One of the biggest highlight at last year’s Book Festival was Merlin Publishers’ literary competition, #abbozz. Playing to a full hall, #abbozz set out to discover the next great manuscript and to uncover exciting new book cover designs.

The formula was simple enough to anyone familiar with talent competitions. Authors submitted their original manuscripts and the finalist three manuscripts were judged by a panel of expert judges, and voted for by both judges and by the audience in the hall on the night.

Last year’s jury panel included authors Immanuel Mifsud and Simon Bartolo and journalist Kristina Chetcuti. The prize for the winning manuscript was a publication contract with Merlin Publishers.

Another segment of the competition was dedicated to designers, who were given a brief from a forthcoming book and who submitted a cover design for the project.

The prize is a publication contract

Again, the finalist three designs were judged and voted for by a panel of judges – last year’s included designers Pierre Portelli and Zvezdan Reljic and artist and curator Francesca Balzan – as well as by the audience. The winning designer won a contract for a cover design project with Merlin.

The winning design was Lisa Falzon’s. The illustration was then used as the cover design for Clare Azzopardi’s Kulħadd Ħalla Isem Warajh, which was published to acclaim last January.

The winning manuscript – Mark Vella’s debut novel X’Seta’ Ġralu lil Kevin Cacciattolo? – was launched last week.

Merlin Publishers are holding a second round of #abbozz at the next Book Festival in November. Applications for manuscript submission are open until September 15.

The brief for the design submission will be issued within the next few weeks.

www.merlinpublishers.com