Il-Gżira l-Bajda u Stejjer Oħra (Kite Group, 2017) your latest collection of short stories, follows close on the heels of Nismagħhom Jgħidu, which was published last year. Were you thinking of the new collection as a kind of sequel to the first?

It was not planned to be like that, though that's the way it seems. I wrote Nismagħhom Jgħidu in the summer of 2016, and the book came out three months later. By the end of the year it was sold out, so it was decided to publish a second edition with an introduction by Ranier Fsadni. The success of Nismagħhom Jgħidu led to the publication of Il-Gzira l-Bajda. But it was not part of some project or plan.

So you wouldn't have written Il-Gżira l-Bajda if the previous collection had not been so well received.

I wouldn't put it that way. I had continued writing short stories even after the publication of Nismagħhom Jgħidu. I was still in the mood and ideas kept coming in a kind of steady flow. So by August 2017 I had written enough short stories for a new collection. And that's how Il-Gżira l-Bajda was born.

Apart from short stories, you have written and published three collections of poems and a number of plays. Which of these three is your favourite genre?

It all depends on the mood and the time available. Writing a full-length play requires much more time and energy than writing a poem or short story. I used to write a new play every two years, whereas it takes me just a few days to come up with a new poem or short story. To write a poem you just need a thought and a number of images to go with it. The images, as it were, express the thought. For a short story you need a plot, characters and a setting. You do not think of those things separately but simultaneously, as essential ingredients of the story you want to tell.

A few years back you had written and published Ħrejjef għal Żmienna, which was translated by Paul Xuereb as Tales for Our Times. Is there any noticeable difference in style between the stories in that collection and the more recent ones you've written?

It's the difference between ħrejjef  (tales) and stejjer (stories). Tales for Our Times was favourably reviewed by David Cooper in The London Times Literary Supplement under the title Crammed with fine dreams. There was a dream-like quality about those tales, which is one of the characteristic features of what came to be known as 'magic realism'. The two words are important, but the emphasis is on 'magic'. In Nismagħhom Jgħidu and Il-Gżira l-Bajda the stories are closer to life as we know it, but there is still an element of mystery in all of them.

Writers of fiction use different literary devices in their work. Which of these techniques do you exploit in your stories?

My narrative strategies vary from story to story. In some cases I play the part of the omniscient narrator. In others I let the characters speak for themselves - they tell their own story in the first person. And there are quite a few stories where dialogue plays a crucial role in tracing the plot and throwing light on the characters themselves.

TMIS: Paul Xuereb and Ranier Fsadni have both highlighted the role played by female characters in your stories. Do you consider that as an important feature of your work?

Women feature prominently in both collections, not just as protagonists but also as would-be narrators of the stories themselves.

Can you mention some examples?

Yes. In both collections I borrow female characters from the Odyssey and make them retell their stories in the first person, from their own perspective or point of view. In Nismagħhom Jgħidu this is done by Calypso, 'the formidable goddess of the lovely locks' who offers Odysseus the gift of immortality and eternal youth, but fails to win his heart. In Il-Gżira l-Bajda the part is played by Nausicaa, the tall and beautiful princess who looks after Odysseus with loving care after his ordeal at sea and hopes he will settle at her father's palace and eventually marry her - a vain hope, as it turns out. In the Odyssey it's Homer who tells the story. In my version of the two episodes the female voice takes over, and even though the essential facts of the narrative remain the same, the impact of the story is radically different, because the reader is made to look at the episode in a new light.

What other aspects of your work are likely to strike the reader?

There's always a touch of humour running through the narrative, as well as an element of surprise in the denouement.

What is it that makes the short story such a popular genre nowadays?

The key is the word 'short'. In pictorial terms, you're not looking at Michelangelo's Last Judgement, which leaves you breathless, but at Van Gogh's Sunflowers, which you can enjoy without much effort. Short stories can also serve an educational purpose. They are ideal tools for developing language competence and proficiency. They widen the range of the readers' vocabulary, stimulate their imagination and offer a wonderful opportunity for discussing the issues involved. I hope my stories can do all this in an entertaining manner.