ruqaya Izzidien

Sandorf, Mljet: Marina Gudelj, Sven Popović

Slovene Writers' Association, Ljubljana: Tibor Hrs Pandur, Ajda Bračič, Sergej Harlamov

Thraka, Larissa: Tonia Tzirita Zacharatou, Marios Chatziprokopiou